I simply remember that she referred to the church - to Christians – as the “counter-culture”. She said it a couple of times throughout her speech.
Growing up in the 60’s I suspect hearing that word – “counterculture”– had a greater impact on me, than it would for most people younger than me. Maybe one would have to have parents like mine, who strived so diligently to keep their children from the snares of the world (especially those during the turbulent years of the 60’s) before one would fully grasp the impact of that simple statement. The church defined as the counterculture? Wow. Considering the way our society is going today, the degradation we have seen, perhaps most people would agree that “the church” is indeed the “counterculture” of today. But to me, there is huge danger in such a statement. I will try to explain.
I’m sure most have heard and understood that the 1960’s were an especially trying time in our nation. I’m not going to say that things were any worse then than they are now. I suppose they were not. But the difference was, everything was new in regard to the degree of rebellion taking place; but more than that, none of the deviant behavior was flippantly accepted as we might see in more recent times. Our society was changing. A cultural shift had begun.
Terms like “generational gap” were coined – meaning the void between parents and their kids. We had people like Timothy Leary informing teen-agers to “Turn on, Tune in, and Drop out”. In other words, he was advocating drugs, and advising kids to drop out of a society that was too materialistic and too uptight about right living and sin. We heard “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” To parents, this was a call to ignore them. Law enforcement for the first time was looked down on and called names…the kindest probably being “pig”. “Make love, not war,” was the mantra of those opposed to the war in
“Think for yourself. Question authority.” More of Leary’s advice; it might even sound like a good thing by today’s standards, but to parent’s of the day, it was advice that would strike rebellion into the heart of their child.
John Lennon informed the world: “We are more popular than Jesus Christ.” It seems rock music began to take control of a generation. For many parents, they couldn’t help but worry about the example being set for their kids.
Abbey Hoffman, and others like him, protested capitalism and the Viet Nam War, accusing crimes against “the establishment” and taking a good deal of our youth with him on that path of destruction. Later, regarding the success of a book that Hoffman had authored, he states: “It's embarrassing when you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on the Best-Sellers list.”
Groups such as the Weathermen, Students for a Democratic
Society, and other left wing groups who held to a goal of overthrowing our
government were somewhat successful in convincing others that the United States
Huey
Regardless of what one may read now, the Panthers were a violent, militant group that had a history of targeting police using criminal tactics. As a side note, Eldridge Cleaver wrote his national best seller Soul on Ice while in prison; you will have to dig a bit deeper to find any information about his later book Soul on Fire which he wrote after becoming a born-again Christian.
But during that time, these rebels almost always immersed themselves in drugs, boldly acknowledging that fact, thereby promoting acceptance of drugs to our younger generation.
The National Organization for Women (NOW) and women’s lib found their beginnings during the late 60’s. This was a societal change that would prove to be detrimental to a culture based on the family which was created by a loving and all-knowing God.
Tom Hayden, Stokely Carmichael, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn; the list seems endless of those whose names made the headlines during those years. They were radical, they were Marxists; they were anything but mainstream. But they all were connected in what seemed to be a common cause - the destruction of the
It all may seem mild by today’s standards. But I want to
reiterate: This type of behavior was a
first for parents and our culture; it brought heartbreak, broken families and
despair for many. The turbulent 60’s were in full swing and in the end it
changed the moral code of our society...though not successfully enough. It was only a stepping stone, but an effective stone at that.
I don’t mean to belabor this point, but I do believe there is a lack of understanding by those that did not live through that trying time. Perhaps those of the “greatest generation” (those who fought and lived through World War II) are the last to truly “get it”; i.e. to understand the changes that were taking place during the 1960’s. I only want to say, that kind of rebellion, the hippies and druggies and draft dodgers were the ones considered the “counterculture” of the day. That term “counterculture” was used often, but it only meant one thing - those that were rebelling against authority and our society as we had always known it.
Fast forward 50 years, and imagine my dismay when I heard
that same term – “counter-culture” – being used to refer to Christians and the
church body at large.
To say the Christian is the “counter culture” in
If our culture is not a Christian nation, then we have denied our history; we have ignored a rule of law based on the Bible; and we have excused sin. Those discouraged by the degradation of our society in recent years, may not like to hear that - they may not agree, but by this redefinition, we are allowing an undermining of our Godly foundation to take place. We unwittingly join those that hate our God and can’t stand that the
We simply cannot allow ourselves to be redefined. We are a Christian nation period. Exclamation point! The Christian is not the counterculture; we are the foundation of our culture, as well as the pillars of our society. You cannot take that heritage away. To say we are no longer a Christian nation, is only to join the mantra of those that want to take God and the Bible out of the equation. The denial of the Christian foundation of our culture is in actuality about hating our God and undermining all that He says.
Now granted the Bible informs us that the Christian is a stranger in this world and this is not our home.* While this is true in the Spiritual realm, the Bible also tells us Jesus prayed: “I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” I believe we have a responsibility to honor that prayer by ensuring our Godly heritage is kept intact, thereby maintaining freedoms that allow us to walk in our faith, as well as share our faith.
Our culture is based on the Bible and the Christian faith; this is NOT the counterculture. The Christian stands for a culture that is being attacked and persecuted by those that should be labeled the counterculture…those that stand against our ideals and principles. The bottom line, though, is our nation is founded on Christian principals and that simple fact has shaped everything from our Constitution, to decisions made by our courts; our aid to other nations, and our moral code.
For the first time in our history we have a President who boldly stated while in a foreign land that we are no longer a “Christian” nation. Many bristled at his statement and it did cause some controversy. I know I for one was angered by such blatant disregard of our heritage. David Barton of Wall Builders wrote an excellent article about why the President’s statement simply isn’t true, and why it must not be allowed to remain. I hope you will take a few moments to read it here.
There have been many laws written the way they were, and put in place, because our nation is regarded as Christian. Obama’s declaration will allow those decisions to be realigned, refuted and changed. To allow Christians to be redefined as the counterculture, we put ourselves outside of the norm of our society, and there are many laws that can be redefined, or struck down because of this declaration, due to the fact our laws have been written and upheld with Christian beliefs in mind. Again, please read the above article for a more thorough accounting.
Every President (the Executive branch) prior to President Obama has held to the
belief we are a Christian nation. Congress, (the Legislative Branch of our
government) has declared we are a Christian nation. Furthermore, our courts - the Judicial Branch
– have based decisions on the fact that we are a Christian nation. One man with a corrupt ideology doesn’t get
to come along and change all that. A liberal media, espousing their biased
dogma, doesn’t get to change or redefine our roots.
Our culture is and always has been Christian. The woman I heard speaking that day has obviously bought into the revisionist history that David Barton speaks of in the article I mentioned above. It’s sad to me that she seemed to be almost proud of the fact that she could call herself and other Christians, “the counterculture”. We are being deceived; we are buying into the mantra of those that hate a Christian America and we often don’t even recognize the dangers.
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*1Peter 2:1l
John 17:14-16
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=23909
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=67735
