A biblical reckoning
Many of us have cultural whiplash. At the risk of sounding simplistic, the Bible prophesied our upside-down reality eons ago by saying the time will come when people will call evil good and good evil, when they will call right wrong and wrong right. That time is here. The wisdom and prophetic treasures of the Bible are things that in these times should be dusted off and revivified, for those who have lost track of it. None of what is going on now in America is a surprise to the biblical Christian. We just never thought it would be this ugly.
And while we are at it, people are not born good. That is a lie from the pit because it implies that corruption comes from outside the person. It doesn't. What we are seeing now in our culture is the outworking of the fallen nature of mankind. Goodness must be taught, which is why we have religion; guidelines must be drawn, or mankind reverts to his nature: evil. The Bible pounds this home everywhere. The reason children must be taught not to kick, bite, steal, and pound their little playmates is because they have a nature that is fallen. Were this not the case, little kids wouldn't have to be taught good from evil, right from wrong. Religion, the good ones, anyway, recognizes this nature and make the attempt to reverse it by teaching love, goodness, fairness, decency, selflessness, and kindness. Religion is essential to the proper working of our culture, as our Founders noted, yet it is vanishing.
Our culture today reflects the disfiguring birthmark of fallen man. Evil is called good, men are called women, homosexuality is called a lifestyle, pedophilia is called an "attraction," fraud is called justice, racism is called anti-racism, dementia is called wisdom, and the theft of taxpayer wages on a grand scale is called "taxes." Open borders are called closed. Poisons are called vaccines, hatred is called tolerance, and violence is called social justice. Profanity is called freedom; egocentrism is called being an "influencer."
Our world, sadly, is now living out the biblical warnings.
Image: Robert Smirke.