Genuine Bible-based faith has long been under threat of marginalization or, in some instances, elimination. The main problem might be identified as the gradual secularization of society –the view that G-d is no longer required in the public square. Blame might also be directed at the creeping influence of other faiths, some religious, others not.
In Western culture, suggests David Bonagura Jr., a professor at St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York, various ideologies such as “Marxism, progressivism, multiculturalism and now wokeism” have emerged to compete with the traditional Judeo-Christian moral ethos of society. Once principles of morality have been removed from the public arena, then associated precepts of truth, justice, freedom, democracy — and the equality and dignity of all persons –become compromised and sidelined in favor of whatever is the fashionable wisdom-of-the-month.
Although Aristotle (384–322 BCE) and his circle of philosophers argued that one can have moral virtues without religion, the French author Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), believed the “safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law and the surest pledge of freedom.” De Tocqueville was referring here to principles derived from Judeo-Christianity; principles which constitute the basis of Western civilization. Moreover, the foundational documents of the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence firmly reflect such ethos.
In the present era, there seems to have been a turning away from traditional moral values based on religious tenets — a trend which may have led to rejecting established social norms. As Safra Catz, the CEO of US technology giant Oracle, remarked, the “Jewish people brought morality to the world thousands of years ago, and some people are still mad about it.” As a consequence of social secularization, religious moral standards are no longer deemed relevant in the post-modern setting.
Pope Francis, spiritual head of Roman Catholics globally, and Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England, for instance, have seemingly denied the “connection of Jewish people to their Holy Land” by apparently endorsing “replacement theology.” Many in the Church believe that they are the true inheritors of certain biblical promises made to the Jews. The Pope and Archbishop appear to deny the biblical covenant that the promised land was made exclusively with the Jewish nation, through their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The United Nation’s International Court of Justice recently ruled Israel’s presence, in the so-called “occupied Palestinian territories,” to be unlawful. In South Africa, Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein disagreed with the ruling: “Archbishop Welby should know that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel before anyone heard of Britain” he said. Goldstein added that the two gentlemen have “abandoned their most sacred duty to protect and defend the values of the Bible.” It might therefore be claimed the two Church leaders were apparently repeating a heresy prevalent among certain Christian denominations for centuries.
Read it all in the Gatestone Institute
