1925 was a difficult year for Christianity.  Prohibition was going badly.  Al Capone had become the bad boy hero, ruthlessly providing liquor to speakeasies and clubs in violation of the law.  Enforcement was half-hearted, at best, and this reflected badly upon those who had promoted Prohibition and claimed it would bring tranquility and an end to suffering in our country.

But the real news of the summer was the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton , Tennessee .  A substitute science teacher, John Scopes, was on trial for teaching evolution, a crime in that state.  It became America ’s first media circus trial.  Clarence Darrow was the most famous attorney in America .  He had gained that status by getting an acquittal for two wealthy Chicago teenagers who had murdered a boy just for fun.

Darrow volunteered to defend Scopes, hoping to make a mockery of Christians, whom he considered narrow minded buffoons.  The prosecution was led by an even more famous personality, William Jennings Bryan.  Bryan had been the Democratic nominee for President three times (which means he holds the record for losing presidential elections).  Bryan was a committed Christian and was known for his oratorical skills.

Rounding out the main players was secular humanist newspaper mogul H.L. Menken.  Though he did not appear in the drama itself, Menken used his newspapers to ensure that Bryan and the Christians looked bad while Darrow and Scopes were portrayed as valiant and intelligent.

Most Americans know of the trial only from the play and movie Inherit the Wind.  The movie, even more than the contemporary news coverage, was a fictionalized parable of what really happened.  Even the title was taken from a biblical proverb that Clarence Darrow supposedly quoted.  All of it was fabricated.  Most Americans don’t even know that Scopes was actually convicted. 

One other very important movement was flourishing in 1925; it was called the Social Gospel.  Though it contained some very good motives to help the poor, they were wrapped in a flawed theology that taught universalism.  Universalism is the unbiblical teaching that everyone will go to heaven. 

True Christians reacted against the liberal theology of the Social Gospel.  The most notable defense was a book called The Fundamentals which laid out the fundamental beliefs of Christianity and sparked the modern Fundamentalist movement.

So 1925 was a difficult year for Christianity in America .  Unfortunately, most pastors and believers reacted to the public humiliation by retreating into the church buildings and criticizing the evil world outside.  It’s an understandable response. 

But we are still living with the repercussions of that response nearly a century later.  For most of the 20^th century, Christians no longer led the culture.  We had clearly been the moral and philosophical leaders in the 17^th and 18^th centuries in America .  But our retreat left the leadership roles vacant.  They were filled with a hodgepodge of philosophies and moral relativism.

Now, at the dawn of the 21^st century, Christians are emerging from the church buildings and attempting to reassert leadership in our culture.  While we were hiding, we lost our voice.  Education, the judicial system, much of the legislative system and even business were captured while we were gone.

When Christians began to re-surface in the 1980’s, the reaction from those in power was virulent.  But many of us have persevered and settled in for a long struggle.  It’s a struggle, once again, to inject a biblically based moral voice into the decision making processes of our nation.  Occasionally, we have a good year.

Suppose you had an idea that you thought was true. It was a revolutionary idea that would change the very fabric of societal beliefs and moral foundations.

You very much want this idea to be accepted by the general population because you desperately desire to see the changes in society that this idea will bring. You begin of course with a book. The book is a best seller. It’s more than a best seller; it is hailed around the world as the most important book written since the Bible.

Wow! Everyone is talking about your idea. Newspapers and magazines are buzzing with the possible implications to society if your idea is adopted. But now what? Even though your book is a best seller, it still has impacted only a small percentage of society. In order for your idea to have the desired effect, that is societal transformation, it has to be embraced by virtually everyone.

Then the ultimate strategy is hatched. It’s a strategy that cannot fail. Require every public school to teach your idea to every student. It can’t miss. How long will it take to indoctrinate enough people to reach the desired result? Perhaps a generation or two at the most will work. Certainly within 50 years every politician, judge, educator and even clergy will have been taught your idea.

Now fast forward 100 years. Four generations of school children have been taught your idea. Furthermore, opposing ideas have been banned from the public schools. Any teacher or student who even hints at an alternative theory is ridiculed and immediately silenced.

But wait. It hasn’t worked! How could it not work? You have forced every child in the western world to learn your idea. Every university teaches your idea and violently silences any opposition. But how is possible that most of the people still do not believe it?

This scenario is not a Grimm’s Fairy Tale or even a parable. It’s the true story of the Theory of Evolution. A USA Today/Gallup Pole last week found that 66% of Americans believe it is definitely or probably true that God created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years.

How can it be that 100 years of indoctrination at every level of our society have failed to convince most of the people that evolution is true?

Perhaps it is the complete absence of transitional fossils. In his blockbuster book The Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin admitted that evidence for evolutionary transition was totally lacking. But from his vantage point in 1865, he was confident that scientists would unearth such evidence in the future. But they haven’t.

Perhaps it’s the complexity of creation at every level. In order to believe in evolution, one must believe in a series of outlandish coincidences strung together.

Or perhaps recent scientific discoveries such as DNA, the building blocks of all life, have revealed complexities of existence that make a belief in blind chance a totally outlandish thought.

