I’ve many articles addressing the hype and “sizzle” of socialism. In them we see how much our youth, and a lot of our mature people, are economically illiterate. But through it all comes an attitude of wanting others to handle their needs. They don’t think of themselves as enterprising.

Americans asked for “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” We didn’t ask for guaranteed happiness, but rather to build our own future unencumbered by government dictates. Yet our modern America seems willing to trade freedom for security.

We see this in the decline of marriage, and in the plummeting birthrate. This is a measure of how our society doesn’t believe in its future. This is a NOW attitude. We want to disconnect with our past.

The atrophy of vision and hope

This “gimme” attitude, one receptive to the socialist siren call, could be foretold by looking at the meteoric rise of public lotteries. It seems that people don’t want opportunities but windfalls. But when people start wanting windfalls, wanting socialism, more happens to the nation than merely an economic change.

When leaders teach Americans to see one another as members of competing groups rather than equal citizens, something significant changes. When government becomes the first answer rather than the last resort, civil society weakens, and families, churches, and private enterprise gradually surrender responsibilities they once carried. Liberty is seldom lost in a single dramatic moment. It erodes one law, one regulation, one generation at a time.

Americans are having a crisis in confidence. Those who seek socialism are looking for something to belong to.

There is a lesson here. People—young people, in particular—are lost and are searching. If nothing traditional provides them with the meaning and purpose they desire, they will fill that void with politics. And when the option is available, they will fill that void with a political force that arrogates the certainty of religion.

We could tell them that they’re longing to be married, to be connected to their families and communities, to meaningfully attend church. But they don’t want that, and so many of them don’t believe in the God of the Bible. Some of them will ultimately be transformed and redeemed, but how many of them are doomed to permanently be disappointed?

Let’s turn now to committed Christians. When others fall away to socialism, how tempted will we be to also doubt our God, and our religion, and join them? We must keep believing in God our deliverer, and act as light for society, just as Jesus said we would be (Matthew 5:14-16).