What do these news items have in common?

• An executive from United Health is murdered. His attacker is hailed as a hero, and given large monetary gifts.
• Tesla dealerships are set afire. Individuals across the nation feel impelled to vandalize Tesla cars. It seems that political animus justifies violence.
• Illinois teacher standards require that students learn revolution, not citizenship.

Their common bit is public approval of what we previously wouldn’t stand for. They illustrate radical changes in our society’s commonly held values. Examples of these changes are:

Justify vigilantism and retribution killing:  People believe that killing someone is acceptable, if done for the right causes.

Replace justice with mob rule:  Demands that Supreme Court cases should be decided according to public opinion polls. Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan said “… if over time the court loses all connection with the public and with public sentiment, that’s a dangerous thing for a democracy.”

Civil rights for me, but not for you. Anti-racism puts racism back into society. Rather than abolishing discrimination, we would institute permanent racism.

Abolish property rights:  You have the right to property only until the government wants it. According to UCLA law professor Cheryl Harris, property rights are “white domination.” She said

“Property rights will then be respected, but they will not be absolute and will be considered against a societal requirement of affirmative action.”

Abolish parental rights:  The true parent is the state. The mother and father merely have child-raising privileges. James Dwyer, an anti-parent researcher, said:

“I propose further that the law confer on parents simply a child-rearing privilege, limited in its scope to actions and decisions not inconsistent with the child’s temporal interests. Such a privilege, coupled with a broader set of children’s rights, is sufficient to satisfy parents’ legitimate interests in child-rearing.”

These demands would completely rewrite our concept of American society. Such changes won’t look to the Bible regarding law or justice. Nor will they preserve our right to apply our Christian faith in our daily lives. The Gospel might even be banned as “hate speech.”

Baldly stated, our existing American Christian culture is the only game in town. There are no other models of society that let us practice our faith, and also are acceptable to the people pushing for change. That’s because they really want an anti-Christian society.

Our society, with its culture, values, and laws, is an outworking of our Christian faith. In order to continue living in a Christian society, we must preserve what we already have from its would-be destroyers.

America always had a Christian culture

America’s colonists came mostly from England. They brought with them English culture. The base of their governance was English common law, an expression of applied Christianity. And the colonists’ public documents invoked God’s blessings on their undertakings. These people were self-aware that they were founding a Christian nation.

Our laws and governing institutions are designed to uphold this Christian culture. They amount to a collective work of faith, of Christianity in action. And our society still thinks of itself as Christian. Even today, when criticizing or defending our culture and nation, we tend to invoke the Bible to justify our arguments.

Who better to maintain, and defend, a Christian culture than its Christians? Sure, you might yell “separation of church and state” as though it meant “separation of religious values and state.” But would atheists or Muslims protect these Christian values, and preserve our institutions? Of course not.

Our culture and laws were designed to guide a Bible-believing people. As President John Adams said,

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

But if our Christian culture is so wonderful, then why are there disputes about issues like abortion? We have these cultural divides because people with other agendas have had a long and largely unopposed season of spreading their own gospels. The result is a loss of cultural cohesion. We’re being split apart by competing religions, which have wildly different visions of what American culture should be.

Many people don’t want a Christian culture

Christians aren’t the only people working yeast into our culture. The largest push for cultural change comes from believers of socialism. After all, socialism really is a religion. Note that you can’t get socialism without also getting Marxism. They’re joined at the hip.

To its believers, the world’s ills can be solved by implementing socialism. Here are some examples.

Got COVID? Klaus Schwab, who was the leader of the World Economic Forum, says the answer to COVID is a one-world society:

“To achieve a better outcome, the world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.”

Read this article for more on the Great Reset.

Got Climate Change? The Green New Deal will fix you up. Thomas Donahue, of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote this about the Green New Deal:

“Other aspects of the Green New Deal seem wildly out of place for an environmental resolution. Consider the promise of massive new entitlement programs that could only be achieved through a radical redistribution of wealth. Here, the proposal shows its true colors. This is not some run-of-the-mill progressive policy – it is a Trojan Horse for socialism.

