Adventures in Parenting

At this juncture in history, it would be wise to note that the current failures in finance, education and government all rest on the assumption of a "secular" society. We need to hear these wise words:

"No state can be completely secular in the sense that those who exercise power have no beliefs about what is true and no commitment to what they believe to be right. It is the duty of the church to ask what those beliefs and commitments are and to expose them in the light of the gospel. There is no genuinely missionary encounter with our culture unless this happens. Here we must face frankly the distortion of the gospel that is perpetrated in a great deal that passes for missionary encounter. A preaching of the gospel that calls men and women to accept Jesus as Savior but does not make it clear that discipleship means commitment to a vision of society radically different from that which controls our public life today must be condemned as false." (Lesslie Newbigin, emphasis mine)

What are the beliefs and commitments of contemporary society that must be exposed? Two are glaring:

1. Under the right conditions, human beings will choose what is right (and therefore the way to a harmonious society is to manipulate the conditions).
2. Human beings find happiness in achievement and acquisition rather than in right relationship with their Creator and one another.