Although steadily declining, Americans are still about 70% Christian according to the Pew Research Center, but with Christianity under constant assault by the media and pop culture the worrisome decline will continue. Despite decades of bellowing about separation of church and state, political principles and religious convictions are inextricably intertwined.
The Church of Satan oddly enough provides the latest correlation between political views and religious values. This past year the California Church of Satan reports swelling membership; and they attribute their recent rise to Californians turning to Satanism to counter the era of Trump. If you are known by your enemies, this is good for the President, but this is not about Trump.
Before you get carried away with fright or frustration, the Church of Satan denies Satan. That’s right, these particular Satanists swear they are not devil worshippers. They insist they are atheists. They declare “there are no souls; and no one to buy them.” OK, but all the demonic rituals and satanic symbolism sure look like devil worship. So if they deny both God and Satan, why did they pick one?
There are assorted strains of Satanism, but never mind the nuances of the cults. Looking past the bizarre customs and kooky trappings, the alternative religions, atheists, and agnostics all have one thing in common: separation from God. Whether they believe in God or not, they want separation from God because they don’t like His laws. They simply want to make up their own rules.
Ironically, the Church of Satan captures the essence of this desire for separation, but also exposes its fatal flaw. According to them, “the universe is indifferent to us, so all morals and values are subjective human constructions.” First, an indifferent universe means everything is solely by chance, so things like just the right amount of oxygen in air and just the right distance from the sun are all pure coincidence. There is no plan and certainly no higher power. Ultimately, that really just means there is no purpose to life.
Denying God is the worst first step, but then turning over “morals and values” to man to subjectively construct is certain catastrophe. Does anyone think we can get global agreement on man-made morality? But the Church of Satan allows for this by saying “each individual is the center of his own subjective universe.”
Beyond the psychological gobbledygook, this is a recipe for carnal chaos. If we have no purpose, then what you do in this life really doesn’t matter. And we only have this life, so make it count. That philosophy logically falls into hedonism. Seize that earthly life and enjoy those earthly pleasures because when you die, it’s over for good.
Hopefully, Christians and any reasonable people can see should such philosophy prevail, we will find ourselves in some Mad Max dystopia cruel beyond our imaginations. And the point is not to specifically castigate the variety of sins these various groups want to absolve with their own rules, because we are all sinners. But rather expose any movement to separate from God will literally create a self-inflicted hell on earth.
You may hear it as humanism or political correctness, but rebellion against God is polluting our politics and pop culture. The pop culture caters to our selfish desires, but in politics it’s more subtle. Feminism chaffs at anything patriarchal, so a God the Father is unacceptable. Socialists covet all wealth as communal, so they reject any economic inequality even though they just bury their talents. Multiculturalists believe America is inherently racist, so they try to color white a colorless God as a premise to reject Him.
The Church of Satan may seem like the extreme, but all the counter-culture movements coalesce around the same goal: separation from God. They are anti-Christian which is ultimately anti-American. This nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles with the cardinal rule being our rights come from God. Remove God and America falls.
The anti-Christian movement often not obvious has been with us most of our history starting with the Unitarians. Our country has had its ups and downs, but America can only be great again if its people turn to God and Christianity prevails among its people.
“And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.” 1 Chronicles 21:13
