Privilege and Responsibility 5B

Watching the Sunset 

Abandoned to Self-destruction 

The Dream of Equality for all 

Thomas Sowell is a brilliant researcher in statistics and economics, and he has a strong character as he will not budge to the political pressures of a mob. With plenty of evidence, he demonstrates that many socialist and Social Justice claims manipulate the data in order to push for government intervention that often produces opposite effects than intended. 

For instance, the introduction of minimum wage to help (especially) the youth and uneducated workers seems to make sense, but it typically results in the loss of many jobs in the lower-wage sector. And so, there will be a higher demand on government support for the unemployed. 

In the first chapter of his book “Discrimination and Disparities”, he addresses the prevalent attitude to the “large disparities in the economic and other outcomes of individuals, groups, and nations … 

“Attempts to explain the causes of these disparities have produced a wide range of responses. At one end of the spectrum of explanations offered is the belief that those who have been less fortunate in their outcomes are genetically less capable. At the other end of the spectrum is the belief that those less fortunate are victims of other people who are more fortunate.” 1

Sowell argues that, to be most successful in Western economies, people need to meet five or more prerequisite conditions. Even if the possession of each of these is likely for a quarter of the population, the probability that somebody has all five prerequisites is only one out of a thousand. To complicate matters, the specific prerequisites are not always the same for all times and places. Sowell then describes a number of factors that obviously create variation in opportunities for success. Here are just some of them: 

• People groups in river valleys subject to annual floodings seem to have had a natural privilege for the development of agriculture, the rise of non-productive sectors in the economy, and the birth of civilizations. 

• The probability of academic success in first-born children is much higher than for their younger siblings. This typically translates into their probability of higher income in later life. 2

• People from different social backgrounds may have different goals and priorities. 3 The movie Good Will Hunting 4 gives a clear example of this factor. Not everybody has the drive to do their best academically or sees wealth as their greatest desire. 

• People from different social backgrounds may have different opportunities. 

Sowell refers to the Protestant churches’ crusade promoting the idea that everyone should learn to read (so as to read the Bible personally), rather than have priests tell them what it says and means. 5 Until around 1800, when the U.S. Constitution banned laws that discriminated on the basis of religion, Jews were not admitted to most universities in Europe. 6 

Sowell concludes that 

“Neither in nature nor among human beings are either equal or randomly distributions automatic. On the contrary, grossly unequal distributions of outcomes are common, both in nature and among people, including in circumstances where neither genes nor discrimination are involved. What seems to be a more tenable conclusion is that, as economic historian David S. Landes put it, ‘The world has never been a level playing field.’ The idea that the world would be a level playing field, 7 if it were not for genes or discrimination, is a preconception in defiance of both logic and facts.” 

Even in utopia experiments, equality can only exist when it is enforced by an oppressive elite. Look at Animal Farm, where all animals were considered equal, while some had to be more equal than others. 

In the Social Justice camp, there are no efforts towards reconciliation through forgiveness and love, only the perpetuation of envy and hatred. The ultimate goal can only be: destruction of society by revolution. E.F. Schumacher, George Orwell, Thomas Sowell, David Horowitz, and many others realized that Marxism has a sweet coating of charisma for the oppressed, but inside it is full of bitterness and hatred for all, who seem to be -in any way- related to the oppressors. 

Black Lives Matter 

In the previous article, we introduced the Social Justice movement and its Critical Theory. In 2020, this movement’s focus on race used the death of George Floyd as catalyst for inciting even greater madness of the crowds. 

The death of George Floyd triggered 633 violent protests in 220 locations across the United States. These were not peaceful demonstrations, and most of them were very destructive. Yet, the BLM organizers never apologized or expressed regret about the violence and destructions. 8 So, even if it was not planned to be this way, they condoned and embraced it for their cause. When I posted some statistics on social media, showing that racism was not systemic in America, a friend urged me not to rely on statistics, but to listen to “the stories”. 

Well, we have stayed in Harlem, New York, and witnessed some urban life in communities of color. In the area we stayed, police sirens seemed to be going almost all the time. When we saw neighboring women stop a drunk, black driver, after he had had run into a parked car, they managed to get his keys and had him on the ground. Then they shouted, “Call the cops!” Apparently, they were not dead-scared of the police, but they saw them as their allies. 

So, when everyone seemed to be yelling, “Defund the Police”, I knew that most homicides in America are black young people killing black young people. And I grieved for their mothers, who so desperately needed the police to stop their sons from murdering each other. David Horowitz figures that Black Lives Matter, by its calling to “Defund Police” has caused the death of more blacks than all black deaths by American police in all history. 9 Everybody heard the crowds shout to “Defund Police”, but thankfully, ten months later this shouting stopped. People had come somewhat to their senses, and it was especially the Black people, who were critical about reducing the size or power of the police force. 

Voddie Baucham demonstrates the selectivity of BLM by comparing the death of Floyd with the death of Tony Timpa. 10 I have included his summary chart of information. Apparently, the story of Timpa was not the kind of story that Social Justice activists were interested in. Although that scenario appears much more brutal than the Floyd case, Tony Timpa was white and, therefore, there was minimal media attention and so, there were no mass protests in the States. 

All lives matter, but some lives seem to matter more than others in the Social Justice camp. The lives of unborn black babies, ironically, seem to matter least of all. Apparently, the abortion rate for black women is more than double that of other women. 11

The privilege of victimhood 

I remember a Jewish author arguing that it had been quite convenient that they had been seen as victims of the Holocaust. When society feels guilty about a group’s suffering in the past, this gives power to that group. In the Western mindset, oppression in the past gives (the potential for) privilege in the present.

Shelby Steele elaborates on this in his book White Guilt- How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. 12 

“White guilt leaves no room for moral choice. … It depends on their fear of stigmatization, their fear of being called a racist.” 13 “Black militancy came into existence solely to exploit white guilt as a pressure on white America to take more responsibility for black advancement. White guilt is black power.” 14

So, White people are forced to give privilege to Black people out of compassion, while Blacks are denied their true potential and personal responsibility. 

“The greatest black problem in America today is freedom. All underdeveloped, formerly oppressed groups first experience new freedom as a shock and a humiliation, because freedom shows them their underdevelopment and their inability to compete as equals. … Without oppression -and it must be acknowledged that blacks are no longer oppressed in America- the group itself becomes automatically responsible for its inferiority and non-competitiveness. … Almost always, oppressed groups enter freedom by denying that they are in fact free, this as a way of avoiding the daunting level of responsibility that freedom imposes.” 15

Steele experienced this when, in the eighties, there was a push in his English department to lower the standards to accommodate ‘ethnic literature’. And so, he notes “mediocrity was embraced as a means to social fairness.” To the surprise of his colleagues, Shelby protested the proposal. 16 They expected him to grant special privilege for authors of color, and could not see their own racism in doing so. 

Gordon Klein is a professor at UCLA. In 2020, he “was asked by a group of non-black students to grade their black classmates more leniently. They wanted him to give them a ‘no-harm’ final exam that will only benefit students’ grades if taken’, they wrote in an email.” Apparently, they argued that it had been a hard year for them because of all the protests surrounding the death of George Floyd. “In his reply to the email, Klein rejected the request for special accommodations for black students.” When some members of the UCLA community called his response ‘insensitive, dismissive, and woefully racist’, Klein was initially suspended, banned from campus, and others were hired to teach his classes. 17

So, conservatives have their stories, too. But, it is the mindset of the reader that counts. Once we are sold to the new illiberalism or to the extreme right, we easily get stuck into the rigid new hives of today. And then we refuse to listen to others and to understand. Political polarization is already a serious problem in the post-modern West. 18

Reclaiming Responsibility 

Now, race is not the only issue here. There are plenty of people of colored skin, some of whom I have quoted, who choose and learn to prosper in the modern world. And, among them we find people with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to become effective activists. The real agitators have been molded by Social Science departments in Western universities, and it should be clear that a fair bit of privilege is required to get admission and success in an academic environment. These then become the new oppressors within their own community. Some critics will argue that (although white people cannot become ‘black’), black people can adopt ‘whiteness’, by adopting white thinking and practices. In that capacity, they too, can become oppressors. 

Barack Obama, in his infamous Father’s Day Address in 2008, at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, said some things that would make him ‘white’ and ‘racist’ in the current times. 

Yes, we need more cops on the street. Yes, we need fewer guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Yes, we need more money for our schools, and more outstanding teachers in the classroom, and more after-school programs for our children. Yes, we need more jobs and more job training and more opportunity in our communities. But we also need families to raise our children. We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child — it’s the courage to raise one. 19

First, he called for more cops. Most people would now again agree with him; these things seem to change all the time. But then, he stresses responsibility and the importance of families with fathers. 

But if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that … too many fathers also are … missing — missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it. You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled — doubled — since we were children. We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it. 

Here, Obama had the guts to step out of the victim role that is imposed on people of color. He states the facts that lack of privilege for young adults in black communities is not (primarily) the result of slavery in the past. In fact, the situation was better for most blacks living a century ago than today because of the break-up of the black families. 

