{"id":17274,"date":"2023-04-03T15:39:52","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T19:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=17274"},"modified":"2023-04-03T15:39:52","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T19:39:52","slug":"dr-james-spencer-offers-hope-as-he-encourages-christians-to-resist-a-secularized-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/04\/dr-james-spencer-offers-hope-as-he-encourages-christians-to-resist-a-secularized-world","title":{"rendered":"Dr. James Spencer Offers Hope as He Encourages Christians to Resist a Secularized World"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_17277\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17277\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/04\/dr-james-spencer_credit-James-Spencer-amazon-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17277\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/04\/dr-james-spencer_credit-James-Spencer-amazon-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17277\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Spencer \/ Amazon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Dr. James Spencer, president of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, joined <\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Fox News\u2019s\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cLighthouse Faith\u201d podcast to discuss his new book,\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Christian-Resistance-Learning-World-Follow\/dp\/B0BRDC3VJK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Christian Resistance: Learning to Defy the World and Follow Jesus<\/span><\/em><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. He compared the current climate in the United States for conservative Christians to that of George Orwell\u2019s dystopian novel\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">1984<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. \u201cI think Orwell is describing something that\u2019s a totalitarian regime that\u2019s very much sort of iron-fisted in its implementation,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re dealing with is almost a more influential problem, where we\u2019re being inundated with way too much information.\u201d Neil Postman, in his book\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Amusing-Ourselves-Death-Discourse-Business\/dp\/014303653X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business<\/span><\/em><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, however, contrasted Orwell\u2019s vision of a dystopian world with that of Aldous Huxley\u2019s book\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Brave New World<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. \u201cWhat Orwell feared were those who would ban books,\u201d wrote Postman. \u201cWhat Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The pressure to conform is strong, with the passage of hate speech laws and rules to enforce \u201cdiversity and inclusion,\u201d limiting what Christians feel they can say about gender roles and marriage. Spencer stated that the role of a Christian is to remain strong against societal pressures to conform. \u201cChristians need to be like a dam holding back water,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s all this pressure that\u2019s coming against it, and the dam just needs to hold its shape. You need to be a strong, hard boundary between the water and whatever else is on the other side. But if that dam breaks, if that dam fractures, if it doesn\u2019t resist appropriately the water that\u2019s coming in \u2014 then we\u2019ve got problems.\u201d Christians are already feeling the pressure. Recently, an Arizona school board decided to terminate its contract with <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/03\/arizona-school-board-members-dont-want-christian-teachers-in-classrooms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Arizona Christian University<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0due to the school\u2019s stance on gay marriage. Spencer stated that the push against conservative Christian values is to make \u201cuncritical members of society.\u201d \u201cWhen you take away my ability to think and speak, and you\u2019re trying to control that, you\u2019re essentially eliminating my free speech or essentially eliminating my thought.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0Critical thinking in America, particularly when it comes to listening to others with different points of view, is particularly at risk. A survey by the <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/new-survey-many-americans-dont-listen-to-alternative-perspectives-lack-other-critical-thinking-skills-broad-support-for-teaching-reasoning-in-schools-301168811.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Reboot Foundation<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0found that almost half of the respondents \u201csometimes,\u201d \u201crarely,\u201d or \u201cnever\u201d seek out people with different opinions for the purposes of discussion. The Bible, however, guarantees that Christians, when they speak the truth, will find themselves opposed. Conforming is a sign of compromise. As Luke 6:26 says, \u201cWoe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. James Spencer, president of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, joined Fox News\u2019s\u00a0\u201cLighthouse Faith\u201d podcast to discuss his new book,\u00a0Christian Resistance: Learning to Defy the World and Follow Jesus. He compared the current climate in the United States for conservative Christians to that of George Orwell\u2019s dystopian novel\u00a01984. \u201cI think Orwell is describing&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":17277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dr. James Spencer Offers Hope as He Encourages Christians to Resist a Secularized World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"James Spencer shares his thoughts and give his advice on &quot;a secularized world.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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