The Green New Deal aims to upend our entire economic system, wresting consumer choice from everyday Americans and putting personal decisions – from the food we eat to the cars we drive – in the hands of an unelected elite. A program like this would be the death knell of innovation. Our small business owners and entrepreneurs would be crushed under the enormous costs and bureaucratic inefficiencies of a socialized economy.”

A society’s dominant religion is its source for its laws and practices. You can’t serve two masters at the same time (Matthew 6:24). But socialism, with its Marxist foundations, is nothing like Christianity. For example, look at their views of man, woman, and family. In spite of the hopes of some so-called “Christian Socialists,” you can’t mix the two.

Therefore, if these activists want socialism / communism / Marxism in America – and we see that they still do – they’ll have to displace our existing Christian customs and practices.

Promoting cultural indifference

If you were an activist wanting to overturn our society, how might you approach your task?

• You could overtly campaign to persuade the people to embrace socialism. This is a direct competition for hearts and minds. This also reminds people of their current Christianity, however nominal. This approach likely triggers a religious revival that defeats your goals.
• You could try violence, a revolution in the streets. This is a direct confrontation, a belief that widespread insurrection will win the day. But unless the government leadership is already sympathetic with you, you can’t win militarily. Sure, you can cause hurt and chaos, but you’ll be decisively defeated.
• You could conceal your society-changing work. Tell people “you’ve got your rights,” that they shouldn’t oppose you. Further discourage opposition by telling them that it is none of their business. You’ll make progress because potential opponents won’t dare, or bother, to lift a finger against you.

As an activist, the sneaky approach looks the most promising. Encourage society to not care about changes. This works because not caring is the lazy path to take. An indifferent people might even be amused your changes, and certainly will be annoyed at alarms raised by your opponents.

American society is already being encouraged to be indifferent, to not defend our existing morals, customs, and institutions. Here are just some ways that we’re taught to not love our country.

• “There’s nothing special about America, or its culture.” If all cultures are equally valid, if there is nothing special about America, then why bother fighting against changes?
• “There are many paths to God.” If there’s nothing special about Christianity, then why insist on Bible-based laws?
• Flood our schools, and children, with false values like “equity” and “anti-racism.” The subjects might be reading and writing, but instead of learning citizenship they’re learning rebellion. Their teachers are evangelizing their students into Marxist values.
• “Shut up, because you have ‘white privilege’!” Confuse and discourage people through accusations. You’re meant to feel guilty for merely being alive. Actually, the ‘white privilege’ complaint isn’t about race or skin color. It’s that our society is designed around Christian morals and practices.
• “Keep your religion to yourself, in your head!” The cry is “separation of church and state,” that somehow public life must be free from religious influence. If Christians won’t bother assert their faith in the public square, or if they’re shamed from doing so, then nobody will defend our society’s Christian nature. Note that the activists aren’t ashamed of their own religion, or to apply it in their politics.

A sign of increasing indifference is when the masses accept that “diversity is our strength,” believing that society is built on a lack of consensus. But if we individually can we decide what is right and wrong (Judges 21:25) then we’ve lost consensus on values and morals. Without that consensus we become a people waiting for someone, some force, to provide meaning and purpose. Which is the activists’ goal all along.

Using tricks to grab unwarranted power

Changing society through stealth, and not by popular consent, is the activist game. Here are some schemes having really big consequences.

Election fraud and the Electoral College

“Let me count the votes, and I care not who casts them or how they are cast.” Statements like this are attributed to Joseph Stalin, “Boss” Tweed, and many other politicians. But they all point to crooked politics, both then and now.

Regarding the 2020 Presidential elections, we saw how voting fraud amounts to a perfect crime. When faced with claims and evidence of voting fraud, judges refused pause the vote counting. Maybe you can get an investigation later, but that won’t undo the election results. This reluctance to act means that voting fraud is encouraged.

This is where the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact comes in. It’s a scheme, mostly by the most populous – and Democrat-run – states to force a Presidential election to be decided solely by popular vote total. Think of the enhanced prospects for voter fraud. This compact is also unconstitutional.

Sure, there are complaints that Constitution’s Electoral College isn’t the same thing as a direct popular vote. In fact, avoiding a direct popular vote was entirely the point. But that argument is just a distraction. The real story is that Democrat politicians of urban states aren’t winning elections according to the Constitution’s rules, and scheme to change the way the President is elected.