The Antithesis Exposed 

And what does BLM and Critical Race Theory say? Two-parent families should not be celebrated for the blessings they bestow on their children. Rather, they are another aspect of “Whiteness”, which must be abolished so that the successful children from such families no longer have the ‘white privilege’ which they now have! The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) in America stated in its website: 

Like White privilege, family privilege is an unacknowledged and unearned benefit instantiated in U.S. laws, policies, and practices and bestowed upon traditional or ‘standard’ nuclear families to the disadvantage of non-traditional configured family systems (e.g., sole-parent families, unmarried committed partners rearing children together, grandparents raising grandchildren). Family privilege is defined as the benefits, often invisible and unacknowledged, that one receives by belonging to family systems long upheld in society as superior to all others. It serves to advantage certain family forms over others and is typically bestowed upon White, traditional nuclear families. 20

It gets worse! 

“Rebecca Roache, senior lecturer in philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London writes, ‘The wish to be biologically related to one’s children, like the wish to associate only within one’s racial group, can have harmful effects.’ Similarly, Dr. Ezio Di Nucci of the University of Copenhagen writes, ‘A preference towards children one is biologically related to is morally illegitimate’ and that the tendency to prefer one’s own children is a ‘moral vice.’ He says this is so because ‘in the context of parental love, biological considerations are normatively irrelevant.’ Despite these declarations from academics in ivory towers, almost all parents from all across the globe display a ‘passionate determination…to protect and prefer their own children.’ Does this mean that all families of the earth are infected with a kind of ‘systemic familial racism?’ That seems to be the growing sentiment, though it is usually couched in less alarming language. But the almost universal preference for one’s own children is not a disease, a disorder, a symptom of inequality, or a sign of racism. Most people call it something else — love. And most people believe it is a good thing. In fact, the love of mothers and fathers has historically been the standard against which all other love is measured.” 21

In public education, there are many accommodations for students with learning difficulties, yet few challenging opportunities for especially gifted ones. Sowell writes, 

“our education system is too often … fiercely opposing differing levels and kinds of education for those individuals whose demonstrated capabilities exceed the demonstrated capabilities of others.” “(Many) educators oppose using the schools to facilitate the development of special individual abilities that can benefit society as a whole, because that can cause an expansion of educational disparities and the economic disparities that follow.”22

If the new social architects get their way, our children may yet experience some updated version of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four 23 or Lois Lowry’s The Giver. 24 In the latter book or its film version, we see the dream world of social architects, where there can no longer be music, color, or love. In the pursuit of equality and peace, the most beautiful gifts of God had to be cut from daily life. It’s been tried before, in Communist regimes. Remember the scene in the movie The Killing Fields, 25 where children learn to reject the nuclear family: ‘We now belong to Angka!’ 

Vishal Mangalwadi seems to be right that all the blessings of biblical teaching are or will be rapidly lost in the West. For it seems that the very things that God has given us as blessings are now put in a negative light, for ‘privilege’ is a bad word that must imply ‘oppression’. So, we are called to dismantle all these blessings and keep them from our children and our country so that “Social Justice” may be done. 

I must agree with Voddie Baucham that “the current concept of social justice is incompatible with biblical Christianity.”26  In fact, he argues that ‘whiteness’ is actually a cover for Christianity, as Social Justice seeks to destroy the church. Some have openly admitted that ‘Christianity is the most pernicious aspect of White privilege, as it has and still maintains ‘privilege’ and contributes to oppression.27   He quotes James Lindsay, who “often says jokingly, ‘If I was still an angry atheist and wanted to destroy the church … I’d make ‘em woke!’”28 Sadly, but not surprisingly, many (deconstructing) churches, denominations, seminaries, leading ministries, and ministers have fallen prey to this movement. The Book of Revelation, in chapter 17, portrays the great prostitute as an ally of the Beast. Since the heavenly woman in chapter 12 symbolizes the people of God, the Church, the prostitute seems to give a picture of the ‘fallen church’, where the Lampstand of Truth was removed and so she has fallen from all glory. 

Points to Ponder 

Murray writes, “It is a curiosity of the age that, after the situation (regarding discriminating against people of color) at least appears to be better than it ever was, it is represented as though it has never been worse. It is like Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s dictum regarding human rights: that claims of human rights violations happen in exactly inverse proportion to the numbers of human rights violations in a country. 29   

Voddie Baucham writes, “I don’t believe we -in America today- have a ‘racial injustice problem’. I believe there is racism. I believe there are racists. However, I reject the idea that America is ‘characterized by racism’, or that racism is an unavoidable byproduct of our national DNA. In fact, I believe America is one of the least racist countries in the world.”30   

As we noticed, Shelby Steele agreed when he wrote “it must be acknowledged that blacks are no longer oppressed in America”. 

Bad News for the Nations 

For those who are still familiar with the Bible, the whole scenario brings to mind Paul’s warning to the Christians in Rome. In the last part of the first chapter of Paul’s letter, he describes what happens when a nation continues to reject the revelation of God. In the words of The Message: 

God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So, nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. 24-25 So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes! 26-27 Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches. 28-32 Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best! 

Revival or Judgment 

Unless the West comes to its senses and returns to its Father, the Creator, history will accelerate to the Last Judgment. Who is responsible; who will cause this to happen? 

The deconstructing church will argue that only good things come from God; bad things come from Satan. But that is too simplistic in light of the biblical revelation. 

In the last Bible book, you see that Jesus is the one who breaks the seven seals so that God’s judgments can come over the earth and humankind. 31  People, who insist that God is always loving and kind -even to people who are destroying his Kingdom- must omit a lot of biblical revelation. 

When David -against God’s will- counted his fighting men, as described in 2 Samuel 24, it was because God was angry with Israel. Supposedly, they had sinned and had to be punished to keep them close to God. So, after the census was conducted, David could choose one of three punishments. He chose an epidemic, and 70,000 people died. When you read 1 Chronicles 21, however, you see that Satan rose up against Israel, supposedly, to wreak havoc. He was it, who incited David to sin, yet in the end David is the responsible man, who made the decision to count the men. 

This shows us that, even though Satan and people play their own roles with their own intentions, God remains in control. So, when bad things happen in history, God can use plagues and other troubles to safeguard his honor and preserve his Kingdom by warning humanity for their sinful acts. Yet, Satan may be involved just as much, as he seeks to rebel against God’s rule and to destroy his Kingdom. In the end, however, God will hold humankind responsible, and especially those who had come to know God’s Word without submitting to it. And there will come a time that God gives humankind over to its own evil desires, which results in some level of self-destruction. 

We may still see an Awakening, where many people recognize what the West is doing to itself, as it is ‘seeking to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs.’ We have seen a number of positive developments and hopeful signs. So, Vishal Mangalwadi prays for revival and Mary Eberstadt hopes people may come to recognize the destructive trends; she also recognizes the blessings in knowing God. Other authors I have quoted have also written their books as wake-up calls, so people may see the dangerous consequences of their godless, reckless experiments. 

For those, who know God and submit to his Word, the book of Revelation gives good hope that the Good God is in full control, and that the final outcome, through all the judgments, will be the restoration of God’s blessed rule. Yet, before we get there, there must be a time of tribulation. How that will happen is not yet sure, however, we may discern some credible scenarios: 

Cultural Marxism and Revolution 

Although many conservatives keep warning us for the growing sympathies with Communism and the loss of democracy, the media and some big businesses have promoted the movement, we have described in these last articles under Critical Theory, Social Justice, and BLM. So, unless America wakes up to the threat of losing our freedom, we may be heading for a Cultural-Economic Revolution that will effectively destroy many of God’s good gifts to us and perhaps, like the other Marxist revolutions, end up killing all people who get in the way. Sowell rightly states that “The violence unleashed against successful groups has often exceeded the violence unleashed against lagging groups disdained as “inferior”. 32

Green Gestapo: Nature worship replacing the Cultural Mandate 

If we observe the growing panic from those who seem to think global warming and pollution trends are destroying the planet, combined with the waning respect for and confidence in governments, even the perception of an urgent crisis can raise up some radical movement to defy governments (as they are deemed irresponsible), in order ‘to save the planet’. Some environmentalists like to see the earth as living organism. When a famine or pandemic hits, the earth is getting rid of humans as a dog shakes off its pesky fleas. This may set the scene for a future mad crowd killing those, who are seen as responsible for planetary destruction. 

DAWA: Jihad warriors and Islamic terror 

Some forty years ago, when I was taking a (teacher-training) course in cultural anthropology in Holland, I did my research project on Islam and Christianity. A number of other teacher-students were upset with my Evangelical Christian viewpoints. Just like any sincere orthodox Muslim, I was standing up for my convictions as truth, and therefore rejecting other worldviews as falsehoods. I was seen as narrow-minded and intolerant, as (apparently) I did not embrace Muslims and their religion. Privately, the professor confessed to me the irony that orthodox Muslims are at least as intolerant as evangelical Christians, while they must be tolerated more. (Of course, this usually means that Muslims must be tolerated unless they -too- are radical in (read: ‘show true commitment to) their faith. Apparently, forty years ago already there was the notion of Islamophobia with the practice of Christophobia. 

What most people in the West do not know, is that radical Islamization is getting stronger. 33 To combat the secularization of Muslims in the West, there is a renewed call for those who associate with Islam to influence secular society in the hopes of achieving Islamic dominance and power. Although real Christian faith can never be enforced, even by peer pressure in the church, Islam does not focus on loving God in thankfulness for his sacrifice, but in the (forced) submission to rules of behavior in the hopes of getting an eternal reward. Typically, when Islam gets to rule society, it will seek to kill those who want to escape Islamic law by converting to Christianity. It’s another way in which Western freedom can easily be lost.

