Rethinking the Public Square and Marching Back Through the Institutions
The existence of the public square bears witness to God’s common grace. Recovering the public square will provide Christians an opportunity to contend for the faith and witness to the world the powerful coherence of the Christian worldview and its correspondence to reality.
1960’s radical Marxist activist Rudi Dutschke coined the phrase, “the long march through the institutions.”
He along with other Frankfurt School types believed in the infiltration and subversion of western institutions. Entertainment, government, education, media, the church and the family make up the cultural fabric of the West, particularly, America. The ‘long march’ was intended to destroy western culture from within and replace it with a Marxian vision and social program. We are living in a Marxist America with a fascist twist.
Don’t believe me? Ask yourself these questions:
Who are you not allowed publicly to criticize?
What are you afraid to say that might cost you your job or get you ‘cancelled’?
What so-called “facts” reported by the media three years ago turned out blatantly false?
Why do some issues receive a lot of attention while other important issues seem to be overlooked?
Some estimate 90% of U.S. media is controlled by just six companies (1). If the past three years has taught us anything, it is the power of propaganda. I do not believe they are secretly colluding to push an agenda. However, there is a clear convergence of shared interests, philosophies, and political ideologies. Many CEOs and elites emerged from similar academic institutions and generations. They share similar worldviews. Therefore, interests will converge without deliberate collusion. Therefore, while there appears to be a variety of media choices, only a handful of conglomerates control the information we receive.
What began in the academies of higher education in the 1960s was popularized through entertainment and promoted by the media. It didn’t take long for government to succumb to Marxist ideas and put them into practice. Sixty years later, the United States of America is exporting a distinctly American form of Cultural Marxism to other nations through the US Government and Corporations. In many cases, US aid to other countries is tied to promotion of an ideology. Media and entertainment further promote the ideology.
Think about how effective the “long march through the institutions” has been in America?
Most claim, “This could never happen in America!”
Most Americans are not Marxists… Yet.
At the rate of indoctrination in our education systems from university down to elementary, we are at the threshold of a generational break away from historical American culture. The old guard is dying off and the new guard is taking its position of cultural influence and power. The younger generations are coming of age in an era where an expert class of elites exert tremendous control over society. Furthermore, there is a mood of unending crisis, uncertainty, and weakening of longstanding institutions.
Gone are the days where American society was shaped by biblical mores, moral formation, civic virtue and shared history. The worldview of the emerging generation is shaped by Critical Social Theories like Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, Third and Fourth Wave Feminism, Gender Theory, Queer Theory and Transhumanism. DEI, ESG, and SEL are the modes of indoctrination through corporations, the education system, and government institutions. The emerging generations’ allegiances are alien to the established American ethos. That ethos has been rejected and hated. They see the world divided into two groups – oppressors and the oppressed. As such, material resources, and cultural and political power are controlled by the privileged at the expense of the powerless in a zero sum game. Thus, creating a permanent victim class along intersectional lines.
Does this new dominant worldview correspond to the contours of reality? Is it coherent? The answer is ‘no’ because the Marxian worldview is built on falsehood and self-refuting presuppositions. It implodes… the human casualties number in the hundreds of millions dead.
Marxists of all eras always lie… “They lie like dead flies on a window sill.” (Douglas Wilson). As David Horowitz pointed out quoting a SDS radical student, “The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.” In other words, the cause of a political action – whether civil rights or women’s rights – is never the real cause; women, blacks and other ‘victims’ are only instruments in the larger cause, which is power.”“
Marxists always use minority groups as cannon fodder to attain power. They don’t really care about people of color, or gays, or transgenders, or women, or the poor… All those groups are manipulated, agitated, and weaponized. Once a group has depleted its usefulness, it is tossed aside or destroyed. Look how this mode has divided all sectors of society.
A quick survey of modern history has demonstrated from the French Revolution forward, that those at the top of the Marxist food chain get fat while everyone else starves to death. They are not really interested in equity, equality, diversity, peace, climate, or justice, in their original forms. Those are simply tried and true bait n’ switch tactics where words have been redefined to push the ideology (revolution). Instead, they cause division to obtain more economic, political, and cultural power. Like locusts, Marxists devour and destroy everything in their path. Name one institution in America that has not been infiltrated by ‘woke’ ideology. ‘Woke’ is American Marxism.
Is there such a thing as a ‘Woke Church?’ Perhaps in the imagination of some relevance-seeking authors. Selling books and speaking honorariums pay well.
No sir. There is only One Church and it ain’t woke. It was founded before the foundations of the world and purchased by the blood of Christ. No amount of bad theology, heretical hermeneutics, or shoddy sociology will ever be able to transform Christ and His Word into an American social program draped in Christian garb.
