The Book's Purpose

• Expose seven lies that represent worldviews in direct opposition to biblical revelation
• Demonstrate how the lies are based on partial truth, thereby making them seem harmless and attractive
• Clarify how these lies over time are destroying the moral fabric of our nation
• Issue a call for Christians to challenge these lies in the public arena and to serve those individuals with opposing worldviews

The Book's Message

Satan made the forbidden fruit seem attractive to Eve, making her believe that eating it would bring her great benefits. His strategy consisted of half-truths, not outright lies. He uses the same tactics today to destroy the moral fabric of our society, one which continues to move away from its Judeo-Christian roots.

“Truth is relative.”

“All religions lead to heaven.”

These statements and many others that flow through our televisions, classrooms, and newspapers rarely go unchallenged because their premises seem so reasonable. God calls every believer to recognize the stakes in these cultural wars, expose the lies, and render Christ-like service to every person who opposes biblical truth.

Freedom of Choice

The first lie that goes unchallenged is that people have the freedom to be who they want to be and do what they want to do. When a nation does not base its moral guidelines on the holiness of God, then every behavior becomes acceptable. We believe we can set our own agendas focusing on self-fulfillment.

Believers must stand against this culture of autonomous individualism, recognizing that everything we have is a gift from God. Instead of insisting on our rights, we need to be good stewards of all that He has given us.

The Gospel According to Rosie Rosie O’Donnell, who raises four adopted children, openly professed that she is a lesbian. In an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Rosie defended her rights to raise her children for two hours. During the show no one challenged her. However, the facts show that boys and girls fare better in heterosexual homes where both sexes are pressent. Independent studies indicate that those raised in homosexual homes are more likely to abuse drugs and engage in promiscuous behavior.

Are children raised by gays more likely to become gay themselves? Rosie doesn’t think so; but research suggests otherwise. In fact, one study shows that children of gay parents are four times more likely to become homosexual. “Children from heterosexual families have fewer problems with AIDS, suicide, anger, poverty, crime, education, and gender identity than children raised by homosexuals.”

Rosie made it very clear that this debate is not about the children. It is about gays demanding their rights. We should do everything we possibly can to promote healthy, heterosexual families~that is, if we sincerely care about the welfare of America’s children.

The “Born or Made” Debate

One major part of the gay agenda is to convince the public that sexual orientation is genetic. If successful, then obviously the populace will be more open-minded about civil rights for the gay community.

Gays proudly quote studies that supposedly lend evidence to a genetic basis for homosexuality. However, none of these claims have been verified through followup studies. Even if a genetic predisposition could be proven, does that imply that homosexual behavior should be deemed acceptable? The best answer to that question lies in the obvious answer to another question. Does a genetic connection to crime excuse criminal behavior? Not at all.

While the secular press waves the banner for the homosexual community, believers should be telling about couples such as John and Anne Paulk, who left the gay lifestyle, married, and raised a Christian family. We should be talking effective ministries such as Exodus and Regeneration. We have an obligation to proclaim that true hope for homosexuals lies in the gospel and not in a gay gene.

The Basis for Moral Beliefs

Most pro-life Americans cannot explain why they are pro-life. In his Before the Shooting Begins, sociologist James Davidson Hunter discovered that most people base their moral convictions on personal feelings instead of objective truth. With the abortion issue, many feel it is wrong and others feel it is a mother’s personal choice. What most fail to see is that a fetus is either a person or it is not, no matter what anyone thinks or feels.

So the typical basis for moral beliefs today is one’s sentiments, not convictions. In this arena private experience has the final word. Consequently, if morality is based on feeling, then we refrain from speaking about objective truth because we might hurt someone’s feelings.

Marriage and the Family

This lie proclaims that marriage can be between any two people regardless of gender and should last only as long as both partners are happy. The underlying worldview behind this lie stresses that marriage is not a lifetime covenant between a man and a woman, but a contract that can and should be dissolved whenever mutual benefits cease. Gay marriage and adoption, divorce, and children born out of wedlock flourish under such a worldview and fly in the face of the Christian worldview which sees marriage and family as divinely ordained institutions.

Marital Emergency

The state of Minnesota wrote a law giving couples a $50 break on their marriage license for completing a premarital class. Governor Jesse Ventura vetoed the bill, claiming it was an insult to the intelligence of every American. He stressed that the government had no business delving into the arena of marriage counseling.

The negative effects of divorce are consistently verified. Wade Horn from the National Fatherhood Initiative states that children growing up apart from a two-parent home perform worse on just about every aspect of child well-being. When one considers the tremendous damage divorce does to our society, government should do everything it possibly can to promote and protect healthy marriages.

