Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed…For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. (1 Peter 3:13-17)
No matter your age, you’ll probably agree that golf has undergone more than a few changes in our short lifetime. In 1979, TaylorMade introduced the “Pittsburg Persimmon,” a metal driver that eventually revolutionized the game—a persimmon wood, though beautiful, was bound to the “dustbin of history.”
With the eventual introduction of titanium, the golf industry could build a driver with an enlarged sweet spot, providing distance and forgiveness for off-centered strikes.
Sometimes, however, changes cause more than a few to wince. When the USGA changed how we “drop the ball,” the back-and-forth banter accelerated.
The new rule states, “The ball must be dropped straight down from knee height….” Unless you have abnormally long arms, you will have to crouch to reach “knee height.” It looks awkward!
Change in our sport is one thing; change in our shared cultural lives is another. To suggest that American culture is undergoing sweeping changes is an understatement, not to mention the speed with which these cultural shifts are happening. These changes have people asking, “What is driving all this?”
The shorthand version is this: America has been sawing off the cultural limb from the tree of a Christian worldview for the better part of sixty years. Said more plainly, large swaths of American culture and its institutions have “exchanged the Creator for the creature” and “exchanged the truth for the lie” (Romans 1: 25).
As for the cultural outcomes of snubbing our Creator, America has yet to see the mayhem from such a disastrous decision. The church can no longer think and act as if we are still living under the cultural canopy of Christendom.
The worldview that once informed our shared cultural morality is persona non grata in our American institutions. As Dorothy told Toto, “…We’re not in Kansas anymore.”
When George Orwell said, “The further society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it,” he was, even if unknowingly, repeating what our Savior warned us about, “…because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:18-19).
As the apostle Peter says, there are “various kinds of trials.” As we know, there are all sorts of sufferings in this broken world—from illness, betrayals, pandemics, and sinful decisions.
Suffering as a consequence of standing for righteousness in the wide-ranging categories of sexual ethics, the institution of marriage, medical ethics, gender debates, and biblical justice—to name a few—is not merely something that will happen in the future; it’s happening now.
It’s no secret that throughout the church’s history, many have suffered greatly for their loyalty to Jesus Christ. When Christians read Scripture, it’s obvious that suffering for righteousness is the norm, especially when we understand that they lived in a pagan society.
For over two centuries, followers of Christ have enjoyed relative peace because Christian principles have largely shaped Western culture. Those days are rapidly waning.
Many scholars argue we have entered a “post-Christian” era. Some scholars convincingly demonstrate that we are not moving toward a secular society; rather, we are returning to a pagan culture.
If we have spent all the Christian capital on which American culture has depended, expect to see the rise of a polytheistic, pagan, and a morally perverted culture hostile toward Christians.
On the other hand, hopefully, our American culture will, like the Prodigal Son, recognize the consequences of its insanity, humble itself, and return home to the loving arms of the Father.
Prayer: Jesus! Strengthen us for whatever lies ahead.