The New Evangelists

​In a free society there exists a perpetual battlefield of beliefs.  And as long as a society remains free, no belief system that ascends to a position of cultural predominance should presume its position is secure.  This is the dire miscalculation that Christians have made in America.
 
Whether it is a mistaken understanding of the separation of church and state, fear of appearing “uncool”, or simple laziness, Christians have spent the past few decades withdrawing from the field of cultural warfare.  They assumed the ground won by previous generations was so well-fortified that it could never be taken by an opposing faction.  Christian America was akin to Rome at the time of Christ.  An arrogant empire that had come to take belief in its ideals for granted and unable to recognize the seeds of its ultimate demise as they were being sown.
 
Christ trained his disciples in his revolutionary ideas and taught them to train other disciples.  He tasked his followers with one objective, what we know of as the Great Commission: spread his gospel to the ends of the earth.  It was the birth of Christian Evangelism.
 
Early Christians risked social isolation, imprisonment, torture, and death as they spread the message of Christ throughout the Roman Empire.  They were fearless and persistent.  Theirs was the work of generations.  As the years passed, Christianity went from the belief system of a persecuted minority living in the shadows to the official religion of the Roman Empire.
 
There are new evangelists at work in the American Empire.  Theirs is not the symbol of the cross.  They don the colors of the rainbow.  They preach a gospel of hyper-sexuality and gender confusion.
 
They are the disciples of college professors whose radical philosophies were either ignored or lampooned a generation ago.  Their radical beliefs took shape in the shadows of academia and on the fringes of society.  Their early preachers and practitioners endured various forms of public scorn and ostracization.  But they were fearless and persistent.
 
And now you see their evangelists everywhere.  They are in the classrooms in middle America teaching Christian children queer theory as they nurture a new belief system in direct conflict to that of the children’s parents.  They are in the executive suites and boardrooms of the nation’s most powerful businesses, shaping corporate policies to funnel resources to the promotion of their new gospel. They are in the writers’ rooms and network executive offices that churn out increasingly uniform and overt forms of entertainment that serve as devotionals to their new religion.  From the trendy micro-brewery in a sleepy suburb that hosts an all-ages drag show, to the NHL’s LGBTQ+ pride campaign, the new system of belief has become a ubiquitous force in our culture. 
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Two news stories within days of each illustrate the power of the new evangelists and the transition of belief in America.  The first is that of a man who was told by security at the Mall of America to remove a shirt bearing a Christian message or leave the mall.  He was told that he must do so because other shoppers were offended by his shirt.  The second story is that of professional hockey player Ivan Provorov who refused to wear a jersey celebrating LGBTQ+ pride because of his Christian beliefs.  Provorov was roundly denounced by many in the media for his decision.
 
The stories above illustrate what happens when a battle between beliefs goes uncontested.  The adherents to the old belief system become increasingly isolated and ostracized.  Unless Christians re-engage in the work of evangelism, America will continue its transition in belief systems.  The longer it takes Christians to return to the field of cultural battle, the more difficult it will be to regain the ground that has been lost.