Christianity in America Now

For generations it's been easy to live as a Christian in America. We have lived in a culture that largely assumed and supported Christianity or at least Christian moral principles. Even the Deists among our Founding Fathers operated within the structural framework and assumptions that under gird  Christianity. Over the past few decades, we have seen those assumptions questioned, derided, and mocked by our pop culture, media, and our courts. What's next for the American Christian?

 While American culture is increasingly hostile towards traditional Christians, it is not quite correct yet to call ourselves a post-Christian society. The vast majority of Americans consider themselves at least in name Christian, but it is safe to say that America as a whole has largely abandoned a traditional, convicted Christianity.

Most American Christians do not know much about the history or core tenets of their faith, and furthermore have no interest in gaining that knowledge in order to defend it. We are often simply more comfortable allowing our Christianity to be a vague concept of niceness and a sure ticket to heaven, requiring little to nothing of the believer. Many modern American Christians are better categorized as adherents to moralistic therapeutic deism - looking for meaning not in the death and resurrection of Christ for our sins but in the warm embrace of some great senile benevolence in the sky.

Given the increasing American antagonism towards traditional Christianity, our next few years will likely see a more obvious separation between the nominally Christian and the convicted Christian. Nominal Christians will likely become less convicted than ever, ready to dismiss any part of the Bible in order to fall in line with the thinking of the masses. Convicted Christians, on the other hand, will be forced to embrace more tightly and more publicly the truths of Christianity in the face of the culture that rejects them. Christians have an obligation to be a light to the world around us. Forsaking that obligation goes directly against the gospel, and neglects the reality of Christ's reign: "For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." -1 Corinthians 15:25-26

So what does the convicted Christian do individually? Embrace Christ first and foremost, prior to any political or cultural commitments. Be willing to look like a fool in the eyes of the world. Work to preserve and pass on Christian community. And love your neighbors, your God, and His Word.