CULTURE WARRIORS LOSE AGAIN

By Akin Ojumu

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, everywhere abortion rights have been put on the ballot, advocates for women’s rights to make decisions about their reproductive health have prevailed, emphatically.

Another election, another resounding victory for aborting rights lovers and marijuana puffers. In yesterday’s off-year elections held in Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia, anti-abortion candidates were once again made to eat dust. Voters in a ruby red state like Ohio not only voted overwhelmingly to enshrine the woman’s right to abortion in the state’s constitution they also voted “YES” to legalize recreational marijuana.

For many Christians, the failure of these ballot initiatives may come as a heartbreaking disappointment. To keen observers of these issues, these defeats come as no surprise. There are many reasons why the religious conservative people of Ohio would stand with an irreligious liberal woke mob on the fringes of the progressive movement to legalize abortion.

For one, many of the people on the forefront of the abortion battle are in the fight for the wrong motive. This is not really a fight of religious convictions or a battle for righteousness. To them, culture war is political war, and these cultural issues are political weapons wielded to pound political opponents in order to win elections. 

Fortunately, the preponderant of voters aren’t fooled; the people can see through the charade. That this is all about political power grab is obvious in the fact that the same rightwing culture warriors who want to force a woman to keep a pregnancy she doesn’t want are the very same people who want to defund and eliminate socio-welfare programs specifically designed to ensure the wellbeing and sustenance of the woman and her child.

If you are one of those who sincerely believe in this cultural cause and are genuinely concerned about the moral decadence in the society, you must be sincerely deluded to think you can go into a spiritual warfare with a carnal weapon. Christians who, in good faith, fight in culture wars are fighting a losing warfare.

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17).

Morality cannot be legislated. It’s a futile endeavor to attempt to change the sinful heart through the ballot box. Secular laws are incapable of keeping reprobate minds on the straight and narrow road that leads to eternal life. Only the Word of God is able to transform sinful human hearts.

“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” (2 Timothy 4:2).

Biblical morality can only grow and thrive in a heart nourished with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In order for righteousness to reign in our land, we must preach the undiluted and unadulterated Word of God.

Many Christians are quick to turn to political interventions to remedy societal moral malady. The reason they do so is because they no longer believe the Gospel alone is sufficient to transform sinful souls. Abandoning the Word of God, they put all their hope on the secular judicial system. They fight like hell to elect politicians who will enact legislations that criminalize immorality. In turn, the politicians appoint conservative judges and justices to the courts who will ratify the legislation.

Despite packing the lower courts with favorable judges, the society continues in its downward spiral towards moral degeneracy. Even though they have a supermajority in the Supreme Court, the country drifts further and further away from the righteousness of God.

If you think that the devastating defeat in yesterday’s elections will cause these people to rethink their failing strategy, think again. Instead, you should expect them to dig their heels in, committed to their carnal strategy in a spiritual warfare. As they reflect on their electoral loss, they’ll find a way to spin the defeat to make it look like a win. They’ll cunningly doctor the post-mortem of their shellacking to increase the flow of donations from their gullible supporters.

Because these culture wars are never about re-establishing God’s righteousness in the society, the culture warriors continue to deploy carnal weapons hoping for better fortune in the next election. Since this is really a political dogfight to win the next elections, the preaching of the Gospel will be left forsaken, and the Word of God totally abandoned.

“For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” (Romans 10:2).

When the Lord Jesus gave us the Great Commission, it was a command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. He didn’t commission us to go and enact secular laws to win converts into His kingdom. 

Therefore, a Christian who engages in culture wars is an uninformed zealous fighter in a lost cause. It is a pretty dangerous thing to fight with zeal without a solid foundation of true knowledge.