The Most Lethal Weapon of Mass Destruction: The Secular Variety

A speaker at one secular humanism meeting strenuously advocated for the promotion of evolution. According to him, evolution is the best tool available to dismantle the Christian faith, and, for good reason.

Theistic evolutionist and former co-head of the Biologos Foundation, Karl Giberson, had written that evolution had undermined much of his biblical faith:

• “Acid is an appropriate metaphor for the erosion of my fundamentalism, as I slowly lost confidence in the Genesis story of creation and the scientific creationism that placed this ancient story within the framework of modern science. Dennett’s universal acid dissolved Adam and Eve; it ate through the Garden of Eden; it destroyed the historicity of the events of creation week. It etched holes in those parts of Christianity connected to the stories—the fall, “Christ as the second Adam,” the origins of sin, and nearly everything else that I counted sacred.” (Saving Darwin, 9-10)

However, I think that events have proven that secular humanism has a far more lethal weapon: free sex! How has modern secularism succeeded with this weapon? It has promoted free sex from all of its many and powerful pulpits – the schools, the media, the universities, Hollywood, and the courts. Its sermon is simple and persuasive:

• If you fear to follow your sexual passions, you are puritanical, imprisoned by ancient taboos, and missing out on life! 

And we all have sexual passions. Especially for the youth, these passions are a consuming fire looking for an outlet. They are an open vat of gasoline awaiting a spark or the right encouragement, and secularists are more than ready to provide this encouragement.

Why? For one thing, those who engage in deviant sexual practices know that it is wrong. The one who masturbates before computer porn or commits adultery knows it’s wrong. Therefore, when anyone points an accusing finger, he reacts angrily. Instead, if his wife accuses him of always wearing blue shirts, he will laugh, because he does not feel the slightest degree of guilt for this.

Meanwhile, Jesus was hated for speaking the truth. Why?

• “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.” (John 7:7)

Whenever we live for Christ, we are a reminder to the world that its sexual conduct is evil:

• But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

To a world that has violated its own conscience and sexual mores, we are a smell of death, a reminder of their guilt. This is the way we were as teens. When we violated our moral standards and those of our parents, we became distant from them. The presence of our parents was like a light revealing our sins and shame. We, therefore, resented them and tried to distance ourselves, feeling “their disapproval.”

But was it their disapproval, or were we merely projecting our own feelings of guilt? We felt guilty and defensive and became convinced that they were the source of our guilt. We therefore ran from their light and preferred the darkness of those who lived and believed as we did.

This is what Jesus taught:

• This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light.” (John 3:19-21)

If we hate the light because it exposes our sins, we also hate the church, “the pillar of truth,” for the same reason. We complain that the church is judgmental, even though it is our own conscience that judges us and eventually separates us from the church.

If we live like Jesus, we will be drawn to Him, as He stated:

• “If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” (John 7:17)

If we live in opposition to Jesus, we will be drawn away from Him. And the secularist is not ignorant to this fact. If free sex and the allure of exploring one’s sexuality entice our youth, they will then be repelled by the church, no matter how loving the parents or the pastor. I have known numerous such parents who have been rejected by their children who demanded clear and unambiguous affirmations for their sexual lifestyle. In order to “keep” their children, some parents and pastors have tragically acquiesced.

However, they have not acquiesced in accordance with reason but in opposition. It seems that nothing will destroy us quicker than sexual sins. We don’t even have to look at the stats. Scripture tells us all that we need to know:

• Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and RECEIVED IN THEMSELVES THE DUE PENALTY FOR THEIR PERVERSION. (Romans 1:26-27)

• Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins SEXUALLY SINS AGAINST HIS OWN BODY. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

While sexuality was given to us as a blessing from God, blessings, wrongly used, can also become agents of self-destruction, also impacting others.