Dr Paul Allen

Image via Wikipedia Our era is characterized by national and global attacks on the historic Christian faith and on the Christian moral vision for civilization. As relativism and postmodernism have been on the ascent, the idea of absolute truth has nearly disappeared. Multiculturalism and egalitarianism have borne fruit in attacks on the idea of moral absolutes for society and culture.  Disdain for the practice of sound reason has risen as irrationalism—not to mention irrationality—and mysticism have gained traction. Disdain for history has accompanied infatuation with the modern. Overall, as secularization and anti-Christian religions hinder and harm the church from without, leaders within the church reject or compromise teaching by which the church has been historically defined. This is no time for Christians  to be fainthearted or weak minded. We should hardly be surprised by what we see. Ignorance of God and the things of God has its consequences, not only for God’s world but

Image via Wikipedia "I'm spiritual, not religious." The number of people who self-identify using the long-popular phrase "spiritual but not religious" is still growing.  In 1998, 9 percent of American adults told the General Social Survey they were spiritual but not religious.  By 2008, it had risen to 14 percent. Among those ages 18 to 39, the increase was even more dramatic, and 18 percent now say they are spiritual but not religious.  The growth is not because people are less likely to identify as religious, but because nonreligious people are more likely to say they are spiritual, says Duke sociologist Mark Chaves. Part of the phrase's popularity can be attributed to its sex appeal . No, really. A social psychologist at Britain's Southampton University looked at 57 studies covering 15,000 experiment subjects, and reported in  Personality and Social Psychology Review  that North Americans find "intrinsically religious" people desirab