The Kings from the East: New Big Bullies on the global scene 

The recent developments with Russia and China are quite concerning. Both regimes are theoretically Communist, but they are actually atheist dictatorship with little hesitations in using deceit and the murder of dissidents 34 if it helps to secure political control. The media are censored and there is much ‘patriotic propaganda’ to make the West look bad. Russia will never admit any wrongdoing and it is selling its gas supplies to Europe at rapid pace for economic gain, political power, and to finance of the world’s second biggest army. China has cherished a victim role from the past, and now it has effectively serviced the West as its industrial center, it is now preparing to take what they passionately believe should be theirs. As its military power grows, it will risk the role of bully. 

If, somehow, Russia and China can unite forces, even for a few years, they can certainly wreak havoc in the West. At the present, they have too much economic interest in political stability, but a number of different crises in the (near) future can easily tip he apple cart, heralding the much feared Third World War. 

It may not just be one of these threats that cause a global crisis, it may well be a combination of several factors. Many may prefer to ignore the signs of the times or dismiss them as surreal conspiracy theories. Others may build nuclear shelters and stockpile food or even weapons. But, those who trust in the One -who’s got the whole world in his hand- will not despair but be on guard, remaining faithful in their task as light and salt of the world.   

Christian Action Plan; Some Suggestions 

• In a secularizing society, it is the Church that is called to be salt and light. The salt prevents the corruption and decay of moral standards in our nations; the light reveals the source of all blessings and the way home. Charles Taylor calls upon the Church today to “Let God be God”, and even Tom Holland encourages the Church to remain different today. So, let us be obedient to God by not being conformed to the spirit of the world but being transformed in our minds by the Spirit of God. Preach the Full (Controversial) Truth; openly fight deconstruction in thinking and teaching. 

• We are bombarded by secular teachings and opinions in all we do. Constant immersion in godless thinking naturally leads to the erosion of biblical thinking in line with the apostolic teaching. To stand firm in the Last battle, we must urge all Christians to spend more time studying God’s Word and listening to orthodox teaching, like The Gospel Coalition than to secular news, opinions, and entertainment. 

• In our increasingly polarizing culture, where people are manipulated by ‘constructed truths’ and half-truths, we need to expose ourselves to news and opinions from different sources. Balance the mainstream media with at least some conservative input, maintaining a skeptical attitude to those who claim to have all the facts. Even Jonathan Haidt would encourage us to do so for the flourishing of our nations. 

• Educate the church about the signs of the times, avoiding cultic distractions. Without losing sight of the Lamb upon the Heavenly Throne, it is yet important to know what is going on so that we may stand strong and know how to show the relevance of the Gospel for a crazy world. 

• As most churches are dimming the Light and losing the salt, we need to pray for Revival in the Church through Reformation for Mobilizing God’s spiritual army; the world desperately needs to hear the Truth. 

• Consciously and conspicuously we must continue to treasure strong, loving families with promise-keeping fathers. We must soak up the apostolic teaching and learn to see the beauty of Christian marriage as God intended it; as image of the love-relationship and covenant between Christ and the Church, manifested in the sacrificial love of our Lord and our willing, loving submission to His (spiritual) leadership. 

• As godless pressures are put on the children and teenagers in ‘the school system’, and as families are systematically broken down, we must take ownership of our children’s teaching, perhaps through Christian co-ops, where local families together take charge of the education of their children. In such a system, rich and poor families will be able to assist each other in the biblical nurture of the next generations.

Footnotes:

1. Thomas Sowell, Discrimination and Disparities. (New York, 2019), p. 1. 

2. Sowell, Ibid. p. 7. 

3. Sowell, Ibid. p. 9. 

4. MIRAMAX, 1997. 

5. Sowell, Ibid. p. 10. 

6. Sowell, Ibid. p. 11. 

7. David S. Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. p. 6. as quoted by Sowell, Ibid. p. 18. 

8. Danielle D’Souza Gill, The Truth Behind Black Lives Matter, Epoch TV, October, 2021. https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-truth-behind-black-lives-matter_4065199.html 

9. David Horowitz I Can't Breathe: How a Racial Hoax Is Killing America. (Regnery Publishing, 2021); https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-truth-behind-black-lives-matter_4065199.html 

10. Voddie T. Baucham Jr., Fault Lines- The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe. (2021) p. 53-56 

11. https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2020/02/25/abortion-the-overlooked-tragedy-for-black-americans/ 

12. Shelby Steele, White Guilt- How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. (Harper Collins, 2006) 

13. Shelby Steele, Ibid. p. 27. 

14. Shelby Steele, Ibid. p. 59. 

15. Shelby Steele, Ibid. p. 67-68. 

16. Shelby Steele, Ibid. p. 155-159. 

17. Zachary Stieber, Professor Punished for Refusing to Give Black Students Easier Exam Sues UCLA. The Epoch Times. October 7-13, 2021. 

18. Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind- Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. (Random House, 2012) chapter 12. 

19. https://www.politico.com/story/2008/06/text-of-obamas-fatherhood-speech-011094 

20. https://thefederalist.com/2021/10/13/now-two-parent-families-are-racist-too/ 

21. Kimberly Ells, Family Love is the Foundation of Civilization. September, 2021. Mercatornet.com 

22. Thomas Sowell, Ibid. p. 191. 

23. George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four. (1949) 

24. Lois Lowrey, The Giver. (Ember, 2006) 

25. The Killing Fields. (Warner, 2001) 

26. Voddie T. Baucham Jr., Ibid. p. 5. 

27. Voddie T. Baucham Jr., Ibid. p. 207. 

28. Voddie T. Baucham Jr., Ibid. p. 205. 

29. Douglas Murray, Ibid. pp. 163, 232. 

30. Voddie T. Baucham Jr., Ibid. p. 201. 

31. Revelation 6. 

32. Thomas Sowell, Ibid. p. 199. 

33. Patrick Soqkhdeo, Dawa, the Islamic Strategy for Reshaping the Modern World. (Isaac Publishing, 2014) 

34. Heidi Blake, From Russia with Blood- The Kremlin’s ruthless assassination program and Vladimir Putin’s secret war on the West. (Mulholland Books, 2019)

Privilege and Responsibility 5A

 Watching the Sunset in the West

The New Racism 

Recap and Introduction 

We have looked at four men and their perspectives on culture, progress, and prosperity. Needham and Diamond were on a quest, triggered by their cross-cultural experiences. In a way, they were both surprised by European privileges in science, education, health and wealth. Needham found several of the prerequisites to scientific progress in the biblical perspective on history and authority, which began to dominate European culture through the Protestant Reformation. Diamond discovered that some people groups found privilege in the geography and resources of their geographic location. 

When St. Paul addressed the philosophers of Athens, he revealed to them that God created all the people groups, allocating to them their times and places. In that perspective, God Himself created an unequal distribution of potential prosperity. 

Holland and Mangalwadi were on their own journeys of discovery, when they were surprised by the powerful impact of the Bible on many areas of life. For Holland, this was a surprise, as he had bought into the secular mindset that Christianity was bad for human flourishing and that the real glory time for mundanity was to be found in the ancient empires of Persia, Greece, and Rome. For Mangalwadi, it was a surprise as he had first dismissed the possibility that simple country folk could be used by God to effectively communicate the Truth that wise men and professors could not find. 

Vishal Mangalwadi, however, does not take the privileges of prosperity for granted. Looking at the biblical pattern of history, he learns that the fear of (respect for) God brings wisdom, love for fellow humans, health and wealth. Yet, he also realizes that abandoning this way -by rejecting God’s self-revelation- must lead to great loss. From one perspective, this is God’s punishment, but at the same time the natural outcome of human foolishness must be the loss of the acquired blessings as cultures unwittingly are on their self-chosen paths to destruction and despair. Although India gleaned her greatest blessings through the coming of the Bible, Vishal now sees the opposite trend happening in India, Europe and the Americas today. Having witnessed the rising sun in the East, he now sees the sun setting on the West. 

What are the recent trends? 

1. Ethnocentrism vs. cultural relativism: deconstructing and reconstructing the hives 

When I was enrolled in my first sociology/anthropology course, I learned that Western culture used to have a strong tendency to ethnocentrism, where one’s own (sub)culture and its habits, traditions, and convictions were embraced as culturally and/or morally superior to those of other (sub)cultures. Yet, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels some three centuries ago already exposed the folly of ethno-eccentricities and prejudices. 1

When most people during the 20th Century abandoned this attitude (as increased travel and media exposure of other cultures started to break down the traditional barriers), people in (former) colonizing countries for instance, began to comprehend the negative impact of ‘foreign occupation’, and tolerance and understanding were seen as major factors in an effort to world peace. In my home country, prior to the late sixties, the population was effectively split up into ‘socio-cultural silos’ each of them with its own worldview, expressed and propagated through political parties, organizations, radio and TV programs, newspaper and magazines. These silos were identified by religious and/or political affiliations, like: Catholic, Protestant, Communist, and Democratic. Most of this social structure was deconstructed during the seventies. 

