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"Our hearts and prayers should go out to Chief Justice Moore as he continues his valiant fight to acknowledge the Judeo-Christian principles that have guided our country so well for over two centuries.... It is bad enough when the electricity is turned off for a few hours. Think about what condition our country would be in without having the Ten Commandments to illuminate our lives during the last two centuries. What if the secular lobby triumphs repeatedly and we spend the next 50 years or more in an ever-increasing spiritual blackout? It's a pretty scary thought." - Paul M. Weyrich
INTRODUCTION
On August 17, practically the entire Northeast of America and Canada were subject to a power failure right at afternoon peak hour. Scenes of thousands of people walking the freeways of New York City, taking the routes home that would normally be taken by their cars or buses, filled our TV screens for hours. A 9/11 sensitized city responded with an orderly chaos. Thousands of drivers took strangers home to the same neighborhoods. Expected looting and other crimes did not come to pass, as some media outlets had predicted. I had to cancel my scheduled ministry in the Bronx that night as the main arteries in and out of the city were choked. It was characterized as 'The Big Blackout of '03!'
THE MILLENNIAL TWILIGHT
Even though the blackout only lasted for a little over 24 hours, the repercussions spread around the world, are still being felt, and the lawsuits soon began to flow. However, there is an even greater blackout that has been affecting America for the last 40 years. An increasing spiritual and moral darkness began to creep across the land in the twilight of the last millennium. A 'foolish virgin' church (Matt. 25) didn't have enough oil to make it through the night. Its light grew dim and seemed to be unable to hold back the encroaching darkness. A subtle agenda began to slowly work its way through western culture like a cancer that sneaks up on you and is not noticed until it is too late. A little bit of leaven leavened just about the whole lump.
ARTIFICIAL STUPIDITY
The education system was gradually dumbed-down and saturated with relativism so that moral compasses were confused to the point that the emerging generation could not tell north from south anymore. On this decline, Thomas Sowell recently had this astute observation, "In the long run, the greatest weapon of mass destruction is stupidity. In an age of artificial intelligence, too many of our schools are producing artificial stupidity, in the sense of ideas and attitudes far more foolish than young people would have arrived at on their own.... Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of an avowed enemy can destroy many Americans, but they cannot destroy America, because we are too strong and too capable of counter attack. Only Americans can destroy America. Too many of our schools have for years been quietly undermining the values and abilities that are needed to preserve any society - and especially a free society."
OLD WINE THINKING
So we come to Justice Moore's dilemma, one which tries to mix the oil and water of religion and politics and raises  doubts about America being a 'free society' any longer. 'Old wine' thinking would have the church stay out of politics and secularists fight to keep it so, but it is because the church has swallowed the lie that it is not entitled to a voice in the governing of men's affairs that the bigger blackout is here! Executive Chairman of the Australian Christian Lobby, Jim Wallace addressed a meeting of the NSW Council of Churches a few days ago. His topic, 'Politics: What Can the Churches Do?' He said that the Church's role is to keep Christian principles well to the fore in public life and community debate. This must be done so that the potential deviations of business and politics are ameliorated and the rights of the disenfranchised are represented and protected. Wallace argues that by its nature, politics plays lightly with the truth, business pushes the bounds of ethics for profit, and special interest groups focus down on narrow and self-serving agendas. Hence the need for the Churches to stand for the interests of those who lack power and influence to make their voice heard.
OTHER GODS
According to the Religion News Service, Richard Cohen is one of the lawyers who sued to challenge the display placed by Chief Justice Roy Moore. The 2.5-ton monument that once stood in the middle of the building's rotunda now resides in a locked storage room. Moore said he intends to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court... Cohen said protesters, who have bemoaned an erosion of religious rights, have twisted what the lawsuit tried to do. The lawsuit was about protecting religious freedom, he said. "The case was never an attack on religion. Justice Moore wanted to promote one religion to the exclusion of others," he said. This last statement clearly reveals the 'doctrine' of political correctness that is endeavoring to masquerade as mainstream thinking. The United States was founded as a Christian nation, but certain interest groups would have 'other gods!' The most recent survey revealed that 75% of Americans did not approve of the Supreme Court Justice's decision to remove the Ten Commandments Monument in Alabama. So much for democracy. It now appears that an unelected judge has more power than the people. The clash over the Ten Commandments is just the latest skirmish in a much larger clash between competing and incompatible world views vying for the heart of America.
THIS IS YOUR WAKE-UP CALL
Yes Church, it's time for us to wake up and let our light shine so brightly that the encroaching darkness will be pushed back and the moral and ethical 'night' held at bay! We are in an age where we seem to be getting closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did, but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. It's time to take responsibility, corporately as the church, but also personally. Each cell must be healthy before the body will be in good health. It starts with YOU!
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