Three Cultural Shifts Every Christian in America Needs to Watch – Part 1

In addition to the Monday Morning Leadership Devotional that I post each week, I am going to spend the next few posts highlighting three very important cultural shifts that every Christian in America needs to watch. I think it is obvious that America is changing. For many Christians this can be scary. Fear breeds confusion and confusion breeds more fear. The Book of 1 Chronicles describes a group of Jews called the Sons of Issachar. We are told that they were “men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.”

Christians in America need to become the sons of Issachar. We need to understand the times we live in so that we can know what we as believers and what America as a whole ought to do.

The three cultural shifts I will highlight are not politically correct and will be open to much criticism – which only serves to highlight the changes that have and are occurring in our country. Changes that will not only impact every believer in Christ, but every citizen of this country…and not for the better.

Cultural Shift Number 1 – The Growth of Islam

Islam is on the move. That’s no secret. But the growth and goals of Islam have been severely underestimated and misunderstood by the global community and by both ruling parties in American politics.

Make no mistake, the goal of Islam is global domination. Islam demands that all other religions cower and submit to the will of Allah. Peaceful coexistence is not an option. It is estimated that 15-20% of Muslims are of the extreme fundamentalist variety. In other words, willing to blow themselves up to kill you. And so, we are told, the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful people, willing to tolerate people of other faiths. While this may be true from a short sighted viewpoint, when taking the long view, all Muslims are taught and seek global domination.

The Muslim community has discovered that there is more than one way to conquer a nation. You don’t necessarily have to shoot, blowup, or behead the enemy. The preferred method of Islamic domination? Immigration. Western civilization has lost its will to maintain national identity. As a result, the western nations of the world have opened their doors to any and all peoples and in doing so, they have also chosen to bow to the culture of Islamic immigrants rather than require their new citizens to adopt the western culture of their new nation.

I have led two mission trips to London, England in the last 10 years to work in the public school system. Both times I was struck as to the number of Muslim students in English schools. It is, to be honest, shocking, in light of perceptions about English / western culture. In discussing Muslim growth with English teachers, I was told that the situation in France is much more pronounced. France, I was told, is on the verge of becoming an Islamic State. No wars, no battles, no “Jihad.” Just immigration. France is willingly turning their nation over to Islam because they do not have the will to define and promote the national culture.

What is happening in France is happening all over Europe. And it is happening in the United States. I have included (at the bottom of this post) a video in this post that every Christian needs to watch. I cannot verify the statistics wherein, but you will get the point of the video very clearly. It is alarming and Christians and all Americans should be alarmed. America is a democracy which means the majority rules… “we the people”, you get the idea. So what happens when the majority of Americans are Muslim, when “we the people” are Islamic?

To cut to the chase of this 7 minute video, please note:

For any culture to sustain itself from one generation to the next, it takes a birth rate of 2.11. This means that for America to retain its national identity, every couple needs to produce 2.11 kids. Now my wife and I have 3 kids, so we’ve done our job and are actually ahead! But a couple that has only 1 child pulls the birth rate down. Make sense?

Throughout all of history, no culture has ever turned around an overall birth rate of 1.9 and the “experts” say that a birth rate of 1.3 would be impossible to recover from. In other words, a culture with a birth rate of 1.3 is doomed.

So let’s apply these numbers to the nation of France. France currently has a birth rate of 1.8 among its French population. They have already dropped below the threshold from which any nation has ever recovered. But Muslims in France have a birth rate of 8.1. You can see the writing on the wall can’t you? In southern France, there are now more Mosques than churches.

Among the 31 countries of the European Union, the current birth rate is 1.38.

So what about America? The current birth rate among Americans is 1.6. If you add in the birth rate of Latino immigrants, our birth rate jumps to 2.11. While these numbers signify a dramatic shift in American culture to include Latino elements (salsa now beats out ketchup as the number one condiment!), Latino countries are essentially Christian which enables America to still be a nation which embraces Judeo-Christian values and morals.

But, Islam is on the move. Muslims have not only discovered that they can move here, but they also know that they can out-reproduce us. In 1970, there were 100,000 Muslims in the US. Today, there are over 9 million.

Add to the above demographic information, attitudes and fears towards Islam and Christianity, and you will understand why this is one of the three crucial issues we all need to be concerned about.

It is open season on Christianity in America. Christian values, morals, and standards are all subject to attack and ridicule. It’s the “in” thing today to beat up on Christians. It’s accepted and almost expected. On the flip side, it is taboo to criticize Islam. Not only is it not “politically correct,” but I believe people are fearful of Islam. We’ve seen too many people killed and maimed, too many riots in Islamic countries, when anyone dares to poke fun at Muhammad, Islam, the Koran, etc.

So what do we do? Political solutions are hard. The political arena is just not friendly to Christians and I am not sure it will be ever again. Certainly, we as believers need to exert our influence and pressure in the world of politics as much as we can. And we need to encourage our young people to be politicians and join the battle on Capitol Hill. But let me tell you one thing that we can do. We can fight fire with fire! In short, Christians need to reproduce. We need to have kids and lots of them. Now I’m not saying throw the pill out the window. Birth control, I believe, is a matter of conscience. But I do believe that God wants Christians to be fruitful and to multiply. This past Mother’s Day, we dedicated 22 babies at our church. It was awesome. I couldn’t help but think about the rising army of Christians they would one day represent. And that’s what we need, babies and lots of ‘em. So if you are a Christian and you are still in those child bearing years, go ye therefore and populate. You will be doing more for the Kingdom than you may ever realize.

Stay tuned for the second and third cultural shifts that every Christian in America needs to watch.

Blessings,
Jeff