The task for Christians in an age of disenlightenment

The U.S. Supreme Court's ground-breaking decision on June 24 to overturn Roe v. Wade, and to rule that there is no constitutional right to abortion, is not only tremendous news for the future prospects of the unborn in the U.S., but also an enormous source of encouragement for pro-lifers, not only in America, but across the world.

This victory for life is reminiscent of a major turning-point for the Allies during World War II. In November 1942, General Bernard Montgomery defeated the hitherto invincible Germans in the second battle of El Alamein in North Africa. Britain's wartime prime minister Winston Churchill observed after this victory: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court passed Roe v Wade in 1973, the lives of more than 60 million American unborn babies have been terminated. We should be grateful for the court's new ruling, but at the same time we must acknowledge that pro-lifers in American and elsewhere will need to fight — and win — many, many battles in order to establish an enduring culture of life. The defeat of Roe v. Wade is only "the end of the beginning".

Across much of the Western world, and especially in Australia, a preponderance of politicians and law-makers still seem hell-bent on enacting laws which threaten the unborn, the elderly and the terminally ill, and simultaneously curb religious conscience rights and free speech.

Sexual orientation and gender ideology (SOGI) has allowed state groomers to destroy childhood innocence. British commentator Peter Hitchens once famously said of modern sex education:
* "If a man in your street started trying to talk to your small children about their genitals, you'd call the police and he'd be in the segregation wing in prison and on the sex offenders' register before you could say 'paedophile'.

* "But if the Government say they want to talk dirty to primary school pupils and groom the young for sex, this is praised as enlightened social policy" (Mail on Sunday, UK, October 25, 2008).

Since Mr Hitchens wrote those words, the bizarre transgender cult has made vast inroads into the school syllabus and even many public libraries where "Drag Queen Story Time" for infants is now de rigueur.

Worse by far is the fact that many members of the medical profession have been more than willing to cater to the more extreme demands of the transgender lobby. The pubertyblocking medication, Leuprorelin (also known as Lupron), which so many paediatricians have been prepared to prescribe for gender-confused youngsters, is the same medication used to chemically castrate sex-offenders. And this is allowed to be used on children!

Christians in Australia can no longer rely on governments to do the right thing, since our major political parties have been more or less infected by our decaying culture.

Cultural Marxism and "woke" ideology have robbed the young of a proper preparation for adulthood. The social media and smart phones have shortened their attention spans. A biblically and historically illiterate generation is therefore destined within a couple of decades to inherit what's left of our country's precious heritage.

How best to describe the mad age in which we live? The late English philosopher, Sir Roger Scruton, coined the term "culture of repudiation". The late French-American historian Jacques Barzun called it the "age of disenlightenment".

We may no longer be able to look to our major political parties to represent our interests, but we must not succumb to despair. We must each of us turn again to God and seek His kingdom and His righteousness.

We must re-discover the time-honoured Christian vocation of educating society and set about establishing a Christian culture that celebrates truth, beauty and goodness. For too long we have been content to out-source the education of our children to government experts who seldom share, and are often hostile to, Christian values.

Christian parents, church leaders and other people of goodwill therefore should commit themselves to teaching the young generation what schools and universities are no longer prepared to teach — that is, Christian values, the history of freedom, and the price our forebears have paid in defending civilisation.

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