Christian Conformists

Marcia Segelstein, a former CBS producer, has an outstanding guest column at OneNewsNow.

In it, she points out that Christians must be rebels in our postmodern culture, if they are going to be true to their religion.

She illustrates the "going with the crowd" mentality held by most people these days, whether they call themselves Christians or not, through a book:

Peter Kreeft, in his book The Snakebite Letters: Devilishly Devious Secrets for Subverting Society As Taught In Tempter's Training School, includes the following advice from a senior demon to his apprentice regarding the person he's trying to ensnare: "Your patient, like most Americans, is a conformist (though he fancies himself a freethinker). He fears being different, eccentric, or (worst of all) 'a fanatic,' much more than he fears being wicked."

She also paints the picture of how things have changed in the last 50 years:

Imagine a mother living in the 1950s, busy raising her children, who suddenly finds herself transported to the year 2007. She picks up the woman's magazine on her kitchen table and blushes in embarrassment. The headline on the cover screams out "Seven Secrets to Great Sex." Next, in some confusion, she reads that the cover story is about how important it is for her to put herself above her children and her husband. Wondering if the world has gone made, she comes across a special section titled "Divorce: How To Share Your Children with Your Ex-Husband's New Wife." And finally she stares in disbelief at a headline that reads: "Abortion and Guilt: They Don't Have to Go Hand in Hand."

Contrary to what the "mainstream" media and other liberals would have you believe, it wasn't that long ago that we were a people who valued morality and integrity, and were a people that put the good of others (e.g. our children) above our personal goals for fulfillment.

Segelstein cites Ronald Reagan as one person who refused to accept the status quo. American presidents since the birth of the Soviet Union had lacked the will to stand up to this bunch of tyrannical thugs, but not Reagan. And in the course of two presidential terms, the Soviet Union had gone from the unassailable world boogeyman to a crumbling memorial to a bankrupt philosophy...crashing to dust just a couple of years after Reagan left office.

If just a few genuine Christians will refuse to accept the status quo, will stop fearing being called a "fanatic," our civilization can be saved.

Are you brave enough to reject the status quo, or are you a conformist?