by Bill Nugent
Article #121
The recent dust up over remarks made by General Boykin, a committed Christian, reveals much about the secular grasp for power in American society. General Boykin is in charge of hunting down Osama Bin Laden and other major enemies of the United States. A Los Angeles Times reporter wrote a highly critical piece about what General Boykin said while speaking from the pulpit in his own church.
Boykin’s remarks were exhibited as dangerous and anti-Islamic. The remarks that I have reviewed, however, appear to be simply bold affirmations of the Christian faith and also the pointing out of certain facts about Islam. It is not unfair to say or imply that Islam is a religion of the sword because the Koran itself commands Muslims to use lethal force against non-Muslims.
As for the bold and explicit statements of Christian faith made by General Boykin, these certainly would not hinder rapport with our Arab allies because Muslims hold a certain degree of respect for Christians as “people of the book.” Muslims often express a stronger disdain for secularists. The general was nevertheless pressured to apologize for some of his more pointed remarks.
The sensational way in which the major TV media picked up on the L.A. Times story and gave it prime time play seemed to reveal a secular philosophical bias and desire to push Christian belief to the margins. The media spokespeople seemed to imply that it was dangerous to have a strong Christian in a position of authority.
I would point out first, that America is a plural society and people of any or no religion are routinely trusted with authority. Secondly, Christianity has a strong and clear moral code which restrains any Christian from abusing his civil power.
Secularism by definition denies the existence of a transcendent lawgiver and hence has no moral code. In secularism there is no moral law above man’s law. Any morals or ethics that a secularist affirms are mere preferences. This is why the secular political ideology called communism killed more people in one century — the 20th century — than were killed in all wars throughout history.
Another political ideology of our “enlightened” 20th century was nazism. Nazi fascism was an occultic ideology with strong secular features. Hitler relied heavily on Darwinian evolution in his book Mein Kampf in formulating his theory of Aryan racial superiority.
Scottish anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith (1866-1955) in his book Evolution and Ethic has written “The German Fuehrer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consciously sought to make the practice of Germany conform to the theory of evolution.”
In my Defending the Faith articles I have frequently discussed the growing body of scientific evidence that disproves the theory of evolution and hence shows the lack of rational foundation for the secular worldview. We should also give attention to the fact that the bitter social fruit of evolution also reveals the danger of evolution based secularism.
I certainly don’t advocate that all secular people should be stripped of civil authority. I do extend the caution, however, that the pages of history are stained with bloody examples of leaders who have cast off all moral restraint. Since secularism has no concept of transcendent morality it is no surprise that the bloodiest of tyrants have been secularists. We would therefore do well to remind certain media people of this fact the next time they condescendingly attempt to belittle or marginalize a Christian in a place of civil authority.