Impediments to change

“From the time of the Puritans to the activities of the evangelicals in the last century, conservative Protestants have always considered the proclamation of the gospel and the improvement of society to go hand-in-hand.” (1). I will add to this, that in the 20th and 21st centuries the ideology of many Protestants has been to change the culture.
The thinking is that Christians must change the culture. Christians are responsible for this quest to change the culture. Christians must be “salt and light” Really!!! How will this revolution be carried out?

Some observations about the impediments to the “revolution” to change the culture. Let me be clear, I am referencing the culture around us, the so called “American culture” or apply your own euphemism. I also want to define the empowerment of the impediments as belonging to those who seek and perpetuate an adversarial relationship to this world and its culture. Let me refer to them as “the children in the apple tree”. These are children who attach to Protestantism their unwarranted views and these views eventually are recognized by the non-Protestant as a Protestant view, (collectivism).

The children in the apple tree, “will continue to get involved with art only when trying to censor it; with politics, only when they want to get their way among the other lobbies; with science, only when they want to force teachers to give equal time to a view of which the latter are not convinced; with victims of AIDS, only when we remind them that they deserve it, as if death did not come to the rest of us because of sin, too; with education, only when sex education comes up for discussion.” (1)

The impediment in general is being a constant and consistent adversary to the culture and in particular a constant and consistent adversary to any issue or idea that presents for discussion. “If we cannot get beyond our moralistic, self-righteous, self-serving, and world-despising theology, we cannot hope to overcome the program it produces, nor the negative effects it creates in the culture. Unless we begin to take this world as seriously as God does (in kind, if not in degree), we will continue to create hostility not only toward legitimate Christian involvement in the world, but toward the gospel itself.” (1)
A solution to the impediments, “If, however, we return to the rich soil of Scripture, which takes this world very seriously (both in its created and fallen reality), we have the potential not only to prepare the way for a new generation of Christian leadership in the culture, but to prepare the way for a renewed interest in the gospel as well.” (1)
It is my belief that I have the opportunity to change the culture by coming along side of people that do no believe as I do, people that I interact with daily, people who care for me and I for them. I am not their antagonist not they mine. Some will know the difference that I propose and some will not. There will be change, micro cosmic, but change.
(1) Quotes from Modern Reformation, March/April 1992, article: My Father’s World, by Michael Horton.

Eutychus