The state of Florida recognizes divorce disaster. Officials there passed the very bill that Ventura vetoed. In addition to the marriage license discount, high schoolers cannot graduate until they have taken a class on marriage and family. The former wrestler was wrong. Premarital counseling does not insult our intelligence. However, ignoring the devastating effects of broken homes does.

The Sacred Trust of Motherhood

Author Betty Friedman is often credited with initiating the modern feminist movement with the release of The Feminine Mystique. The feminist momentum drove millions of mothers from their homes into the workplace.

Interestingly, one generation later author Danielle Crittenden released What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us and talks about the miserable feelings mothers have today about leaving their children. The truth of the matter is that most women enjoy being mothers.

Once again, the government lends evidence that it is not very familyfriendly. Mothers aren’t looking for child care benefits as much as they are searching for ways they can spend more time at home with their children. Yet feminists continue their militant stance that our sexist society imposes these “motherly” feelings upon women.

Christians need to make champions of mothers who decide to stay home with their children because motherhood is a sacred trust issued by God Himself. We must encourage and support public policy that provides incentives for mothers to raise their own children.

Marriage: Contract or Covenant?

Several newspapers ran an ad for the pro-choice movement. The ad contained pictures of automatic and manual transmissions with the caption reading, “Everybody Likes Choice.” It may seem absurd to use marketplace language in the abortion debate, but that is exactly what enemies of the traditional family do. The pro-choice movement strategically uses such language because it helps deconstruct the traditional family and ultimately results in the state having more leverage to reconstruct the definition of family.

The rhetoric shifts marriage from a covenant of one man and one woman for life to a contract between two consenting adults. As contract, the parties may negotiate the terms and terminate the agreement at any point in the relationship.

Obviously, this shift damages the traditional family. It opens wide the door to no-fault divorce, cohabitation, and same-sex marriage. As a contract instead of a covenant, marriage no longer is seen as a lifetime commitment but as an “anything goes” relationship where each partner’s objective is to get the best bargain.

Toleration in an Amoral Society

This lie leads us to believe that everyone will live in harmony if we just tolerate one another’s beliefs. Underpinning this lie is the worldview that says all beliefs are relative in a world that is amoral.

Some Thoughts on Absolutes

Any attempt to argue moral beliefs to someone who doesn’t believe in absolute truth usually results in an effort of frustrating futility. In our society that is bent on tolerance, stating one’s belief in absolute truth will usually result in some vicious name-calling. Evangelicals must be careful of reciprocating.

The believer’s goal should be “absolutes without absolutism,” according to Art Lindsley of the C.S. Lewis Institute. Absolutism intertwines bigotry, arrogance, and close-mindedness, the very qualities that the non-believing world associates with Christianity. We must avoid succumbing to these characteristics at all costs.

On the other hand, it is imperative that we openly talk about absolutes because they serve as the bedrock of our biblical worldview. We must strive for a balance that allows us to speak without giving any semblance of absolutism.

One helpful strategy is to turn the table on relativists by reminding them that their own tolerant views are absolutist in nature. Relativists’ fingers should be pointed back to themselves because they are intolerant of anyone who holds a biblical worldview. “For relativists, relativism is an absolute, and relativists implicitly advert to other absolutes when they make claims for justice and fairness.” We must model the demeanor of Jesus who embodied absolute truth without becoming an absolutist.

Academic Freedom

Students seeking to fulfill their writing and composition requirements at the University of California at Berkeley have several possible options~that is, as long as they have a liberal bent. One particular professor stated in clear terms that conservatives were not welcome in his class on Palestinian resistance.

How could this be when this university has prided itself on being a champion of the free speech movement? Thankfully, in this case, university officials found themselves in a public relations nightmare. But this reaction against conservative Christianity is commonplace in colleges across America.

Postmoderns deny that there is any kind of truth outside of our own independent perspectives. With this philosophy, truth becomes something that is not discovered but something that is imposed on another. The objective of teaching then becomes to indoctrinate and not to exchange ideas. Academic freedom can exist only in an arena where truth is accepted as reality.

Homefront Attacks on Democracy

A hostile gang of men approached a young woman in Washington as she prepared to sign a petition barring special rights for gays. They verbally accosted her as a bigot, hate monger, and Nazi. The woman, intimidated, left without signing the petition.

Overpowering their opponents represents the new strategy of gay militants. Election officials suggest that these militant tactics have successfully kept initiatives limiting gay rights from ballots in several states. When such maneuvers are allowed to happen, democracy itself becomes the prisoner of war.

