Providence Points: Vows & Values
shawn...@gmail.com
Biblical, Devotional & Informational
June 18, 2007
Vol. 2, No. 10
>From the Editor: Sometimes the best way to explain the Christian
worldview is to contrast it with other approaches-some which are
closer than others. I listen, as some of you do, to conservative talk
and appreciate some of it. Here are some pluses and minuses:
=================== Vows & Values
The national talk-show host, Dennis Prager, contends that the newly
elected Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) should not be allowed to swear into
office upon the Koran "because the act undermines American
civilization."
To let this pass without a fight is to "embolden Islamic extremists"
whose sole goal is the "Islamicization of America."
He concludes the thought-provoking essay with a bang: "When all
elected officials take their oaths of office with their hands on the
very same book, they all affirm that some unifying value system
underlies American civilization. If Keith Ellison is allowed to change
that, he will be doing more damage to the unity of America and to the
value system that has formed this country than the terrorists of
9-11."
I sometimes listen to his radio show. And I sometimes appreciate his
comments. And this article is most heart-warming insofar as he
summarizes the truth: taking such an oath is an affirmation of the
unifying value system of America. I wish more people, even Christians,
understood that fact. In fact, the seriousness of oaths has been the
hallmark of Christianity and even included in the Puritan Confession
of Faith:
"Whosoever taketh an oath ought duly to consider the weightiness of so
solemn an act, and therein to avouch nothing but what he is fully
persuaded is the truth:[7] neither may any man bind himself by oath to
anything but what is good and just, and what he believeth so to be,
and what he is able and resolved to perform." [WCF 22:3, 7. Proof
Texts: Exod. 20:7; Lev. 19:12; Jer. 4:2; Hosea 10:4 8. Gen. 24:2-9;
Neh 5:12-13; Eccl. 5:2, 5 ]
Thus, many of the early State constitutions only allowed avowed
Protestants as civil officials. For only a Protestant could take an
oath upon the Bible in good conscience. (In contrast, Prager has no
problem commending Jews and others to take an oath upon the Bible. For
him, it is a sign of supporting the "value system of America"-that
Judeao-Christian values system. I find that rather strange to put it
mildly.)
In spite of that, I still find his position commendable. For the fact
of the matter is that America was mainly founded upon explicit
Christian values (and Calvinism in particular); and voting into office
men who publicly and avowedly uphold a foreign value-system (a world-
view) is to undermine the intellectual, historical, religious,
cultural, societal and political system of America. One element that
makes treason so serious for most countries in the world is its attack
upon the heart of the country's political & cultural system.
Each and every human political, cultural, societal-indeed, any human
endeavor-is built upon certain presuppositions. And the Triune God was
such a presupposition-an irreducibly complex & epistemologically
necessary Person & Truth without which this essay would be meaningless
gobbledygook.
More to the point: oaths require a higher authority to enforce them.
If there is no higher authority in modern America than the polled
masses or the leaders and judges-all fallible & sinful humans-then one
man's opinion is as valid as the next. Only those with the most power
will be able to enforce their oaths. The will-to-power becomes all. In
Ellison's case, that higher authority is allah; hence, his consistent
insistence upon vowing before the Koran. That book represents his
world-view (Weltanschauung). His set of presuppositions.
This is a watershed moment.
But in another sense, it is only a outward manifestation of a century-
long decline in America's original Christian worldview.
In other words, Prager is a day late and a dollar short.
With the liberalization of the mainline churches reaching a critical
point in the 1930s (in both the Presbyterian and Baptists churches),
the leavening dimension of the churches was severely hampered (the
parallel rise of fundamentalistic Dispensationalism did not help much
either). With the downplay of the centrality of the Bible as a God-
breathed document relevant for God's people and all their activities
in life, the church weakened collectively until outright denial of the
Bible and the Bible's God was the mainstay of many churches. In short,
any and all worldviews were becoming increasingly acceptable.
This decline erupted in the open wickedness of the 60s. And it is
mutating quickly. The fact that Americans voted for an avowed Muslim
simply demonstrates this devolution. It also contributes to the
problem as well. But historically, it is not the root cause of our
modern malaise. En masse denial of an absolute standard as found in
the Bible is the root cause of our difficulties. Prager is absolutely
right that "When all elected officials take their oaths of office with
their hands on the very same book, they all affirm that some unifying
value system underlies American civilization."
Unfortunately, there currently is no consistently widespread "unifying
value system." Christianity is the closest. Yet one man's Christianity
is another man's heresy. That word and idea are so diluted and
stretched to non-recognition that even the Clintons can lay claim to
the word.
Vowing upon the Bible will not remedy this spiritual problem.
Many of our leaders break these vows and do not hold to America's
traditional unifying values. In fact, church leaders break their vows.
And many do not hold to America's traditional unifying values. Those
values are not some vague Judeao-Christian ethic (ala Prager), but the
unique worldview Gospel of classical Protestantism. How many would
willingly submit to colonial Puritan doctrine? The only way America
can revert to the days of yore is through a Spirit-wrought revival
through churches with faithful Gospel preaching, for "it is the power
of God unto salvation."
We are in a cultural war. The homosexuals are enlarging their closets.
The atheists are pounding the war-drums. And the schools are
fulfilling their pagan mandates. Now the Muslims are infiltrating the
government (see White Horse Inn interview with Muslim lawyer expert
about the Muslim doctrine of lying). It appears that America is
surrounded by enemies within and without.
To such men as Prager, it may indeed seem that all is coming to an
end. But we Christians should know better. God's kingdom is not
America. It is greater than America. And the most visible form is
Christ's Bride, the Church. The gates of hell shall not stand against
her.
This culture war is only the outward manifestation of a spiritual war.
The wicked only hate "America" insofar as she reflects the Gospel.
Their real hatred is aimed at Christ. And the real battle is in the
hearts and minds of the churches throughout this land. And the weapon
that will win the day is the Sword of the Spirit, the church's
faithful proclamation of the Gospel to a dying world.
SDG