There is no question that America is religious. Even those who don’t attend church regularly often have some sort of connection to the church. Our church attendance is much higher than other parts of the Western world.
Yet when you look at large swaths of American culture, one might question whether we are religious at all. You can watch television for hours without any sense that God has anything to do with life at all.
Some of this is based on a secular view of culture. The secularist believes that religion should never touch the public square. Religion should be relegated to the private world of the individual.
We must admit that some of the reason for the rise of secularism is the sectarianism of so many religious people.
Religion can be a blessing, but religion can also be a curse. The pride of man easily turns faith in the absolute into a belief that our own finite, limited view of things is absolute. This can lead to conflict worse than any pride of power.
It is understandable that people are cautious about religion in the public sphere.
For many of us, the problem is not a lack of belief in the applicability of religion to all spheres of life. It’s a lack of effort. It’s a challenge to apply our faith to every sphere of life, and we just don’t want to take it up.
We also may simply not know how to do it. Lack of clarity on what it means to be a Christian artist or economist or husband can easily cause us to give up any attempt.
But the attempt needs to be made. It needs to be made with humility, patience, and wisdom, but it needs to be made.
Why? Because Christ is Lord of all of life. As Dutch theologian and Prime Minister Abraham Kuyper put it, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” Continue reading “Faith for All of Life”