The culture war is coming to an inevitable and dangerous turning point and Francis Schaeffer knew it would. The battle between Christianity and secular humanism — absolute Truth versus personal truth — is one that cannot be ignored or mixed.

Sadly, absolute Truth is being drowned out by the myriad chorus of personal truths shaped in the over-arching context of secular humanism and its materialistic end. In the end it is the Truth of God versus the lies offered by secular humanism that mankind is self-sufficient — that mankind can determine what god, if any, they individually serve instead of submitting to the one Creator's divine intent.

Every generation has faced some sort of cultural issue which directly challenges the application of the gospel. Church history is replete with the battles brought against the gospel, from direct opposition of pagan or secular forces to the Reformation battles starting with Luther against the Catholic Church. There have been "culture wars" over baptism, prohibition, evolution and most recently human sexual ethics. Francis Schaeffer's A Christian Manifesto speaks powerfully to the true condition of the modern Christian church in the United States and the battles currently being waged.

Twenty-five years ago he wrote in his opening paragraph,

The basic problem of the Christians in this country in the last eighty years or so, in regard to society and in regard to government, is that they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals.

Today our culture war is not as fragmented as one may think. It's not about Christians vs. abortion over here, Christians vs. pornography over there and the huge war over Christians vs homosexuality. The "total" is the absolute Truth of God versus the new religion of secular humanism. Schaeffer explains in the first chapter, The Abolition of Truth and Morality,

These two world views stand as totals in complete antithesis to each other in content and also in their natural results, and specifically including law.

One of the ways that secular humanism has infiltrated the church is that there is this cultural misconception that Christians should leave their faith on the steps of city hall — that Christians should leave their faith outside the voting booth and not speak up in opposition to public policy that denigrates society in defiance, or ignorance, of biblical principles. There is this underlying lie that somehow the gospel should ignore "worldly" law and the machinations of government. Schaeffer confronts this by stating,

True spirituality covers all of reality. There are things the Bible tells us as absolutes which are sinful — which do not conform to the character of God. But aside from these the Lordship of Christ covers all of life and all of life equally. it is not only that true spirituality covers all of life, but it covers all parts of the spectrum of life equally. In this sense there is nothing concerning reality that is not spiritual.

Related to this, it seems to me, is the fact that many Christians do not mean what I mean when I say Christianity is true, or Truth. They are Christians and they believe in, let us say, the truth of creation, the truth of the virgin birth, the truth of Christ's miracles, Christ's substitionary death, and His coming again. But they stop there with these and other individual truths.

When I say Christianity is true I mean it is true to total reality — the total of what is, beginning with the central reality, the objective existence of the personal-infinite God. Christianity is not just a series of truths but Truth — Truth about all of reality. And the holding to that Truth intellectually — and then in some poor way living upon that Truth, the Truth of what is — brings forth not only certain personal results, but also governmental and legal results. (emphasis Schaeffer.)

In a nutshell this is somewhat represented by the cultural expectation imposed on people of faith to deal with social conflict by "agreeing to disagree" vs. civilly disagreeing and pressing forward in opposition to someone else's vision for society. We have a redemptive viewpoint, Truth, being squelched by cultural custom in the name of preventing a culture war that is going to happen whether we engage it or not.

The two worldviews cannot be mixed, even though we are blessed to live in a representative democracy which allows the two to co-exist.

The Revolution on a Personal Scale

I was a part of the gay identified community when Schaeffer first wrote his book.

I was for the gay redefinition of marriage, I was pro-choice, and I saw most indecency as free speech and even "artistic" in some cases. I hated Jerry Falwell and other conservative leaders. I thought Christians were crazy. I, a Gen X'er in every sense of the label, was a secular humanist with a vague New Age nominal Christian kind of spirituality.

I'm no longer "gay," I'm as pro-life as can be, and I see porn as degrading to society and to both those in the pictures and those viewing them. I came to an understanding and even a respect for Jerry Falwell, and currently work with conservative leaders on several federal, state and local issues. I am a devout Christian. I love Jesus.

And while these paragraphs represent a lot of fragmented manifestations of the culture war in my life, the underlying principle is the totality of Truth vs. Secular humanism. It was Christians who recognized this and met me on that level, instead of being distracted by the "bits and pieces" made manifest in the next news headline. The vague myriad of "truths" was supplanted by the freedom and peace afforded in the absolute Truth of Christ. It was truly a revolution of worldview on a very personal scale.