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt explains that people tend to be very selfish (like chimps); yet, they are also ‘hivish’ (like bees)2. As social beings, they do need support and positive reinforcement in their ideas and pursuits, and therefore they tend to look for movements, associations, or clubs of folk with similar values or aspirations. Why are people willing to spend much time and money to attend conferences if they could see the presentations online? The experience of being part of a crowd, with which we feel united in a big community, collectively singing, shouting, clapping, gives us ”a sense of pervasive well-being… a strange sense of personal enlargement; a sort of swelling out, becoming bigger than life, thanks to participation in collective ritual.”3  So, when the old religious and political hives were crumbling, the population began looking for new affiliation options, new hives, focusing -for instance- on humanistic and environmental goals. And, lately, under the direction of Social Science activists, personal identity has primarily zoomed in on gender, race, and the sense of oppression from privileged people. 

2. Secularization: God has been squeezed out of public life. 4  

In the post-Christian west, there has been a long yet persistent trend of secularization. This is not just a reluctance to converse about God, but a prevalent, presumed, yet imposed worldview that pretends we are better off without (a serious awareness of) God. This is a self-imposed and/or spiritually induced conviction in the masses, suggesting that there is no relevant reality beyond the (material) here-and-now of personal feelings and observations. 

If there is no spiritual reality, God, angels, or demons, then humanity cannot know or learn anything through divine or demonic revelation. Then, we can only gather knowledge from personal feelings or (other) observations (as well as by accepting secular presuppositions and their philosophical conventions).

This also implies that the Bible cannot be trusted as God’s own revelation by infallible inspiration, but it is at best the deposit of earlier generations in their quest to comprehend the world and themselves, as it was manifested in their times and places. 

More recently, post-modernity has made western culture dismissive and suspicious about any and all truth-claims. Since there cannot be reliable revelation or communication from beyond the here-and-now, every person or people group must create its own ‘truth’. 

Sigmund Freud argued that (since there are no gods) dreams cannot be or contain spiritual revelations; they must be expressions from the subconscious ‘self’. Nevertheless, the Bible warns us for deceiving spirits that tell us lies and try to use us for harm. It is those powers that Christians are to resist and fight, not enemies of flesh and blood. 5  In the last days, there will be a greater prevalence of lying spirits. 6

As cultures abandon all respect for God, they become most vulnerable to the lies, which are subconsciously whispered into minds that have been told that such things cannot happen. Since they have been taught there are no spirits, they let down their guards to deceiving spirits and so, they are their easy prey. So, if God’s enemy wants to create havoc in post-Christian societies, he only has to give confusing messages into receptive minds, which then will be accepted as basis for their personal identities (defining who they really are). And these illusions then will be forced upon the groups in which they try to function. Apparently, this has been happening in the Western world through the… 

3. Redefinition of the Self 

The deconstruction of the family and the redefinition of the self are closely linked to the sexual revolution. Mary Eberstadt has demonstrated how the sexual revolution has resulted in great loss in family and society, so that young people desperately seek new solidarity and connection in politicized groups. 

Charles Taylor, in Sources of the Self, 9 noted a shift from traditional identities to modern identities. In traditional societies, people derive their identities from their immediate communities. Who-you-are and how-you-see-yourself is then primarily the result of the family, group, and community where you were raised. In (post)modern societies, people refuse to derive their identities from others; they must explore and discover for themselves who they are and want to be. So, in Western cultures today the question “Who am I?” is first of all linked to one’s felt association with one of many gender options, although race or skin color seems to be competing for first place in the current confusion. 

4. Social Justice and Critical Race Theory 

When we looked at Jared Diamond’s presuppositions and conclusions, we noticed an interesting if not surprising change in the popular views about race and racism. The generation of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., sought fair treatment of colored people with the right to vote and equal access to all public institutions. He dreamed of a future where American citizens would not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character. The earlier bias among people of European descent had been that colored people were less capable for positions of learning, leadership, teaching, and governing. This was gradually displaced by a presupposition that all people groups have equal potential in excelling in such areas. And so, Jared Diamond recognizing the intellectual creativity of the Papua people, sought the cause of inequality in prosperity in an unequal distribution of privilege in geography and resources in the natural environment. 

Nevertheless, since the turn of the millennium, a whole new perspective has flooded into society from Neo-Marxist teachers in the Social Sciences. And, in that view, King’s dream is rejected, for today ‘skin color is everything’. 10 Prof. Robin DiAngelo explained that those, who see people as individuals rather than by their skin color are in fact ‘dangerous’.11  So, today, the only accepted cause for the unequal distribution of wealth is the true nature of ‘whiteness’, which is by definition oppressive and abusive of all others. This conviction is not derived scientifically, yet it is propagated by all (and only those) ‘stories’ that fit their faith commitment. In fact, using rational arguments, statistics, and the scientific method are all evidence of ‘whiteness’,12  and therefore they cannot lead us to the proper truth. 

From this perspective, therefore, “it is not o.k.” to focus on differences in nature- as Diamond did, for that would distract from the only “real” cause, which is the oppressive nature of Europeans. The fact that Diamond is white (and male) is then sufficient evidence for the Social Gestapo to see his evil intent in sustaining white supremacy. 

Today we are told that we must not be colorblind. Rather, we must forever emphasize the differences between the races, for that is the only way we will agree that one race (white) is inherently evil in its intent and pursuit. So, we are all called to fight racism (as in the oppression of whites) with racism (as in: negatively discriminating against one particular race). 

‘Whiteness Studies’ are now taught at all of the Ivy League universities in the US and other English-speaking countries. These are actually ‘Critical Theory’13  programs that presume a certain condition of racism that is connected to white supremacy. The aim is to make ‘whiteness’ the overarching problem in the world, thereby ‘problematizing’ hundreds of millions of people. 14

Os Guinness 15 and others have pointed out why freedom through the American Constitution has been so unique. It relies on, what he calls ‘the Golden Triangle’, where there remains a conviction that freedom requires virtue, which requires faith, which requires freedom, and so forth. In today’s pluralistic society we lost a common faith, so that we no longer agree on what constitutes ‘virtue’. Guinness argues that this must result in a loss of freedom. 

Stories 

The Lathe of Heaven is a sci-fi book by Ursula Le Guin. 16 In it, a young man has the gift of effective dreaming. When George Orr dreamt that his abusive aunt died in a car crash, he woke up in a new reality. There was all the evidence that this had happened years before, and everybody knew it. Only George realized that it had not been so, and since he had dreamt this new reality into being, he felt guilty of her death. When he visited a psychiatrist, Dr. Haber, he was placed under hypnosis, and told to dream the things that Haber thought should make a better world, first for himself and then for humanity and the planet. When he told George to will an end to racism, he woke up to the new reality, where all people had the same, gray skin color. When humans, like Dr. Haber would have the power of god, then by solving one problem, they would create others, even bigger ones. I guess, that even with the illusion of such power, we are quite capable to make a real mess of things. 

There is another, a different story; God’s story according to the Bible. God created a world of great diversity, also in human appearance and ability. People with greater God-given privilege, also have a greater responsibility towards God and fellow humans. Jesus has shown the way of humility and sacrificial love, and he is urging his followers -through the words of his apostle- to follow him also in this. 17 

St. Paul describes the church as a body, where the members make up a diversity of parts, which are called to function together in harmonious cooperation. 18 In a sense, the same is true for society: we can only prosper together if some are natural leaders, others willing followers; some innovators and others calling for cautious reflection. Jonathan Haidt, although he considers himself a liberal, argues that America needs to listen to and learn from conservatives for the prospering of society. Yet, unfortunately, the common faith and virtue is seriously lacking in an increasingly polarizing culture. In this beautiful variety, we are to treat each other with love and respect, helping each other to prosper, making sure that everyone has access to the basic requirements of food, water, and shelter. 

Nevertheless, the apostle Paul taught the Thessalonians that, “If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat.”19  When we read the Book of Job, we notice here, too, that Job makes distinction between the needy, who cried out for help and the useless rabble. 20 Both groups may be poor, but supposedly, when you help the first, they are thankful, while the second would demand more. The first respect and seek mercy, the second despise this and seek destruction. Even Jesus warned his disciples not to give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces. 21

Referring to data from Seattle, Sowell concludes: 

“Many of the beneficiaries of the welfare state have sought to fill the void (for people stripped of personal responsibility and purpose in their lives) with drugs, sex, violence and other self-indulgences, or joining in mob rampages over the grievance du jour. Far from an assurance of subsistence producing a relaxed sense of security and contentment, it seems instead to have produced a sense of inchoate grievance against a society that left them adrift, with no intrinsically meaningful role in life, while others have both meaningful achievements and visibly higher standards of living than whatever is given to them as basic necessities- and all this amid unceasing emphasis on invidious comparisons and on how wrong it is that some have so much more than others.” 

