A Secular Society

It really should come as no surprise to know that we who call ourselves Christians live in a very secular society. I sometimes hear and read that America is a Christian nation. Is it? Is it a Christian nation in the true sense of the Bible? While it is true that many citizens proclaim they are Christians, does that make our nation Christian?

There is another expression I hear and read about and it is that we are now living in a “post-Christian” or “post-modern” world. While I don’t have time in this article to discuss all the meanings of a “post-modern” society I believe I can summarize it by stating that it is a society that has gone beyond the values of the Bible. It is truly a secular society in the broadest sense of the word. It is a society in which each individual pretty much makes up his or her own values and ethics. It is a society in which the people no longer believe in God and a Judgment Day of accountability.

What are some of the realities for the Christian living in a secular society?

1. A real decline in honesty and integrity. Students no longer see any wrong in cheating on tests. Corporations no longer desire to be honest with employees, stockholders, or customers. We use to pride ourselves on letting our word be our bond. Now the word “integrity” is all but forgotten or dismissed as out of date.

2. A tremendous rise in vulgarity, obscenity, and profanity. One only has to stroll through the Mall to hear young and old using words that only a few years ago were unheard in public. A Christian has a difficult time finding a television program or movie to watch or a book to read.

3. A striving for materialism and greed. Success is measured by how much money or how many possessions one has. People are willing to sell their souls for a few more of this worlds riches, not looking ahead to death and the leaving of it all in this world. We run over others in order to get ahead in this world.

4. A rise in substance abuse. People think it funny to get “stoned” on drugs or “bombed out” on beer or liquor. Our society thinks it is “cool” to abuse the body that our Creator gave us. Secular society thinks “Well its my body and I can do with it as I please.”

5. A rise in destroying the family, home and marriage. Our society laughs at the concept of the “nuclear family” - a father, mother, and children. Thousands today are living together without benefit of marriage and see nothing wrong with such an arrangement. Men are wanting to marry men and women marry women and call it just a “different lifestyle.” Divorce is no longer considered to be wrong and many trade partners like they do cars and houses.

Many more could be named but I think you get the point I’m trying to make. Our present day society in America is not in great shape! We who are Christians are having a more difficult time in maintaining what Paul says in Philippians 2:15-16a - “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; . . .” (KJV)

What can we do? How can we best affect our secular society? We certainly can’t hide our heads in the sand or go off to live the life of a hermit. While we are in this world we must do our best to be the “light” and “salt” commanded by our Lord (Matthew 5:13-16). We are called upon to “be in the world” but “not of the world” (John 17:15-17).

While we may not always be able to influence or change the world we must continue to look to God and trust in Him because He is in control and will ultimately be victorious (”Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:19).

Though we must live in a very secular society may we live in such a way as to give no occasion for charges of hypocrisy to be leveled against us as God’s dear children (see ”Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:11-12). The majority may well turn from God’s values to the world’s but that does not mean we have to.

My dear reader, if you are a Christian let me encourage you not to give up and follow after the ways of the world. If you are not a Christian, please let me invite you to read the Bible, believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, turn from your sins in repentance, confess your faith in Jesus Christ, and then be buried with Him in baptism in order to have your sins washed away. Some one at the Lake Forest congregation would be most happy to talk with you and/or study the scriptures with you. We would love to hear from you.

Maynard Booher

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