Christians and the Church need to re-think our approach to culture and theology. The clown show and chaos we’re experiencing is a result of Christians not taking culture seriously. The Church hasn’t been pushed out of the public square, we have abandoned it. Marxists didn’t win the ‘Culture War’. To win a war, you must defeat an opponent. There wasn’t a war. Christians simply decided to go home and abandon the institutions to the secular cult masquerading as enlightened. Midwits don’t have the moral fortitude of a blade of grass (no offense to St. Augustin or Bermuda). The problem is pulpits have been preaching pablum, promoting pragmatism, pushing entertainment programs, and over-zealous personal piety instead of robust public theology for nearly 100 years – all undergirded by an eschatology of Christian escapism.
The Church is an institution that Marxist woke-topians are relishing. They have been quite effective so far. A good compass points north, a good church points Christ-ward and truth-ward. Not all “churches” are Christ-centered and biblical. Don’t let a name like, “North Point Church” fool you.
Rethinking the Public Square
The public square of the free exchange of ideas is a distinctly Christian social contribution. Even stupid and destructive ideas like Cultural Marxism can be allowed. But, they must be allowed to be critiqued, refuted, and buried on the trash heap of bad ideas. When Christians witness poor stewardship, disorder, or injustice within any sector of society, we have the duty to take dominion over it and work to cultivate goodness and human flourishing. The public square is not owned by anyone. Although many are attempting to own it (social media censorship). On the contrary, the public square is to be stewarded well for the good of all… even those with stupid ideas. Why? Because Christians love God and people created in His image, even people with dumb ideas. I mean, who among us has never had a dumb idea?
Christians must rethink the value and dignity of the Public Square. Because the public square is inhabited by people who may not understand God created them in His image with intrinsic value and worth. The existence of the public square bears witness to God’s common grace. Allow discourse of all types. Yes, there will be folks who share disdainful and even dangerous ideas. There is nothing new under the sun. However, recovering the open public square will provide Christians an opportunity to contend for the faith and witness to the world the powerful coherence of the Christian worldview and its correspondence to reality.
Engagement in the public square requires a public theology which includes proper institutional stewardship.
The Long March Back Through the Institutions
Entertainment, government, education, media, the church, and the family make up the cultural fabric of America. Except for small enclaves, those institutions have been decimated by Cultural Marxism. Christians rightly view the family as the center of culture creation. A mother and father will raise children who will create culture and shape society. Therefore, worldview training begins in the home. As the younger generations move into areas of cultural influence, they bring their worldviews with them. As the parents move into elder years, their children will take the cultural reigns and shape the world for their own children. Therefore, Christians must think generationally. Our enterprise is much bigger than a single lifetime, after all, we operate from an eternal perspective with an ever-present expression.
We must recover our public theology and follow Christ’s calling into all cultural domains. Cultural abandonment has proven deadly and unbiblical. Does this mean we take over cultural domains by force? Of course not. We have a ministry of faith in action. God is responsible for results. William Wilberforce didn’t end the African slave trade in England. God ended it by using Wilberforce and others willing to be obedient.
Over the next few decades, Christians must begin a long march back through the ruins of our institutions of higher education, arts, entertainment, media, and the church under the banner of Christ (who is Lord over all). We unleash the power of the Christian worldview and a deep love for those who inhabit those domains. Why? Because God loves people (John 3:16).
When biblically informed and spirit filled Christ-followers follow Christ into every sphere and corner of human existence, we are demonstrating that Colossians 1:15-20 and the words of Abraham Kuyper are true:
“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!“
Every Christian contributes a little leaven from Heaven into human culture. We are ordinary people serving an extraordinary God.
“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” – Matthew 13:33
“The parable sets forth the working of the Church of Christ on the world, but not in the same way as that of the Mustard Seed… Here the working is from within. It (leaven) can turn the flour into human food–this symbolism is traceable in the leavened loaves that were offered on the day of Pentecost (Leviticus 23:17)–can permeate the manners, feelings, and opinions of non-Christian societies until they become blessings and not curses to mankind. In the new feelings, gradually diffused, of Christendom as to slavery, prostitution, gladiatorial games–in the new reverence for childhood and womanhood, for poverty and sickness–we may trace the working of the leaven.” (2)
Based on your proximity – Where can you use your influence for the Kingdom?
1. Where can you speak truth into the public square? (Do you need to create a public square?)
– What will you contribute to the discourse?
– When will you accomplish this?
2. Beginning with your family, what institution do you have an affinity towards or a burden for?
Education, arts and entertainment, media, government, etc. are legitimate domains for Christian influence and stewardship.
– Where will you contribute your influence and care?
– When will you begin?
Pray for God’s power will be unleashed in the places and spaces where you live. Ask Him to use your gifts, talents, resources, and influence to expand His Kingdom until the knowledge of Him reaches the ends of the earth.
Reflection and Encouragement:
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:7-12)
1. https://www.fool.com/investing/stock-market/market-sectors/communication/media-stocks/big-6/
2. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/matthew/13.htm
I launched the Forge Room Foundation in order to equip Christians to understand our cultural moment and respond with a biblical worldview perspective. We have a end-of-year fundraising goal of $50,000. This will allow us to host more forums and seminars that quip and mobilize people for Kingdom action. Please consider us in your year end generosity plans. Learn more and give here…
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