Revolutionizing the "Culture War"

Even after Christ, it took years for me to come to the place of realizing that public policy was as much ministry as praying for and discipling someone struggling with their personal issues.

It dawned on me that public policy has killed Christians in the name of preserving the "state." Public policy and cultural tides have exiled Christians, driven them underground and suppressed religious liberty throughout history. Public policy and cultural expectations have also celebrated Christianity, distorted Christianity, exalted Christianity — are you getting my point here?

There's no reason for Christians with a redemptive worldview based on absolute Truth to not speak into social or political arenas. The argument that somehow doing so hampers the furtherance of the gospel is invalid in the sense that if a fragment of the culture war is made paramount to the totality of a person's worldview, that entertains the idea that somehow God and the gospel are so small as to be thwarted by someone being offended. This reveals a lack of understanding and context for the power of God and His atonement.

Unfortunately, of course, some Christian activists have done more damage than good. They focus on the fragments of the culture war and lose focus of the big picture. As an example, Schaeffer states in regard to some who disagreed with The Moral Majority's actions of his time,

[W]e must realize that regardless of whether we think the Moral Majority has always said the right things or whether we do not, or whether we think they have made some mistakes or whether we do not, they have certainly done one thing right: they have used the freedom we still have in the political arena to stand against [humanism]. They have carried the fact that law is king, law is above the lawmakers, and God is above the law into this area of life where it always should have been. And this is part of true spirituality."

In other words, it isn't enough to be critical of what other Christians are doing in society and public policy. Those who hold a redemptive viewpoint are compelled to speak lovingly and civilly into all aspects of life where the doors are open to do so in the power of the Holy Spirit's gifts to us and our abilities to exercise them. If we engage we can minister not only to those issues that conflict with Truth but also to those who might not be expressing the Truth in a way we find redemptive or productive.

A Relational God vs. the Unholy Trinity of Me, Myself and I

At Exodus we deal specifically with one of the "fragments" of the culture war in that we deal specifically with homosexuality. However, I can say that we are also aware of our position in the "total" picture. It seems to me that in the United States, and much of the Western World, the paramount fruit of secular humanism is as Schaeffer correctly describes as "the materialistic final end." Along with other self-centered materialism, this has resulted in a gross distortion of sexual morality.

Look at the major issues of the day: abortion, pornography and homosexuality. Abortion has centered around the pre-born baby. The tidal wave of porn has all but silenced opposition and there has also been a deafening worldwide crescendo of noise concerning the battle over "gay rights."

At the root of these three issues is sexual morality. Sex has led the single mother to her difficult decision, sex drives the porn industry and enslaves the addicts it purposefully creates, and sex is at the root of homosexuality. Sex is the single most powerful experience a human will physically have in the natural world. Sex has the ability to redefine how a person sees themselves, sees the same sex, the opposite sex and sometimes even God. That is why being "gay" has risen from a sexual orientation to an identity and ideology.

It should be no wonder that this sexual relational paradigm — my needs and my wants as expressed through a sexual relationship — is the pivot point for how the gospel is being applied to cultural debate today. Except we again get distracted by defensively preparing for one battle after another. Individual battles are fine unless they distract us from the totality of God's will versus our own.

Consider how the revolution described by Schaeffer is realized:

The revolution starts personally. Does Truth define my life for me or do I define truth by my feelings and circumstance on any given issue? What parts of my life are not under the Lordship of Christ and submitted to His will?

The revolution manifests in outward relationships. How do I segregate my faith? What cultural expectations and fears hamper my ability to speak out publicly concerning issues of Biblical principles? Does my faith cover all of reality or am I pigeonholing my "calling?" Have I used others real or perceived failings to deter me from entering into the public arena (from discussions with our neighbors to government)?

The Revolution is here. There is a revolution going on among Christians. We're tired of the blizzard fragments of the Culture War. We want to get to the Truth of the matter. The over-worn echoes of the past 40 or so years has made us weary for authentic relationship and secular humanism has failed us. We've discovered the Truth of Christ and how biblical relational principles and a biblical sexual ethic produces life and freedom. We are stepping forward, lovingly and convincingly with the Truth of our testimony and the validity of our convictions. This threatens secular humanism and so the heat is actually turning up in this country to the point that today it's not acceptable to ridicule anyone except the Christian. Even so, we must not answer in kind and rebuke the ones who do. We must deal with the individual battles intelligently and redemptively all within the context of realizing that this war is between Truth and secular humanism.

I'm not sure I would be comfortable calling Schaeffer's manifesto a "prophetic vision." Yet, after reading it three times, I can't help think along those lines.