By Ben C. Dunson, First Things, 8 . 16 . 21
Ben C. Dunson is the editor-in-chief of American Reformer.
Cultural Christianity in America is dying. The signs are everywhere: Blue laws have disappeared, pornography pervades our culture, and Christian views on sexuality and the family are increasingly attacked in the public square. Gone are the days in which a sitting U.S. President (Ulysses S. Grant) could write to America’s Sunday School students: “Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet-anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practise them in your lives. To the influence of this book we are indebted for all the progress made in true civilization.”
Many non-Christians rejoice in the decline of Christian culture. But many Christians do, too. Some evangelicals worry—not entirely without reason—that the purity of the gospel can be tainted by the worldly quest for power and prestige, and rightly point out that an outward show of faith is not the same as inward conversion. But some evangelical opponents of Christian culture do not merely decry abuses and hypocrisies: They oppose Christian culture tout court. …