This compact amounts to gaining power by conspiracy. The officials agreeing to this aren’t honoring their oaths to defend the Constitution. Why aren’t they being condemned, even prosecuted, for their unfaithfulness?

Making law from the bench

We have legislatures to make laws and levy taxes. And we have judges to settle disputes concerning the law. However, our modern judges tend to go beyond their office and effectively make law.

Everybody remembers the Obergefell v Hodges “gay marriage” ruling, where our culture’s laws that “marriage means man and woman” were overturned. The judges didn’t ask the legislatures to act. Nor did they defer to culture and tradition. Rather, they acted beyond the authority of their judicial office and took sides in the cultural debate.

But overreach goes on all the time, such as when judges messed with segregation in the Kansas City public schools. The judges thought they could improve the whole region’s race relations. So for two decades Kansas City and its suburbs were required to raise taxes, rework schools, and bus students all about.

Dreams of judicial omnipotence lead to the concept of the “living Constitution.” If your side can’t pass laws, or can’t get constitutional amendments passed, then get a judge to stretch and misinterpret the actual text of the Constitution.

But a living Constitution is no restraint at all on government. It amounts to a judicial insurrection, a revolution through judicial fiat. Judges, and other government officials, that hold to a living Constitution aren’t upholding the Constitution, but mangling and destroying it. They’re violating their oaths to defend the Constitution.

Making law through bureaucracy

We have lazy legislatures. They make laws in general, but leave scope and implementation details to unelected employees of bureaucracies. When these bureaucrats implement their own agendas – and really, who goes to work for a bureaucracy unless they have an agenda – the whole land must adapt to these society-changing regulations. Here are just a few.

Regulations on what you can buy.  In the name of “saving the environment,” government agencies create regulations that amount to abolishing gasoline powered cars. In the same way, they change how well electric appliances actually work.

Recently, President Trump has issued executive orders that undo many such regulations. But as a rule, if the President can abolish regulations by executive order then the bureaucrats have already overreached. Policy decisions like abolishing cars ought to be debated in legislatures, then explicitly written into law.

Human rights commissions.  These commissions think that they can overrule First Amendment rights on speech. But because you have to spend time and money defending yourselves, and you might not win your court suit anyway, these commissions achieve their aims. They hurt the accused, and cow everyone else into submission.

Sneakily suppressing ‘misinformation.’  Government agencies seek to suppress what they call ‘misinformation.’ Bureaucrats suppress people’s right to speech in the name of “misinformation”. They don’t curb everybody’s speech, just those stories and criticisms that they don’t like.

Changing society by accident.  The media is finally aware that we have a birth dearth. Note that it’s been said for years that automobile child seats are a form of contraception, making transport of large families really difficult.

Activists are using stealth and guile to affect their aims. The Bible, in Proverbs 23:10, has a word about these activities:  “Do not move the ancient boundary which your fathers have set.”

Moving physical boundary markers means you’re claiming property that you’re not entitled to. Moving social boundary markers – changing society’s rules without authority and consent – means you’re stealing people’s lives. In a real sense you’re enslaving them to your activist will. You’re gaining power that you’re not entitled to. You’re an enemy to society.

Defend our Christian culture now, while we still have it

People who are indifferent to, or unaware of, cultural changes hear these warnings and think “not important, not now.” They want to “get on with their lives,” and figure we’ll muddle through somehow.

But we’re no longer allowed to ignore cultural change. Michelle Obama said so, during the 2008 Presidential campaign:

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

That’s a declaration of war. These activists intend on forcing change, and you won’t be able to ignore them. As the truism goes, you aren’t interested in war but war is interested in you. If their changes are unopposed then, chunk by chunk, we’ll lose our society and our Christian liberties.

I say this again:  America’s Christian culture is a religious work. It represents our beliefs being applied to society. Defending this work is akin to defending our faith, and defending our ability to express our Christian lives in peace.

