Unfortunately, it is the secular humanist view that has achieved consensus in American life and culture and that brings us to the pressing problems of our day with regard to family dissolution, out-of-wedlock birth, promiscuity, sexually transmitted disease, abortion and the unprecedented proliferation of pornography and child sexual abuse – all of which have become serious [and costly] social problems in the last four decades. The degeneration of these former principles has naturally led to the legitimization of homosexual behavior and now same-sex marriage. This is the logical result within a culture in which individuals are “permitted to express their sexual proclivities and pursue their lifestyles as they desire.”

The consequences experienced in the last four decades should serve as convincing condemnation of the secular humanist worldview. Sadly, the Church still remains largely sidelined in this battle – seemingly ill-equipped to respond with a persuasive and convincing defense of God’s truth related to all of life. The absence of an adequate response only further marginalizes the Church and its message.

This is why the Christian worldview is so important for Christians to apprehend and be able to communicate in the marketplace of ideas as we confront these competing moral perspectives.

One of the best arguments in defense of the Christian view of reality that I have recently read was actually written by a self-proclaimed agnostic. In his book Why America Needs Religion: Secular Modernity and its Discontents, Guenter Lewy, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst offers a balanced and rational comparison of these two competing worldviews. While not writing as a Christian, he grasps the principles revealed in Scripture and their beneficial relationship to all of life and society better than most professing believers!

However, what a group of Evangelicals recently wrote is true, “To propose that securing civil virtue is the purpose of religion is blasphemous. To deny that securing civil virtue is a benefit of religion is blindness.” While social reform is not the principal aim of Christ’s coming, these “benefits” will nonetheless be realized when the truth of God’s revelation is consciously applied to every sphere of life and culture. If Christ is Lord then He is Lord over all and our responsibility is to press His lordship into every sphere of reality. This is not to be a coercive action on the part of Christians but rather subversive. We constantly challenge false worldviews by publicly testing them against their apparent and predictable results and then displace them through effective persuasion pointing out the truth’s apparent and predictable benefits. The truth works while efforts based upon a false assessment of reality will inevitably and always fail to achieve their original intent and likely do a lot of damage in the process. The secular humanist approach to sexuality is a prime example.

This is what we mean when we say “worldview” and this is why it matters. False views of reality, or worldviews, are those pretensions spoken of in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that “keep people from a knowledge of God” that we are charged with “tearing down.” The simple fact is; you can’t argue for or against something you don’t understand.

© 2007 by S. Michael Craven

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S. Michael Craven is the Founding Director of the Center for Christ & Culture, a ministry of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families. The Center for Christ & Culture is dedicated to renewal within the Church and works to equip Christians with an intelligent and thoroughly Christian approach to matters of culture in order to recapture and demonstrate the relevance of Christianity to all of life. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, additional resources and other works by S. Michael Craven visit: www.battlefortruth.org

Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.