Can democracy be saved when America is embroiled in such a heated culture war? According to James Davison Hunter, the first step must be to understand that the culprit is a privatized view of values and truth.

On the subject of abortion, Hunter found that almost no one could present a rational explanation of his/her views. The common response was in effect, “That’s just how I feel.” Consequently, if truth is merely based on private emotions, then seeking to convince others becomes a power play where one person tries to impose his views on another. “That’s why the watershed issue of our day is truth~the biblical teaching that truth is not private but transcendent and deeply rooted in ultimate reality.”

The Arts

This lie believes that art forms (painting, literature, film) should redefine reality by breaking traditional norms and challenging Judeo-Christian beliefs. For example, the best-seller The Da Vinci Code mixes fact and fiction to present an unorthodox view of Christ, a view that stands on numerous historical fallacies. Thankfully, however, the arts still include wholesome works which creatively promote a Christian worldview.

The Passion of the Christ

Imagine that Steven Spielberg announces his next picture to be an historical drama. Now imagine that various groups demand that they approve the scripts before the movie hits the big screen. Do you think he would give in to those demands? Of course not. First Amendment watchdogs would assure that he got wholehearted support. On the other hand, what if the historical drama depicted the days leading up to the crucifixion of Christ? Apparently, that is a different matter because Mel Gibson faced pressure from antagonistic groups, all expecting him to let creative freedom take a back seat to political correctness.

The Passion of the Christ stands out among the many films about Jesus for two reasons. First, the film is unsentimental and unsparing. Previous efforts fail to capture the intensity of Jesus’ suffering. Second, the script in its entirety is presented in Aramaic and Latin, thereby allowing the visuals to maximize the authenticity and realism of the drama.

Many critics blasted the film before it was even released. Some accused Gibson of promoting animosity and anti-Semitism. One film supporter, Archbishop Charles Caput reminded liberal critics how they lectured Catholics to be open-minded over the release of The Last Temptation of Christ, which attacked the historical Jesus. “The archbishop is right, but ‘tolerance,’ you see, is no longer a two-way street. It’s a weapon to intimidate certain groups.”

Saving Private Ryan

Some critics claim that Saving Private Ryan is Steven Spielberg’s masterwork. What makes the movie so effective is that it treats profound moral questions with brutal honesty. It compels us to recognize the worth of every human life and the debt of gratitude all of us owe for our very life.

The movie centers on a search party that has been assigned to find Private Ryan, whose three brothers have been killed in the D-day invasion of Normandy. When found, he is to be returned to his grieving mother. One soldier after another is killed in the process of the search, raising the question of how much a single life is worth.

The answer comes fifty years later when Private Ryan visits the graves of those who gave their lives for him. He wonders how he can ever repay the debt. Even though his wife assures him that he is a good man, the answer is not convincing. It is obvious that no matter how good a man he is, he can never possibly repay the debt. He can only be grateful. Although Spielberg probably never intended it, the storyline serves as a penetrating parallel to the gospel. God gave His only Son on the cross.

How can we ever repay Him for such a sacrifice? We can’t. How much is one person’s life worth? For God, it was worth giving up His own Son.

Which Films Should We Watch?

When Christian film critic Denis Haack heard kids in his church enthusiastically talking about a movie they had just seen, he decided to start watching himself. Most of the movies probably would not be wellreceived by the Christian sector, but he wanted to know the types of media that were influencing kids. This particular movie, Reality Bites, portrays college graduates who move from one sexual relationship to another in their search for love. Their escapades make sin look attractive and compelling.

Haack, who works with teenagers, watches these movies because his teenagers watch them. Seeing the films helps him understand the pressures the younger generation faces with pop culture. However, he doesn’t just watch the movies. He teaches the teenagers how the films stack up against biblical teaching.

Whether believers like it or not, the movie industry represents a major part of our culture. We must understand the worldview which most movies adopt and use them in a positive way to bring glory to Christ.

Confronting and Transforming Culture

Another lie that has penetrated our culture is that one’s beliefs should be private matters. Since Christianity has a history of creating oppression and since it adheres to a message that does not tolerate opposing views, one’s beliefs should not be applied in today’s culture. With humble servanthood, believers must challenge this lie, not by mimicking our culture, but by presenting our beliefs in every sector of life. Sometimes we must confront; sometimes we must forgive. We need discernment to know what to say, how to say it, and when to say it.

A Miss America Controversy

Erika Harold is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from the University of Illinois and plans to attend Harvard Law School. Her multiracial heritage presents a powerful symbol of how the face of America is changing. One would think the Miss America officials would have been thrilled after she was crowned.