We’re standing in the way of the activists’ goals, preventing their new and glorious Marxist future, whatever that might mean – they’re rather vague on the details. I already wrote about what happens if we fail to defend our culture. We’d have a big fall from a Christian consensus. Rebuilding that consensus, and a replacement Christian culture, would take a long time, if ever. It’s better to avoid that path altogether.

If there is something wrong with American society then we can fix it, and have fixed it before. But our critics don’t want to fix things, only break them. So if we want to continue have freedom of worship, freedom of expression, etc., then we must be sharp and recognize activities which steal our freedoms.

What do we do to defend a culture?

The concept of “defending a culture” sounds abstract. But perhaps through analogy I can make the concept more real. How might you you defend your home?

• The dramatic answer is preventing thieves and hooligans from stealing things, breaking its windows, or setting it on fire.
• The daily, mundane, answer is to maintain it. Look for wear and tear and fix it. Paint the walls, repair woodwork, and shore up its foundation.

Neglect the mundane and the house becomes unlivable, as much so as if bandits attacked it.

In a similar way, defending society comes down to having individuals sound in what they believe, and that they work in concert to preserve their common expression of values and customs.

Here are things that individuals can do.

Know your Christian beliefs.  Understand what it means to be Christian. Then you’ll be able to evaluate words and ideas from a Christian perspective.

Being on guard doesn’t require learning what evil people do and believe. When you’re well-grounded in Christianity then ideas from bad actors won’t sit right with you. They’ll cause you to raise your guard. You’ll be able to detect what is counterfeit because it doesn’t feel genuine.

Be proud to be Christian.  Haters of Christianity tell us to “coexist,” that we shouldn’t push our religion on others. But God says that there is no other god besides Him (Isaiah 45:18), and that everyone will acknowledge Jesus as Lord (Philippians 2:9-11). That’s the sort of confidence we should live with. If we’re fearful of showing our faith then we’re putting our lamp under a basket, and not illuminating society (Matthew 5:14-16).

Be proud of American society.  Yes, American Christian society is exceptional. It’s grounded in Biblical concepts of right and wrong. It’s also exceptional because it’s a survivor, whereas other countries are surrendering to humanism (Marxism) or invasion (Islam). Remember the famous quote from Senator Carl Schurz about America:

“My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”

See something, say something.  If you find something that feels or sounds wrong, then talk it up. Adding “anti-racism” to the schools? City council talking up Agenda 2030? Sound the alarm that dirty work is afoot! Then the community can begin to discuss the matter. No more changing society by stealth.

Congratulations! You’re now an involved Christian! You’re also an influencer, pushing our society’s consensus back to honoring Christian values.

Here are things that communities, people working together, can do to protect their way of life.

Maintenance evangelism.  According to Deuteronomy 31: 9-13, the nation of Israel was to gather together every seven years to hear the preaching of the Law. The whole community was to be reminded of why they are a special nation, and to remember the difference between right and wrong.

Likewise, our communities need to frequently re-hear the Gospel, to be re-evangelized. People are coming to us from all over the world, and bring with them all sorts of non-Christian ideas for “improving” things. These influences can lead us to discounting our own Christian practices. We might have our faith choked out by the concerns of daily life (Mark 4:18-19). Or we might find our community re-colonized by those of other faiths.

An antidote to all of this is to keep reminding our community of our responsibilities in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20). One of our tasks is ensuring that communities once filled with the yeast of the Gospel don’t get re-evangelized to other things.

Encourage our officials to do their jobs right.  We appoint officials and judges to offices, that they should do their jobs. But our “public servants” frequently have their own agendas. They’re unwilling to do the actual work that their offices require.

We need prophets to monitor our officials, to shame them into being both honest and diligent. Representatives must represent, not treat their positions as personal property. We need judges to rule according to the law, not according to how they wish the law would be. And we don’t need more pretenders who say “I’m personally opposed, but …”.

Insist that our officials diligently punish violence.  A major responsibility of public officials is protecting the community. When they play games with lawbreakers, with people who riot, they’re creating a discouraged, insecure community. They’re breaking society, perhaps intentionally.

“Speech is violence” and “violence is speech” are lies. Violence is always violence. When we play these word games, activists can literally get away with murder. Deeds, whether good or bad, must have consequences. Bad deeds must be punished.