With the election of Donald Trump last November, America is more polarized than at any time in our history since the Civil War. Of course the same would be true had Hillary Clinton won the election, except that we would not have witnessed such hysterical overreactions by media, academic and Hollywood elites nor all the ensuing street riots and civil disorder for the simple reason that only the left engages in such tactics. Also, conservatives don’t have radical multi-billionaire puppet-masters such as George Soros orchestrating chaos from behind the scenes. But otherwise, America would be just as divided as it currently is. As unsettling as it may be, the unfortunate but undeniable reality is that there are essentially two incompatible cultures currently cohabitating in America.

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The Protestant Reformation was one of the most significant events in Christian history as well as one of the great transitional eras in Western civilization. As the historian Rudolph Heinze has written, “The changes that occurred were so radical that a medieval Rip van Winkle who went to sleep in 1350 and woke up in 1650 would not recognize the world as the same one in which he was born.” Running concurrent with the Reformation was the emergence in Europe of powerful new nation-states along with radical new political ideas that emphasized civil liberties, religious tolerance, the separation of church and state, and the end to royal absolutism. This was also the “Age of Discovery” in which a whole new part of the world was opened up for exploration and colonization as well as the beginning of the “Scientific Revolution” that would forever alter the mindset of Western societies.

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Why Young Adults are Leaving the Church

In an article entitled “Why College Students Are Really Leaving the Church,” Klinton Silvey, a young Christian apologist and the founder of Life-in-Progress Ministries, makes several points that should be taken seriously. You’ve probably read articles on why most Millennials drop out of church after high school, and the reasons typically range from “They were never really saved in the first place” or “They don’t understand the importance of Christian fellowship: to “We need to make church more relevant or interesting for youth” (which often means, “We need to make church more exciting and fun”).

While there may be some truth in each of these reasons, they miss the two most formidable challenges facing young Christians today: the moral climate in our universities (and in our culture in general), and the intellectual challenges they will face after high school.

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Revisiting Mark Tooley’s insight into the decline of mainline American protestantism.
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Here’s the January edition of The Areopagus Update newsletter.

In this edition, Dr. Breshears introduces us to “Satan’s Bookshelf,” and then makes a few positive book and movie recommendations of his own.

Read the PDF of the full issue here