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Ideas have consequences, Richard Dawkins recently lamented. The well-known atheist, who has spent much of his life attempting to disprove God and discredit Christianity, has been having second thoughts. Not about his claims (though let’s pray that that is next) but about the effects of a declining Christian culture in the West. Dawkins—and society at large—is beginning to notice that when Christianity declines, the benefits it affords to society quickly diminish as well. And it’s not just shared enjoyments such as cathedrals and carols, but many of the core values woven into the fabric of society do not endure without Christ as the source and center of culture.
The irony is that those working hard to discredit Christianity do so from a place of derived benefit from Christianity. History reveals that generally wherever there have been faithful Christians, society experiences the overflow. Works of justice and mercy are prioritized; a shared understanding of right and wrong results in just legal structures; and values on life, work, and family become built-in features of Western culture.
One example is the impact of Christianity on the value of the individual, as each person is viewed as uniquely created in the image of God with a specific purpose. This led to the abolition of the slave trade, the construction of hospitals, and the prioritization of care for the most vulnerable. In my Midwest town, we enjoy Christian-run hospitals, nursing homes, community organizations, schools, and resident-care centers, along with a local coffee shop that exists to employ adults with disabilities.
Where there is love for God, the natural outflow is love for neighbor. Instead of seeing people as groups to be leveraged for power or business opportunities, a Christian lens on the world recognizes each person’s value and potential—potential to know and enjoy God, grow in gifting and ability, contribute to others, and live a meaningful life focused on family, vocation, and community. This has fundamentally shaped our culture and created nets of safety, beauty, and hope in a fallen world that otherwise defaults to narrow self-interest.
As the world shifts to a new set of non- values, what does it mean to live in a world that is decidedly less Christian? The answer is the same for us as it was for the many who have gone before us: run by faith, looking to Jesus. As culture becomes less coherent and more disheartening, hearts and minds that are fixed on Christ will be filled with purpose, peace, and perseverance. More than ever, we need to bring our children up by faith in the fear of the Lord. More than ever, our neighbors and society need us to live, speak, write, love, worship, parent, and work as “little Christs.”
Ideas have consequences that either destroy or bless. So let us fill our minds and hearts with Christ and go forward in His strength, bringing Christ to culture in thought, word, and deed.