In the novel Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, 23 pastor Stephen Kumalo visits Johannesburg, where his son, Absalom, was sent to jail for the murder of a white man. He had been set up for a burglary by his cousin, the son of John Kumalo, a black anti-apartheid activist. Sadly, the murdered man had actually tried to help young black men to find a positive purpose in their lives. Pastor Stephen Kumalo is assisted by the young, charismatic priest, Theophilus Msimangu. After they talked to John, the activist, Msimangu muses, 

“I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men . . . desiring only the good of their country, come together to work for it. . . . I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find we are turned to hating.” “Msimangu doubts John’s convictions, and instead of calling him a champion of justice, Msimangu calls John an example of power’s corrupting influence. Msimangu warns that power can corrupt black people as much as it corrupts white people. It is exactly this corruption that keeps South Africa in its predicament, and in this passage Msimangu unveils his dream of a selfless Christian faith that will bind all people—black and white—together.”24

Return to the Light 

Prof. Jonathan Haidt has written a number of insightful books. Although he sees many problems in the recent trends in the West, he has faith that human reason and goodwill as well as evolutionary forces will help us overcome these problems. Nevertheless, reason and goodwill may be in short supply when we see ‘the madness of the masses’, whipped up by hatred and revenge, as all the ‘sins’ of the past in a certain area must be dredged up without limit. And so, white men everywhere are told to wear the dunce caps they are said to deserve for all the wrongdoings by people of the same race and gender. And, for those who trust in evolution to solve our problems, perhaps we should learn the lesson of the dinosaurs. 

The West has abandoned God, so now humanity must pull itself up by its own bootstraps, which is -of course- impossible to do. For a while, we may continue the good traditions, because we know they work well for the flourishing of society. However, when there is a big influx of people from other cultural backgrounds, 25 where corruption and deceit may be considered normal and necessary for personal wellbeing or in times of crisis, or when the good traditions appear too costly for personal survival, reality will hit home: We are not truly so dignified, as we used to believe. 

So, when a culture persists in abandoning respect for God and his self-revelation, it must gradually but certainly loose its humanness and dignity. Democracy and its freedoms, respect for human life, care for the elderly, handicapped, and mentally challenged people will ultimately fade. And, those who used to feel oppressed and were therefore drafted for the revolution, will not be the real winners. In the end, only the privileged instigators will prosper. Just look at the outcome of the French and Communist revolutions. Learn the lesson of the pigs in Animal Farm! 26

When we realize that God has put his stamp on us, we will be ashamed of our own sins. Then, when we accept this bad news, we may be prepared to consider the God-given rescue plan: Embrace His Grace, Follow Jesus and have all your moral debts forgiven and all guilt and shame removed. 

“Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8: 33-35a) 

When Msimangu is impressed by Rev. Kumalo’s servant heart, he says, “You are a good man!” But, shaking his head, Kumalo replies, “No, I am not good…, but God has put his hand on me.” He refers to God’s grace of forgiveness. God is not turning a blind eye to evil (which finds its root in the ultimate evil of not respecting God), for that would be a corruption of justice. No, he paid for our guilt through his own humiliation, torture, and death. And, we may all benefit from this Sacrifice by true faith in Jesus Christ. So, there are two levels of grace: God put the stamp of His identity on all of us and He put his hand of grace on those of us, who discern the Gospel for what it is: Good News for Humankind. 

When we embrace God’s sacrificial love in the atoning death of his son, we want to serve Him in loving thankfulness. That is the true good that is God’s gift for us: this is real privilege! When we accept it, we are empowered to love our neighbors, regardless of their skin color. 

For the Christian, this is a bizarre thing: When God calls his children (created in his image) to recognize their guilt in abusing Him in spite of all his good gifts, few will accept their guilt and feel the shame. Nevertheless, those who do this will receive full forgiveness and receive a new life. 

Yet, when the mob calls people to recognize their guilt for sins of oppression, committed in the past by those of similar privilege as theirs, most readily accept their guilt and express their shame. However, they are offered no forgiveness and no hope for a life, free of guilt. 

Pray that many may come to seek Christ, who is the Truth. For only He can set us free, and then we will be free, indeed (John 8:36).  

This chart came from a 1978 book, “White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-Racism Training” by Judy H. Katz, according to the museum. It lists about 50 attributes white people used to describe their culture. These attributes, it said, “have been normalized over time and are now considered standard practices in the United States. And since white people still hold most of the institutional power in America, we all have internalized some aspects of white culture, including people of color.” It incorporates many of the blessings that came from biblical teaching, including the independent spirit of American women, which was observed by De Tocqueville as a key factor for America’s success. Also, the family structure, which has been proven to be a major component in equipping children for successful adaptation to the modern world and its demands. Barack Obama, for instance, urged black families to build strong families again for the prosperity of their offspring. The scientific method was very important in the building of modern science, which also allowed civilizations to use machines for repetitive work, which used to be done by the oppressed people groups in pre-Christian cultures. Those, who want to fight ‘Whiteness’ argue that we must replace reason with intuition, science with art, and the worship of (the) one God with the worship of spirits and ancestors. Planning, saving, and self-discipline have proven to be a blessing for nations in all corners of the earth. Standards for language, conflict resolution, and common decency have allowed us to co-operate with those who are different from us.

 

Footnotes:

1. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, first published in London, 1726. 

2. Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind- Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. (Random House, 2012) chapter 10. 

3. McNeil, as quoted in Jonathan Haidt, Ibid. p.256. 

4. Charles Taylor, Our Secular Age. Colin Hansen, Ed., Our Secular Age: Ten years of Reading and Applying Charles Taylor. (2019, Montoya) 

5. Ephesians 6: 11, 12: … Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. 

6. 1 Kings 22:22; 2 Kings 19:7; Ezekiel 13:8; 2 Thessalonians 2; 1 Timothy 4:1-5; Revelation 16: 13, 14 

7. Romans 1: 24, 25. Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. 

8. Mary Eberstadt, Primal Screams – How the sexual revolution created Identity Politics. (Templeton Press, 2019). 

9. Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. ( Harvard University Press, 1989). 

10. Douglas Murray. The Madness of Crowds; Gender, Race, and Identity. (London, 2020) p. 121. 

11. Diana Soriano, White Privilege lecture tells students white people are “dangerous” if they don’t see race. The College Fix, 6 March, 2019., as quoted in Douglas Murray, Ibid., p. 173. 

12. These were listed on the “whiteness chart”, included at the end of this chapter, published by the Smithsonian African American Museum, but later removed after sharp criticism from American conservatives. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/african-american-museum-site-removes-whiteness-chart-after-criticism-from-trump-jr-and-conservative-media/2020/07/17/4ef6e6f2-c831-11ea-8ffe-372be8d82298_story.html 

13. Critical (Race) Theory is essentially a Marxist perspective in a new outfit. 

14. Douglas Murray, Ibid. pp. 123, 124. 

15. Os Guinness, A Free People’s Suicide- sustainable freedom and the American freedom. (InterVarsity Press, 2012) Ursula K. 

16. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven- a Novel. (Scribner; 2008) 

17. Philippians 2: 1-18. 

18. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 

19. 2 Thessalonians 3:10. 

20. Job 29: 12-17, 30:1-15. 

21. Matthew 7: 6. 

22. Thomas Sowell, Discrimination and Disparities. (New York, 2019), p. 184. 

23. Alan Paton. Cry, the Beloved Country. (Scribner, 2003) 

24. Sparknotes.com 

25. Thomas Sowell, Ibid. p. 80. 

26. George Orwell, Animal Farm. 1945

Privilege and Responsibility 4B

The mission of Mangalwadi 
part two 

Vishal Mangalwadi looks at Western culture from a distinct Christian perspective. He argues that peace, prosperity, safety, security, improved health and wealth have been blessings that originated where people and people groups respected biblical teaching. To a fairly large extent, secular historians, like Tom Holland can agree with this. 

Yet, it is also clear that since the Enlightenment respect for biblical teaching has greatly diminished. Not only has the secular West increasingly rebelled against everything linked to God, the Bible, and the Christian church, most churches seem to have adopted post-modern relativism to re-interpret the Bible to make it more attractive to the secular mindset. While they seek to be contemporary, many abandoned the counter-cultural dimension of the teaching of Jesus and his apostles. 

Morality and the Economy 

In the chapter on Morality, Vishal shares the story of a Sikh man, who sat next to him on a flight to the U.K. Although Vishal was tired, his neighbor loved to have a conversation with him. He thought it inconceivable that Vishal had chosen to live a simple life, helping the poor. So, he recommended that he start a business in Britain. Doing business there, he argued, was easy and profitable. Vishal noted that his neighbor’s English skills were quite poor, so he asked him why business was so easy for him. His neighbor replied, “Because everyone trusts you there.” 

Vishal did not really understand this, until a week or so later. While he was staying at a friend’s place in Holland, his friend suggested they walk to a nearby farm to pick up some milk. They entered the milk house, and his friend filled his jug from the milk cooler. He then took down a bowl of money from the window sill, put a banknote in it and retrieved his change. 

Vishal writes, “I couldn’t believe my eyes. ‘Man’, I said, ‘if you were an Indian, you would take the milk and the money!’” His friend laughed, but Vishal then understood what his fellow passenger had said. A few years later, he shared this story in Indonesia, and an Egyptian participant laughed loudly. When the others looked at him, he said, “We Egyptians are cleverer than these Indians. If no one was watching, we would take the milk, the money, and the cows.” So, actually, many immigrants to the West admit that they are greedy enough that -if they could get away with it- they would not hesitate to rob their neighbors. Fortunately, many immigrants to post-Protestant countries adjust their behavior as they see that it can be more profitable to do so. On the other hand, corruption and deceit can become contagious, so that the whole culture become less orderly and safe, and this can lead to evidence-based discrimination and animosity. We have seen this in Hong Kong, as its borders to mainland China were opened up. 

