What Do You Think about the Two Major Cultural Trends?

Whenever I come across articles which reflect how worldview is being expressed in the culture, I often print them out so I can use them as sources for articles and blogs. As I had collected several, I thought it was time to express myself again, so I laid them out in categories. And when I did, based on the way my mind was working at the time, all of them fell into two categories. Category one dealt with antagonists who are doing all they can to extinguish Christianity from the public square. Category two related to the normalization, in the culture, of what the Bible reveals to be immorality. As Christians, we are certainly being attacked on both fronts.

Recent Headlines from Category 1
∙    Judge Rules Atheist Court Case Seeking Removal of Jesus Statue from WWII Memorial Can Continue
∙    Kansas Town Forced to Remove Cross from Logo
∙    Automaker Sacks Christian Chaplain
∙    American Humanist Association Seeks to Suppress Congressional Prayer Caucus

Recent Headlines from Category 2
∙    Philadelphia Installing Condom Dispensers in High Schools to Combat Teen STDs
∙    70% in Poll Believe There Is Nothing Wrong with Gambling
∙    Zurich to Open Drive-in Sex Boxes

I was thinking about how we, as Christians, ought to respond to these attacks. There are, actually, several possibilities. Two of them are what I would consider opposite extremes.
1) We could just drop out of engagement with the world. After all, the world is the domain of Satan. To do this, we can turn inward by turning our churches into fortresses and lock out the world.
2) We could redouble our efforts to make changes in the political arena. After all, we have the right to do this in America, and Christians ought to make it their business to shape the culture by creating laws which conform with God’s teachings in the Bible.

But what we really need to do, IMO (for those not versed in text speak this means In My Opinion), falls between the extremes. Our Christian faith is not an either/or proposition, as in worship God OR be engaged with the culture. God has called us to be faithful in worship AND to be witnesses to the world. Our purpose before God is not to become hermits or to change the political landscape. He has called us to interact with him and to share his glory with the world. This involves worship, meeting the needs of the hurting, sharing the gospel, and working in the political arena to create a just, loving and moral environment. God’s purpose is to bring the world into relationship with himself and we need to do everything possible to partner with him in that effort. Nothing less will do.

As we enter the New Year, we need to reevaluate our personal priorities. Is your personal relationship with God where it ought to be? Have you prepared yourself to be an effective ambassador for Christ in an increasingly pluralistic world? If not, what are you going to do to make it right?