Don Wildmon
AFA/AFR founder
March 1998 – I don’t put a lot of stock in polls unless I know the questions and the methodology used in the polling. But a recent poll, if accurate, tells us a lot about our society.
The poll says that President Clinton’s popularity is the highest it has ever been. That despite all the recent allegations concerning the President. That despite the fact that the President admits that he lied to the American public concerning another affair – that one with Gennifer Flowers.
Somehow, and I hope I’m wrong, I’m inclined to believe the polls concerning the President. For two decades I have seen our society going toward a “personal morality” standard. That is, morality is whatever you define it to be. You make up your own morality based on whatever criteria you desire. And your morality is as good as anyone else’s.
“Do not be deceived,” Paul said. “God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
In his first campaign, one of President Clinton’s slogans was: “It is the economy, stupid.” One of the networks showed some reactions to the recent allegations concerning the President. “I don’t think it is such a big deal. I have a job. I’m paying less taxes. The economy is good. It’s about me! It’s about me! It’s about me!” one said.
Money has become our god. For the masses – the polls say the majority of the masses – personal morality is now based on each individual’s preference. And our society is showing moral meltdown. The President was right. It is, for most people, “the economy, stupid.” Not morals. Not integrity. Not truth. But “the economy, stupid.”
Homosexuality is now the latest “rights” effort. Violence is stalking our land. Promiscuity is considered to be the norm. Government has become our “savior.” Lying, even by the most powerful individual in the world, is now accepted and approved. Infanticide is a “right” and euthanasia is good.
Has the institutional church collectively failed to address this issue? Absolutely, without question. Are we paying the price of this failure? Absolutely. Collectively, will the institutional church correct its silence? I doubt it. It will be left to individual Christians and local churches.
Our society is the kind of environment into which Christianity was born. In the coming decades Christianity will increasingly come under persecution by the establishment. Count on it. The wheat and chaff are being separated. Our job as individual Christians for now and the immediate years before us is to be the wheat.
In our society, the day of being a “Sunday” Christian is fast coming to an end. The day of being a “cross carrying” Christian is quickly approaching. There has never been any such thing as “cheap grace.” Nor is there any “cheap grace” today. What is the good word in all of this? Well, Paul had it. He went on to say: “And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.” 