Why was there more trust in the UK and Holland than in India and Egypt? Both countries have their roots in biblical teaching. People lived ‘coram deo’: They were aware of the presence of God Almighty, who had commanded them not to steal or give false testimony. And, although most citizens in these countries no longer share that awareness, they have learned that it is profitable for all to be trustworthy in doing business. 

If the farmer could not trust his townsfolk, he would either lock the door or hire a guard. If nobody could be trusted, he might put water in the milk (as was common in Vishal’s village in India). If there were many complaints about the quality of the milk, government testing might be required. And through all these safeguards, the price of milk would have to go up to cover all the extra expenses. 

‘Transparency International’ publishes an annual list of countries with their Corruption Perception Index. Corruption is known to be a major roadblock to development. It is the number one factor why Rwanda is prospering today, while its neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo, with greater wealth in resources, is still one of the poorest countries. And, as Mangalwadi points out, the least corrupt countries are almost all countries with Protestant Reformed roots. A few countries are exceptions, but in these countries, corruption is kept low through strict government measures and severe penalties. Mangalwadi suggests that only through the Bible can there be freedom together with a low corruption. 

What is Science? 

The word ‘science’ refers to knowledge. In post-modern culture objective truth does not exist; in critical theory it must refer to a ‘construction’ that is used by a people group to gain dominion over others. Vishal’s professors all agreed that truth could not be known without revelation, while in western modernity and secular science revelation was rejected as source of information. Natural science or modern science has relied on ‘the scientific method’, which poses a theory, which must be tested by many repeated experiments in order to validate it. Theories are thus to be challenged and tested, and only if the consistent experimental results back them up can they be used to develop further theories, otherwise they must be modified or rejected. Therefore, the scientific method relies on careful observations, precise logical argumentation, and quantitative predictions that are empirically verifiable, or falsifiable. It relies on a scientific community that cooperates in evaluating the process. Ideally, this process is objective, yet scientists always have a bias, perhaps from a culture or worldview that encourages or discourages them to consider certain hypotheses and motivates or discourages them to cling to a yet-unproven theory or to discard it prematurely. 

Dominion over Nature 

Mangalwadi argues that “the West’s passion for science began when the Bible inspired Christians to devote their lives in recovering the forgotten God-given mandate for humans to have dominion over nature.1 “The first historian of the Royal Society of Science, Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), explained that the society’s objective was to enable humankind to establish “Dominion over Things.”2  Scientific progress in western and developing nations is mostly used to improve human welfare, including improved health and happiness, increased access to labor saving devices to improve quality of life, and improved living environments. 

When our hearts are open to the Bible as God’s self-revelation, we see that God called his creation good. God so loved his creation that he even sacrificed his Son in order to save it from self-destruction. The ultimate dominion lies not with humankind, but with God himself. Humans, as his children, are given the office of regents, as stewards over God’s creation. And, as God revealed himself even more clearly in his Son -Jesus-, we see him as ‘Servant-King’. Having dominion in the biblical context therefore is not self-seeking or abusive, but ruling through the love of self-sacrificial service. 

For those who worship the creation or created things as ‘god’, the dominion of God through his children is an appalling notion. And, often they will see human destruction of creation or the oppression of other people groups as a direct consequence of biblical teaching, such as the Cultural Mandate in Genesis 1: 27-29. Yet, starting with Genesis 3, the Bible shows us that humans have been deceived to see God’s dominion as restrictive to their own freedom, prospering, and happiness. And, the consequence of their rebellion against God’s dominion has been the abuse of their exalted status and in their exercise of dominion among fellow humans and towards the rest of God’s creation. 

Mangalwadi writes, “A culture may have capable individuals, but they don’t look for “laws of nature” if they believe nature is enchanted and ruled by millions of little deities, like a rain god, a river goddess, or a rat deva.” “Why didn’t Indian mathematics become the language of science? Consider growing up in a culture that believed that the world you see and touch is unreal – maya, an illusion, a dream. Would you devote your life to study that unreal world? Wouldn’t you seek to escape the world? To meditate inwardly – ‘go within’ your consciousness- to try and find “reality” there?” 

This brings Mangalwadi to Joseph Needham. He writes, “He concluded that there were no good geographical, racial, political, or economic reasons that explained the Chinese failure to develop science. The Chinese did not develop science because ‘the conception of a divine celestial law-giver imposing ordinances on non-human nature never developed in China’.”3 

He concludes his chapter on Science with this paragraph: “The Protestant Reformation awakened popular interest in discovering and knowing truth, and that boosted science. The Reformers took Christ’s exhortation seriously that knowledge of truth would liberate. Luther emphasized the biblical idea of the priesthood of all believers. Consequently, all human beings should do everything for the glory of god. Since everything exists for the glory of God, and the heavens declare his glory, it is good for God’s people to study all things under heaven and even the heavens. Thus, almost all the pioneers of science were Christians and a majority of them were devout Christians. They were laboring for the glory of God.”4

Technology Serves the People 

Whereas science focuses on knowledge and understanding of creation, technology focuses on application for daily life. And, technology can exist to benefit institutions and rulers or to assist in the chores of common people. Throughout history, the greatest achievements in magnificent building projects could only be accomplished at the cost of many human lives. Greco-Roman rulers and Chinese emperors as well as communist leaders could boast in such sacrifice, but from a biblical perspective, where each human being is valuable as child of God, this gives a different perspective. 

It has been estimated that about a million people died building the Great Wall in China. When Canada built its first railway across the mountains of British Columbia, it was cheaper to get workers from southern China. They often had to do the most dangerous blasting jobs, and -although one record states that 600 of them died- today there is evidence that thousands died in the construction of this line. 

How many slaves did it take to build the great Egyptian pyramids, how many perished in the building of the Taj Mahal? How many prisoners-of-war died in the construction of the Bangkok-Rangoon Railway, and what is left of it today? 

The first steam engine was made by Hero of Alexandria in the first century. Yet, its usefulness was not recognized. There were plenty of slaves and women to do manual labor, so it was not considered useful to invest time and money in improving such technologies. After the abolition of slavery, however, technology was implemented to take over much of their former work. 

Mangalwadi writes, “Neither Africa nor India lacks ingenious minds (and yet, their women need to haul all the water for their families on their heads). The Egyptians living along the Nile built the pyramids while barbarians inhabited Western Europe. The problem was that the engineers who made the pyramids to honor the bones of kings and queens did not bother making wheelbarrows for their slaves. Some husbands who care for their wives do, in fact, make wheelbarrows in Uganda. It takes only a few sticks and a wheel. (Yet, necessity is not the mother of invention when there is little respect for fellow humans.) “What if a wife cannot bring enough water? In that case most cultures took simpler routes than inventing technology. Men forced their children to work, took additional wives, or bought slaves. The Hindus persuaded a caste that God created them to be water haulers. Their “salvation” lay in fulfilling their dharma- doing their caste duty generation after generation.” 5

E.F. Schumacher (1911-1977) pioneered the idea that not all technology is a blessing to human prospering or evidence of wise stewardship over God’s provisions in creation. In 1995, his 1973 book Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered was ranked by The Times Literary Supplement as one of the 100 most influential books published since World War II. 6   The reason that Western culture took notice of Schumacher’s teaching was the energy crisis of the time; for twenty years he had been the chief economic advisor to the British National Coal Board. 

He loved to develop ‘intermediate’ technology for the Third World countries to ensure a higher standard of living without replacing human labor and income by total mechanization. Although he has been seen as a hero for the New Age movement, Fritz Schumacher did not see the then-called Aquarius movement as practically beneficial in solving the concerns for people and the planet. Having been raised in a nominal Christian home, as a student he rejected Western culture as he saw that it was built on greed, and so he turned to Communism. Years later, however, he realized that this movement was built on hatred, and he turned to Buddhism. In his later life, he returned to the Church as he discovered the blessings of the Bible.7

Vishal Mangalwadi has given us a huge resource of information on ‘the blessings of the Bible’. He reminds us that the blessings that God promised to pour out on all nations through the Seed of Abraham go beyond salvation through Christ for those who follow him in true faith. 

The West has turned away from God, his Son, and his Word. Jordan Peterson believes that the Bible has a valuable and important lesson for us today. Although he is hesitant to see God as a personal Being, the supreme ruler of his created universe, he warns us about “the universal moral principle” the Bible presents to us; if we continue to reject it, there will be dire consequences. Vishal Mangalwadi shows us how the West is on her way to return to her pagan roots, thereby self-destructing and losing huge blessings, which she has taken for granted. Apparently, she is the process of ‘killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.’ Like the biblical prophets, however, he is not only preaching doom and gloom, as he keeps pointing to an alternative. 

“The sun will set on the West” unless there is a revival. This revival is possible and desirable, but to experience it, we need to get back to the Bible with humility. We need to try to understand it as more than a worldview. Instead, we need to read it in order to find grace so that the truth becomes real to us. We need to make this faith personal, internal and find salvation, the Holy Spirit, sanctification and transformation so that we can live by biblical spirituality. 