But that certainly was not the case, especially when Erika chose teenage abstinence as her adopted platform. Officials knew her platform long before she was crowned in 2002. Yet once she was crowned, they pressured her not to talk about abstinence publicly. In fact, just before she was to address the National Press Club, officials commanded that she not speak on this issue. But Erika would not buckle under their pressures. After much negative press about the incident, officials reversed themselves.

Officials maintain how important it is for the contestants be women who have the courage to speak up for their beliefs. It seems from their perspective, however, that one’s stand is courageous only if it is based on a liberal bias.

This story serves as an excellent example of how believers may face persecution when they take a stand for what is morally right. But it is also a story of great courage in the midst of a hostile culture.

Political Action for a New Generation

Every January thousands of teenagers and young adults show up in Washington, D.C., to support the rights of the unborn. They travel for hours on uncomfortable buses, and they sleep on hard floors of church basements. Journalists give this evergrowing group of political activists very little media attention. But they have the pro-choice groups worried.

In The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy, Colleen Carroll notes grassroots movement towards Christian commitment and moral absolutes. These young people are politically active and possess strong, morally conservative values.

Carroll’s study of 500 young adults cites that life-changing conversions have prompted this movement towards traditional morality. This new generation is leading a significant turnaround in attitudes about abortion and sex. They have the courage to stand up to every attack and to keep pressing to return America to a country with a foundation of traditional values.

Marketplace Callin

John Beckett often wondered if he should go into the ministry. His passion was in the marketplace. But being raised in a Christian family, he somehow thought that career ministry would settle his struggling heart.

John became a successful businessman with a growing family. He still struggled with the tug of career ministry. In his book Loving Monday, he tells that he finally came to the point where he asked himself this pivotal question: Would he be willing to pull completely away from the business and begin a new direction in life?

This question disturbed him greatly. As he questioned his motives, he released everything~his career, his business, his family, his possessions~ to God. Amazingly, after he made this total commitment, God revealed to him that he was exactly where he needed to be.

There are probably many other John Becketts in our world who have guilt because they believe the only way God could fulfill their lives is if they were in the ministry. “But in a biblical worldview, there is no such dichotomy between the sacred and the secular.”

For some, the lordship of Christ may be career ministry. But for others, it may be politics, business, theater, health care, or a myriad other possibilities. Once we arrive at this conclusion, our work can be a joyful fulfillment each day. We recognize that God can use us in whatever professional path we choose.

The Entertainment Media

The lie promoted by the entertainment industry is that entertainment is designed to fulfill our personal desires. The worldview underlying this falsehood suggests that we need to infuse our lives with more media in order to eliminate useless taboos. The name of the game is self-fulfillment through the avenues of sex, power, and possessions.

MTV’s Gospel Message

MTV has made billions of dollars by notoriously glorifying sin. More than a decade ago the network produced a special news program titled “The Seven Deadly Sins.” The program interviewed celebrities and normal teenagers to learn their views on the qualities that the Bible claims to be the deadliest of sins.

The intent of the report was to show that people today struggle with the very things listed in the seven deadly sins. Instead, the program revealed that the youth culture is clueless when it comes to basic categories of morality.

Rapper Ice-T said lust wasn’t a sin and that the whole list was foolish. One interviewee indicated that sloth was a break from work. Pride was the toughest sin to swallow. Actress Kirstie Alley claimed that some idiot must have made up that one.

In essence the interview revealed a total lack of concern about whether the deadly sins represented moral truth. The MTV message revealed on this program stressed that the highest standard of value is whatever works for the individual. For example, one person agreed that envy was wrong, but only because it made the person feel bad about himself. Absolutely nothing in the program left the viewer with any notion of the need for moral responsibility.

By the way, can you name the seven deadly sins? Perhaps the MTV report reveals the reality of our own moral confusion.

All about Money

One very disturbing trend in the world of entertainment media is their marketing appeal to today’s teenagers. Magazines that are popular with teenagers, such as Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone contain more alcohol advertisements than other publications. Is the alcohol industry appealing to the youth culture? Without a doubt. Does Joe Camel and the cigarette industry ring a bell?

Problem drinking does not usually begin in middle age; it begins during the teen years when kids’ focal concern is fitting in with the crowd. Hook a teenager on alcohol; chances are you will have him hooked for life. “In their relentless drive for more and more profits, both the alcohol and the magazine industries have completely forgotten their responsibility to society and to children.” Greed is the name of the game.

