Which Worldview Will Prevail?

Every election demands a decision. Sadly, many Americans, including Christians, decide to not participate in our blessed democratic process made possible in our constitutional republic. They don’t vote.

If one’s worldview is off, his or her decisions, practices, principles, and policies will be off-center and the effect is always negative. The less people think of God, the less they think of others. The less they love God, the less they love others. The smaller God becomes the bigger government and other things get. The more dependent we are upon government programs, the less dependent we are on God and less thoughtful of one another. The bigger government gets, the smaller citizens become. When we do not keep God in first place, some other power always takes over and the indifferent, uninformed and uninvolved allow it to happen.

Most people are generally not concerned about their worldview. They act as if they can separate their ideas from their actions – in effect establishing a worldview in which worldviews are irrelevant! If this ironic paradigm, rooted in relativism, is allowed to stand, it strips all worldviews of their functional value.

More than 30 years ago, in his landmark bestseller A Christian Manifesto, Francis Schaeffer described the fragmentation that has accompanied the shift toward relativism in our society. Schaeffer suggested that the basic problem with our culture was that parents and leaders had only “seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals.” The result was an inability to deal with the full scope of society’s dilemmas.

“They have very gradually become disturbed over permissiveness, pornography, the public schools, the breakdown of the family, and finally abortion,” Schaeffer said. “But they have not seen this as a totality – each thing being a part, a symptom, of a much larger problem… They failed to see that all of this has come about due to a shift in worldview – that is, through a fundamental change in the overall way people think and view the world and life as a whole.”

In other words, according to Schaeffer, part of the reason it has been so difficult to address the cultural challenges of our day is that we have largely ignored the fact that these changes in our society have occurred primarily because of changes in our thinking. Not only have we failed at times to acknowledge the consequences of our ideas, we’ve often failed to recognize the ideas themselves. We have not clearly seen how our worldview affects our decisions and our values. If we are to have any hope of maintaining a civil society, it is essential that we recognize not only that ideas matter, but that having the correct ideas makes all the difference. If we fail to see this basic reality, we will be morally and culturally hobbled.

Was anyone disturbed about the loud vocal vote at the Democrat convention about whether or not references to God be left in the party platform? It seemed obvious to anyone with ears to hear that the majority of the people were not happy with that, but the party officials chose to leave references to God out. I wonder how often that is happening in our nation – in our lives, our families and our homes?

If “we the people” do not call upon God, seek His face and His will, make wise decisions, we will witness the collapse of freedom. We will witness firsthand: small God, big – indescribably big – government, devastating debt, economic and moral collapse. Our worldview makes all the difference determining our direction.

Over the next few weeks, the film “Last Ounce of Courage” will be opening in cities across America. It is a wonderful homage to our military and demonstrates strong national values. It clearly illustrates the blatant attacks on the Christian faith and national holidays and the importance of standing together in defense of freedom. It is well worth you and your family seeing.

The iPledge Sunday: A Call to Faith, Family, and Freedom Simulcast will gather Christians across the country on Sunday, September 9, 2012 for a nationwide, live simulcast co-hosted by Family Research Council and American Family Association. The event features Tony Perkins, Senator Rick Santorum, Bishop Harry Jackson, Kirk Cameron and other key Christian leaders for a 90-minute event celebrating Christian citizenship and exhorting Christians to rise up on Election Day to make our voices heard. Your church members will be informed, equipped, and challenged to advance faith, family and freedom in your local community.

iPledge Sunday will be the largest nationwide pre-election gathering of Christian voters. The goal is to mobilize Christians across our land to pledge to:

·         Pray for the upcoming election.

·         Prepare by registering themselves and others.

·         Participate by voting on November 6.

For more information, visit their website.