Don Wildmon

AFA/AFR founder

August 2001 – A dark cloud is descending upon our land. It is enveloping us in a darkness from which there is seemingly no escape. Instead of trusting the God who created us to determine what we should believe and how we should live, we look to ourselves. Morality is relative, or more precisely irrelevant. As a culture we have embraced the secular humanist definition that what is moral is whatever the individual decides. Each one is encouraged to establish his own personal morality which is seen as no better or worse than anyone else’s.

Look around. You can begin to see what a society without God looks like.

When and where this cloud began developing, it is difficult to say. But what has fed this cloud of darkness is beyond debate.

Let us go first to the most obvious, and probably the most effective source – the entertainment industry. In the 1960s, movies and television began a push to remove Christianity as a dominant influence. For several years this was accomplished by simply ignoring the dominant religion in our country. They simply removed Christianity from their productions. Looking at the entertainment media, one might come to the conclusion that Christianity does not exist.

That was followed by another move, making anti-Christian bigotry central to the medium. If Christians were shown, they were always stereotyped in a negative manner – liars, cheats, hypocrites, etc. In other words, Christians were the bad guys who could not be tolerated.

Of course, the news media joined in. Time was when happenings in Christendom were considered part of mainstream news. But then the news media began to join the entertainment establishment by pushing anything which related to Christianity to the back page, if it appeared at all. Now, if it gets coverage, it is once a week on Saturday, relegated to a page of its own. The message is, of course, that religious news isn’t news in the real sense and should be treated like religion – compartmentalized outside the norm. More and more, spirituality is replacing Christianity on the religion page. Why? Because, we are told, we are living in a pluralistic society. Kwanzaa has become nearly equal to Christmas and Easter in gaining news coverage. Can Ramadan be far away?

Of course, when Christianity went, Christian morality went with it. Abortion, the killing of unborn children, became not only a right, but also “right.” Marriage became a social convenience, the family with parental responsibilities a fading image. Children became the responsibility of the state. Indeed, it now takes a village – not parents – to raise a child. Drug use became rampant. Homosexuality has become the darling sexual preference of those in positions of influence, so much so that “Christian” leaders boldly promote the agenda. And they do so knowing that no one is going to hold them accountable. 

But God is real and His word is true. From the first chapter of Romans: “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” And also from the third chapter of John: “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” 

Another important message for the followers of Christ comes from Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia: “And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”