Most likely, parents can do nothing to stop these industries from exploiting our children, but we can help our kids understand the hedonistic worldview which underlies these tactics. These industries will promise any amount of pleasure if it will pad their pocketbooks.

Unplugged

Stars Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, both seeking publicity, certainly got plenty of it when he ripped off her bodice during the halftime show of the 2004 Super Bowl. Our concerns, however, reach far beyond this fiasco. What happened during the halftime show was simply one instance among many of an entertainment medium which seeks to push the envelope as far as possible.

In All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes, Ken Myers notes that the world of television presents two problems. First, humans have an insatiable hunger for entertainment, and television is easily accessible. Second, the images of television are visible, dramatic, and powerful. They run nonstop, giving us no time to reflect.

The best solution to prevent the exposure of sex, violence, and drugs to our children is simply to unplug the set. Reserve television for current events, good movies, and sports. Otherwise, keep it unplugged. That way you will have to think and make the conscious effort to bend over and plug the cord into the outlet instead of the normal plopping down and channel surfing with the remote.

The Way to God

The seventh lie leads us to believe that there are many ways to God and that He accepts us just as we are. The underlying worldview stresses that God is impersonal and that each individual must control his own destiny. Through a subjective love we somehow harmonize with others in a life which involves no ultimate judgment.

The Influence of Oprah

After the terrorist attack on September 11, cities across America noted a significant increase in church attendance. Today, interest in religion has declined to pre-9/11 days. The one religion which seems to have benefited since that day of terror is Islam. More than one-half of Americans hold a favorable view of Islam, a percentage significantly higher than the previous year.

More than 75 percent of Americans believe that many roads can lead to eternal life. More disturbing is the finding that almost one-half of highly committed evangelicals believe there are multiple paths to eternal life.

These polls suggest strongly the powerful influence the belief system of Oprah Winfrey has on the American culture. Some refer to this influence as the “Oprahfication” of America. According to this prominent television talk show host, truth is based one’s experience and feeling and not on the claims of religious doctrine and traditions. This worldview asserts that all religions are equally valid even though they may diametrically oppose each other with their systems of belief.

Believers have a responsibility to let others know that religion is a matter of truth. There is only one road that leads to eternal life. And that road leads through Jesus Christ. Christianity is a matter of the truth as revealed in the Bible and not merely one’s sentimental feelings.

Christianity and Islam

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, we witnessed many ecumenical services that were celebrated all across America. Yes, we should reach out to our Muslim friends. Yes, we must do all we can to discourage outbreaks of religious bigotry. However, in the process we must be very careful not to promote a civil religion which teaches that Islam and Christianity are essentially the same. They are not the same at all.

One of the most glaring differences between the two is their understanding of Jesus. The Koran teaches that Jesus was no more than a messenger from Allah. It claims that Jesus was not even crucified. Christianity believes that Jesus is the very Son of God who offered His life as a sacrifice for the atonement of our sins. It is fair neither to Christianity nor Islam to claim that they are essentially the same.

As we teach our children how to love their Muslim neighbors, we must also help them understand that there are very distinct differences between Christianity and Islam. We must teach them to treat those of other religions with tolerance; but we must also teach them that not all religions are true.

Lessons from Pinocchio

Professor Vigen Guroian from Loyola College in Maryland invited his daughter’s fourth-grade class to join his undergraduate class in children’s literature for some discussion on Pinocchio. The college students were embarrassed when they discovered the children understood the book better than they did. Why is this?

The professor explained that our systems have neglected the importance of developing moral imagination. The undergrads very simply were unable to capture the moral themes in the fantasy. They even felt a sense of wonder about why they were deprived the privilege of reading such books as Pinocchio when they were growing up.

Guroian’s book, Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Moral Imagination, explains how children from birth have a strong moral sense. They want to know who the bad characters and the good characters are. This gift in children must be developed or it will disappear as evidenced in the professor’s classroom. “In this intellectual climate, the moral imagination is being starved.”

A dry class on ethics has difficulty bringing to life moral themes such as bravery, resisting temptation, and self-sacrifice. On the other hand, pick up a copy of The Velveteen Rabbit or Peter Pan and you will discover key truths about what it means to be human.

Action Steps

Clearly, a variety of laws, events, and people have been instrumental in changing the popular culture and the worldview that informs them over the past decade. We must examine these changes in the light of God’s truth.

How do we confront these lies?

First, we can be intentional about seeking personal renewal and opening ourselves up to the Holy Spirit’s leading. Our own choices and lifestyles must be in line with God’s truth.

Next, we need to band together and work cooperatively as a Christian community and deal with these issues together.

And finally, we need to build bridges toward people with opposing worldviews.