When our lives are ruled by the spirit of God, it will ultimately lead to a revival. We can move from darkness to light – but the light has to be in our hearts so when there is darkness we can let the light come in.”8

Footnotes:

1. God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.” (Genesis1:27-29) 

2. Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book that Made Your World. page 221. 

3. Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, vol. 2 (Cambridge University Press, 1967), p. 12, as quoted in: Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book that Made Your World. p. 226. 

4. Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book that Made Your World. p. 245, referring to John 8:32, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 Corinthians 10:31, Revelation 4:11, and Psalm 19: 1. 

5. Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book that Made Your World. p. 94. 

6. The Times Literary Supplement, 6 October 1995, p. 39; Wikipedia on E.F. Schumacher. 

7. Barbara Wood, E.F. Schumacher- his life and thought. Harper & Row, 1984. https://centerforneweconomics.org/publications/e-f-schumacher-his-life-and-thought/ 

8. https://www.schumancentre.eu/2019/01/239/

Privilege and Responsibility 4A

 The Mission of Mangalwadi

part one 

In this series of articles, we have first looked at Joseph Needham’s quest. Starting from the history of science and technology in China, we discovered several key factors that contributed to the scientific revolution in Western Europe. Then, we followed Jared Diamond’s explorations in historical geography to find some of the unequal distribution in global resources that contributed to the fact that ‘white man got most of the cargo.’ In the third article we learned from historian Tom Holland, who discovered that our (especially western) way of looking at the world and its people has been (and still is) greatly shaped by the teaching of Jesus and his apostles. 

Tom Holland was not the first to discover this. Twenty years ago, for instance, sociology professor Alvin J. Schmidt published his “How Christianity Changed the World.” 1  Dr. Moberg writes about this (printed on the back cover), “If Jesus had never lived, the world would be a very different place. Whatever beliefs you hold about him, there is no denying his impact. But how far and deep his influence actually extends may surprise you. Setting Christianity in the context of history and culture, (this book) reveals the full, radiant nature of the Christian faith as a shaping force. (By reading it,) you’ll learn how it has knit the moral fabric and inspired the highest achievements of Western civilization with untold benefits to the entire world.” 

Fourteen years ago, Dinesh D’Souza published “What’s so Great about Christianity”,2  in which he not only explains the blessings from Christianity but also exposes the distortions and contradictions of popular atheism. 

Ten years ago, Indian philosopher Vishal Mangalwadi published his “The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization.”3  In it, he ‘reveals the personal motivation that fueled his own study of the Bible and (then) systematically illustrates how its precepts became the framework for societal structure throughout the last millennium. From politics and science, to academia and technology, the Bible’s sacred copy became the key that unlocked the western mind. Through Mangalwadi’s wide-ranging and fascinating investigation, you’ll discover: 

• What triggered the West’s passion for scientific, medical, and technological advancement 

• How the biblical notion of human dignity informs the West’s social structure… 

• How the Bible created a fertile ground for women to find social and economic empowerment 

• How the Bible has uniquely equipped the West to cultivate compassion, human rights, prosperity and strong families 

• The role of the Bible in the transformation of education 

• How the modern literary notion of a hero has been shaped by the Bible’s archetypal protagonist 

Journey with Mangalwadi as he examines the origins of a civilization’s greatness and the misguided beliefs that threaten to unravel its progress…” After looking at Vishal’s spiritual journey and his discovery how his country was blessed by the Bible and its teaching, I want to focus on three specific areas of blessing: 

• women and family, 

• morality and economy, and 

• science and technology. 

Vishal’s spiritual pilgrimage 4

Vishal confesses that, at a young age, he had started a life of stealing and lying. The lying was, of course, necessary to create excuses when people would suspect or accuse him of stealing. At first, he was surprised that his father did not appreciate his ‘vivid imagination’ when confronted with an apparent case of stealing. 

Yet, although the regular occasions of theft and deceit did not yet bother Vishal, it was his obvious lack of willpower and self-control for his own words and actions that began to greatly bother him. Although he would often come up with new resolutions to live in peace with friends and family by respecting what was theirs and proving to be reliable in what he said, he loathed his obvious failure in his efforts at self-reform.

Realizing and accepting this ‘bad news’, he was made ready to recognized the “Good News” of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. This realization empowered him to revisit his victims, offer restitution and ask for their forgiveness. “Jesus became the most precious person in my life.” 

During his university years, however, his faith was challenged a number of times. One of these events was a university debate on “truth”. Is the human mind (through observation and rational processing) capable of knowing truth, or do we also need revelation from a spiritual source? 

It became clear that none of the professors believed that (only) reason could lead human beings to truth. Yet, in spite of this ignorance, they appeared quite knowledgeable, and this made Vishal wonder: If these ‘experts professed their ignorance of the truth, how could shepherds, fishermen, and tentmakers who wrote the Bible be so certain?’ On the other hand, if he would doubt the Bible, what was there left to build his life on? 

The humanist Descartes and the Buddha, like Vishal’s professors, maintained that the human mind is unable not discover ultimate truth. Yet, somehow, the professors seemed to be sure that their Creator was not capable of communicating with humankind, either by spoken or by written words. How could it be that they were able to communicate effectively, while their creator could not? Some of his friends argued that the Bible was written by common people, and therefore it could not be the Word of God. When Vishal tried to read the other scared Scriptures, he learned that the Hindu Vedas were ‘too difficult to understand’. They were never written to teach truth, but rather to be memorized and to be chanted in very particular ways. Also, the Qur’an was not available in the local languages, for it should be read in Arabic only. And, somehow, that was an obstacle too great for him. Mangalwadi writes, “I was fortunate that my parents, my eldest sister, and several friends encouraged me to read the Bible (again). Yet, deciding to examine the Bible required courage. I had to go against my university’s environment.” 

When Vishal was taking a psychology course, he was surprised to note that human beings were effectively reduced to “psycho-chemical machines determined by environment, chemistry, chance, and cultural conditioning.” So, when Vishal returned to studying the Bible, he could really relate to the Creation account’s description of human identity in relation to other creatures. It was this identity that must have enabled humankind to be creating creatures, to be observers and students of the created world, while they were also part of that same reality. 

Although Vishal found the early chapters of Genesis exciting, when he came to the recorded history of Israel’s kings, he began to lose interest. Just as he was contemplating closing the Bible, however, he realized a peculiar pattern. Since historical records are typically written for the nations’ rulers, they invariably portray these rulers as powerful, successful, and benevolent for their citizens. Yet, the Bible is very different, for it is quite critical about most of the kings’ accomplishments. When he considered the possibility that critical prophets or priests had written these accounts, he noted that even many of them were criticized in the Scriptures. This is when Vishal began to reconsider the option that it must have been God Himself, who, through inspired human authors, had compiled these books to bless the people created in his image. 

And it was then that he began to see that it was not Greek philosophers who had ‘invented’ science and democracy. Greek philosophers despised experimental science, as repetitive experiments were considered the inferior work of slaves. And, Greek ‘democracy’ (as Tom Holland discovered) was not a democracy as we know it. It gave only rights to one sector of the population; slaves, foreigners, and women had no share in it. So, he began to realize that many blessings, even for a country like India came from the teachings of the Word of God. 

Blessings from the Bible: In India 

Mangalwadi saw this especially exemplified in the life and work of William Carey. 5 This man of God went illegally as missionary to India, supported by a small but dedicated group of prayer warriors in England. And, although his zeal for God’s Kingdom remained his primary objective, he worked very hard in seeking the blessings for India and her people. Even as Christianity is suppressed in today’s India, Carey’s legacy is still greatly appreciated. Carey was a very committed and hard-working man whose contributions covered many areas of India’s culture. Here is an overview of some of his accomplishments: 6

• Carey pioneered the education of Indian natives, Christian ministers, and Indian women and girls; in 1818, the missionaries founded Serampore College. 

• These missionaries campaigned against caste, infanticide, and suttee (widow-burning). 

• He translated the scriptures and Indian literature, and published Bibles, grammars, and dictionaries in such Indian languages as Bengali, Sanskrit, Hindi, Oriya, Marathi, and Punjabi, all of which he had printed. 

• From 1801-1830, Carey was professor of Bengali, Sanskrit, and Marathi at Fort William College, Calcutta. Carey taught botany, zoology, geology, and geography at Serampore College, founded for the purpose of teaching Indian literature and western science. 

• He was an accomplished botanist and scientist. A lifelong collector of insects, birds, rocks, shells, fauna, and flora, Carey also wrote and published works on botany. 

• Carey established the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India in 1820 and India’s first periodical, The Friend of India. 

• Carey and his colleagues helped to originate Indian industrialization in the form of the paper mill at Serampore (producer of famous ant-resistant paper), steam engines, and the Serampore Mission Press, run by his colleague William Ward. 

As Mangalwadi points out, all of these initiatives were the direct result of the biblical worldview of Carey and his partners, and -although the British themselves brought at best a mixed blessing to the country- the impact of the biblical teaching served to be a great blessing to India and her people. 

Women and the Family 

Mangalwadi offers several stories about family life in India. I will summarize two of them that relate to this topic. 

