America as a nation has had a rough year. We've suffered under terrorist attack, gone to war for the first time in 10 years and attempted to unify ourselves and re-establish our national pride and confidence. But for all of that, it seems like our success has fallen drastically short of our ideals. When it comes right down to it, we haven't become any stronger morally, any wiser in our actions, or any more convinced of the sovereignty of God. We haven't become more courageous, or convicted, or compassionate. For the first time in our nation's history, we have been confronted with blatant hatred for us as a people, and we have lost all capability to respond.
To what do we owe this complacency, this apathetic response to disaster? I think there a lot of reasons, but I'll only mention a few. The first is what we commonly call "pluralism". Pluralism is not, as some believe, the existence of many different views side-by-side. If that were all it meant, we'd be fine. Rather pluralism is based on relativism, and morphs that idea into "what's good for you may not be fine for me, but everything is all the same in the end". Anyone who takes a stand for something is seen as a leftover from our un-enlightened forebears, and worse, their convictions are construed as a major reason why we have conflict and misery in the world society today. Thus, we as Americans have lost our backbone: we prefer not to risk our necks but would rather play it safe. And so instead of being a nation where a person has the freedom to live according to his beliefs, we get a society uncertain and insecure, unable to relate to the world around us whether secularly or religiously.
Nowhere is this attitude more dangerous than in religion. We Christians hear it all the time from the pulpit, a constant lament that people just don't stand up for what they believe anymore. We see the effects of our lack of courage as a church every day, as the world around us falls into more and more moral decay. Suddenly we feel helpless in the face of it all and instead of turning to God to restore that courage within us, we quit trying to relate, to care, to communicate. Then we quickly lose all of our tools for sharing the Gospel with other people. Take Islam, for example. Muslims in general are appalled by the apathy of the Christian church. Islam is a religion where practicing what you preach and revering the written law is the most important thing in one's life. A lot of Muslims out there can't understand why we say what we do and then don't live by it. How are we going to reach them, how are we going to find common ground when the best message we can come up with is "it's all the same anyways"? Islam has its martyrs too. They know what it means to stand for what they believe. It's to our shame that a false religion has a better claim to courage than the Truth. And it's not as if there are no open doors with Muslim people. The Koran itself says that if any would know more about Jesus and wisdom, to ask the followers of "the Way". But they won't ask people they don't respect.
In the end, we all have a choice. How am I going to respond to 9/11? Am I going to stand for the one thing that can overcome hatred of such proportions that a man would die to kill thousands? Am I going to regain and guard my courage to minister to a dying world? Am I going to follow Paul's example and become all things for all men so that I might save a few? The work is mind-boggling, but the rewards are great. Like the vision of Christian in Interpreter's house, he who does not take the castle by force cannot be welcomed therein.
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