But ultimately the answer is faith and instinct. Man instinctively knows he is more than an animal. Man feels a sense of destiny and purpose. Man has an inner drive to change this world and make a difference. He instinctively knows that drive comes from being made in the image of God, not the image of Bonzo the chimp. That’s why the greatest indoctrination campaign in history will never succeed.

Christianity is rarely a simple, easy way of life. It really wasn’t designed to be easy but most of us long for it nonetheless.

Being a Christian in America in the 21st century is becoming increasingly complex. A hundred years ago, the primary battlefronts of faith were prohibition and poverty. Life was simpler, but that doesn’t mean it was easier.

Today our lives are physically easier due to modern technology, but the emotional and spiritual pressures have become much more pronounced.

The increased complexity of life has also caused many new battlegrounds that our grandparents would have never thought about. Just today I’ve read news articles about genetic engineering, casino gambling, intelligent design and international AIDS work. Christians today must speak intelligently into these, and many other challenging issues of modern life that were mostly unknown a century ago.

Meanwhile, the breakdown of the nuclear family has increased the demands upon individuals, churches, schools and government to step in and help remedy the growing myriad of social problems. Many Christians are now raising grandchildren because the
parents simply won’t do it. Churches and schools are scrambling to meet the needs of children who are growing up without parental love or guidance.

Add to that the daily barrage of messages from political groups, benevolent organizations, religious organizations, lobbying groups, citizen groups, and community activists. We sift through piles of junk mail, pornographic emails (unsolicited), telemarketing calls and cable news anchors yelling about Paris Hilton’s jail sentence.

In the midst of all of this, we are expected to be godly, calm, peaceful, wise and holy.
Consider this; we Christians cannot possibly know the answers to every complex issue. But we do know THE ANSWER to every complex issue. That answer is the same answer Christianity has been offering to the world for 2000 years. Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, came to the world with a message. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).”

Dig past the rhetoric of every complex political and social issue and you will find sin at its root. For example, the root of the debate over sex selective abortions is the pride and selfishness of prospective parents. The root of the debate over gay marriage is lust. The root of the problem of gambling is greed.

So no matter how complex our world becomes, the root cause will always be man’s sin nature and the answer to those problems will always be found in repentance and forgiveness.
One of my friends led a young man to receive Christ as his savior yesterday. This young man grew up in Oklahoma and is now on his way to boot camp in the military. My friend asked him to read a few chapters in the Bible and then told him how he could be forgiven of his sins and find fulfillment through faith in Christ. The young man had never heard this before. He was so excited he couldn’t wait to tell his family about what had just happened to him!

It is likely that the complexity of American life will continue to increase. But the simplicity of faith in Christ will remain.

Saying “I told you so,” is generally considered arrogant and self-indulgent in our society.  Therefore, most of us avoid using the phrase.  But, I told you so.

For three years I have been writing that attempts to establish a democracy in Iraq are futile.  We have now reached the place that even the most optimistic supporters of the idea are looking for ways to save face.

This is not a commentary on the war against terrorism or even the war in Iraq .  Failure to build a democratic government in Iraq is not due to our lack of military might or expertise.  This attempt has failed because President Bush did not understand Islam. 

From a distance Islam appears to have commonality with Christianity.   Both believe in a Supreme Being who created the world.  Both believe in rewards for the faithful and eternal punishment for the disobedient.  Christianity and Islam share the basic world view of a transcendent God who watches over His creation from heaven. 

All of this leads many to assume that Christian values and ideas can be found in Islam. 

But in reality, the basic tenets of Islam are diametrically opposed to Christianity.  Christianity is based upon a benevolent loving God who offers salvation to those who choose to believe in His Son Jesus Christ.  Islam is based upon an angry vengeful God who demands complete submission from the faithful and immediate death to the rebellious.

Christianity’s founding tenet is man made in the image of God with a free will to choose right and wrong.  Islam, on the other hand, teaches that everything that happens is the will of God.  It is extreme predestination.  Islamic theology has no place for a right of self-determination. 

Christianity teaches us to love our neighbor as our self.  Islam teaches that true Muslims are required to kill all who do not convert.

Westerners are searching frantically for a moderate version of Islam to politically embrace.  We want to get along with Muslims.  But since we do not understand Islam’s foundational teachings, we also fail to understand that a moderate version of Islam is an anomaly that true Muslims are duty bound to destroy.  That’s why our attempts to build such a government in Iran have been met with extreme violence.  What we are attempting to do is considered blasphemy by Muslims.

Modern democracy came into being in the crucible of protestant Christianity.  America ’s Founding Fathers understood that this form of government, granting personal freedom, could only work in a society where man’s sin nature and free will were understood and balanced.

President John Adams stated very clearly that, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”

When President Adams wrote “moral and religious” he was referring to Christianity.  Just any moral structure won’t work. 

So by expecting Muslims to adopt democracy, we are actually expecting them to adopt Christian values.  It will never work. 

This is not to say that our War on Terror will not succeed.  Nor is it meant as a criticism of our president whom I pray for and support.  But it is obviously time to re-evaluate the goals in Iraq .  I told you so.

Pastor Steven G. Dyer