First the story of Sheelah.7 In 1976, Vishal and his wife Ruth left urban India to live among the rural poor. Ruth decided she should visit every family in the village Gatheora. When she met a ten-year-old girl from a low-caste family, she asked her how many siblings she had. The girl hesitated in her response; actually, she had four siblings, but her eighteen-month-old sister was almost dead. When Ruth visited the family, she discovered that the little girl looked like a living skeleton. Her mother seemed rather callous about the situation. She claimed, the girl would not eat or drink, and she would throw up whatever was offered. Yet, she refused to bring her to the clinic, citing lack of money and time as reasons. Ruth thought it was a cruel thing to do, but the village people thought Ruth had some crazy notions. 

Ruth and Vishal saw every child as a precious gift of God, but the villagers saw children either as assets or liabilities, conveniences or burdens. And, since Sheelah happened to be a major liability, they did what they thought was best for her. In the Hindu worldview, there is the model of the goddess Kali, who -after she delivered her baby- proceeded to eat her newborn child. Also, in the Buddhist worldview, life is empty and individuality as well as the natural world are considered an illusion. 

Perhaps, post-Christian countries are shifting into a decreasing respect for human life. In Canada, for instance, there is no law to protect the children not yet born- regardless of their level of development. Even when unwanted babies survive, they are not to be saved from death.8  In a culture that has been deconstructing its Christian roots, we should not be surprised that human dignity is quickly fading and human rights are no longer as self-evident as they used to be. 

Second, the story of the ‘immoral’ Christians.9 The first project Vishal and Ruth started in Gatheora was the training of Village Health workers. As the villagers would not permit women to attend these classes, they started by training young men. After a few months of training, a mutual trust relationship developed, and at that the time trainees expressed their view on Christian living: “You Christians are very immoral.” When they were asked what they based this on, they explained, “You walk with your wives holding hands, while our wives walk at least three metres behind us.” “You take your sister-in-law to the market on your scooter, while our wives are much more modest- they cover their faces in front of all male relatives.”

Vishal did not know how to reply, but his older brother had lived their longer and knew the culture better. So, he replied: “What? It’s the opposite! You guys do not allow your wives to show their faces to your male relatives, because you do not trust them with your wives. And I allow my wife to go to the market with my brother, because I can trust both of them. We can treat our women as equals, because we have higher moral standards, while you imprison your wives in your kitchens and behind veils, because you are immoral men.” To Vishal’s great surprise, all of the trainees agreed with this assessment. This allowed him to understand the connections between morality with freedom, freedom with the status of women, and the status of women with the strength of a society. He writes, “I should have known better because our village was less than thirty kilometers from Khajuraho, where every imaginable sexual act had been carved in stone to adorn Hindu temples. My ancestors’ religion of ‘sacred sex’ had enslaved our women just as it did pre-Christian Greco-Roman civilization.” 

Mary Eberstadt 10 argues that the sexual revolution in the West has led to numerous destructive trends. Men assume they have no responsibility in sexual relations when this results in many single women to be “with child”. The increased availability of contraceptives, inadvertently led to an increase of abortions. Women were supposed to be liberated, but while most women reportedly still love to have a stable family with children, this has become much harder to achieve as most men have different desires. Furthermore, sexual harassment, predation, and assault have become much more rampant in the last half century, resulting in the massive exploitation of women. Which, again, seems to suggest that post-Christian society and culture must witness an increasing loss of many blessings of biblical teaching. 

Blessings from the Bible: In the Roman Empire 

The early church, while it was growing in the Roman Empire, stood out -among other things- for its strict norms on sexual activity. God’s revelation through ‘the Law and the Prophets’ had been quite specific on the concept of ‘immorality’,11 but as God’s self-revelation became greater through Jesus and his Spirit,12 it only got more restricted. By the mouth of Nathan, God had earlier said to David: ‘I have given you (your master’s) wives (into your arms)…, and if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.’ (On the other hand, the fact that he ‘stole’ the attractive wife from his faithful servant and the subsequent murder of this man to cover up his own shameful act was a very serious crime against God and his people.) Later, Jesus -the Son of David- insisted that God’s design and purpose had always been: the covenantal commitment between one man and a woman as husband and wife. (1 Cor. 7:2; Matthew 19: 3-6) In the Old Testament, conquered girls were seen as slaves (where forced servitude was the only alternative to death), and therefore they could be forced into marriage 13  (which is still the practice among some Middle-Eastern people groups), but in the early church having sex with slaves was considered ‘porneia’, or immorality. Indeed, it appears quite clear for those who are willing to see it, that in Paul’s time, all extramarital sex was considered ‘immorality’. 

Rodney Stark notes that “Amid contemporary denunciations of Christianity as patriarchal and sexist, it is easily forgotten that the early church was … especially attractive to women…” Although some classical writers claimed that women were easy prey for any “foreign superstition’, most recognized that Christianity was unusually appealing because within the Christian subculture women enjoyed far higher status than did women in the Greco-Roman world at large. In that culture, it was common to practice abortion and infanticide on girls, while Christian doctrines prohibited such practices. 

“In the Roman Empire”, Mangalwadi writes, “Religious and aristocratic promotion of extramarital sex had colossal consequences, for easy availability of sex without commitment took away men’s motivation to be married (and this was detrimental to the prospering of the Empire).” “(Nevertheless,) the Christian’s commitment to marriage (in obedience to biblical teaching), resulted in more secure women and a high fertility rate. Likewise, their opposition to infanticide and abortion resulted in a lower mortality rate. These two factors together caused the Christian population to grow faster than that of Rome’s pagans.” 

With reference to, for instance, Ephesians 5: 22-33, Tom Holland notes that “The Reformation … had served … to place (a great) premium on the sacral quality of marriage. As the church was to Christ, so a woman was to her husband. The man who treated his wife brutally, forcing himself on her, paying no attention to her pleasure, treating her as he (men) might a prostitute, dishonored God. Mutual respect was all. Sex between a married couple should be ‘an holy kind of rejoicing and solacing themselves’.19  Isn’t it interesting that the agnostic Holland sees the beauty of this, while so many deconstructing churches and Christians refuse to.   

Blessings of the Bible: In the Western World 

Four decades after the failed French Revolution, Alexis de Tocqueville, a French magistrate, came to America on an official visit. He used this occasion to make a personal investigation into the success of American democracy. He published his findings in a two-volume classic: Democracy in America. He concludes his findings with the conclusion that the chief cause of the extraordinary prosperity and growing power of the country was the superiority of their women. In Protestant circles, he noted that women were more independent, and especially in America, this independence led to a “heroic strength that showed itself in submission, sacrifice, and endurance”. Although the apostolic teaching on the women’s roles was often seen as oppressive, Tocqueville maintained that the derived “qualities became the source of women’s liberty and national strength.” 

Vishal Mangalwadi notices that America today is heading in the opposite direction. As it has abandoned their God and His Word, they are doomed to return to a culture without the blessings it has taken for granted. Only by returning to the Truth can they continue to prosper in God’s blessings. Only in this way, we can prevent “the sun to set on the West”.20

Footnotes:

1. Alvin J. Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World. (Zondervan, Grand Rapids: 2001, 2004) 

2. Dinesh D’Souza, What’s so Great about Christianity? (Tyndale House, 2008) 

3. Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book that Changed Your World - How the Bible created the soul of Western Civilization (Nashville, 2011)

4. Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book that Made Your World. Nashville, 2011.chapters 3 and 4.

5. Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi, The Legacy of William Carey: A Model for the Transformation of a Culture. Crossway Books, 1999 

6. The Legacy of William Carey. CAREY: The William Carey University Magazine. Spring 2011. www.wmcarey.edu 

7. Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book that Made Your World. page 60. 

8. https://thelifeinstitute.net/blog/2019/in-canada-babies-are-born-alive-and-die-after-abortions-150-in-2018 

9. Idem. page 276. 

10. for instance, in: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution, YouTube, October 3, 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vjxrCW5WjA&ab_channel=LoveandFidelityNetwork 

11. porneia 

12. through the Holy Spirit 

13. When such female slaves were later rejected as wives-with-status, they had to be given the status of free people. Deuteronomy 21:14. 

14. Kyle Harper (2012). “Porneia: The Making of a Christian Sexual Norm.” Journal of Biblical Literature 131/2, 363-383. 

15. Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity. Princeton, 1996. p. 95. 

16. Idem, quoting 3 sources. 

17. Mary Eberstadt recognizes that our culture is going the same way, today. 

18. Ironically, Paul’s message to the husband was most shocking in the Roman Empire. That women should submit to their husbands was nothing new, but that -in the Christian family- this was to be balanced with a Christ-like sacrificial love was unheard of. In today’s deconstructing church, the latter is not well understood, either. If the church would discipline Christian husbands, who do not show servant-leadership and are not willing to sacrifice their personal desires if and when this would disrespect or harm their wives, then the oppression or abuse of wives in church should be controlled. In such a godly relationship, wives would be safe and should not find it oppressive to voluntarily submit to and serve their loving husbands, like the apostles who introduced themselves as (voluntary) servants, yes slaves, of their Lord Jesus Christ. 

19. Tom Holland, Dominion, quoting William Perkins, 1609. p. 525.

20. https://www.revelationmovement.com/bio/vishal-mangalwadi-a-brief-biography/ Vishal Mangalwadi, Must the Sun set on the West?, a series of lectures, lectures, recorded at the University of Minnesota, available on dvd and on YouTube.