The Source and Abuse of Civility

Tania Fernandes Anderson is a city council member in Boston, Massachusetts. She describes herself as “the first formally undocumented African born immigrant, and first Muslim elected in the city of Boston.” Since being elected, she has stated that her goal is to create a revolution for equity.

But there is something else unique about her. She is, by all accounts, not a very nice person. She has called on the council to “dismantle the white backdrop (in America) and create a revolution.” Additionally, she goes about expressing hostility, being verbally abusive, and spewing antisemitic insults to the extent that people are intimidated by her – and she does it intentionally as a strategy to get her way. She has been accused of invoking fire and brimstone against her critics and threatening to blow “smoke” at her council colleagues. Seemingly, her abusive tactics often work, and people end up giving in to her because she is so caustic. She has become nationally known for her public outbursts featuring “swearing, yelling, and screaming” at council meetings.

Beyond that, she has no problem flaunting ethics laws. Shortly after she took office and completed the city’s conflict of interest training, she turned right around and hired her sister and son to paid positions on her council staff.

But Anderson is not the only one these days acting in that manner. Virtually every day we see news reports of illegal aliens killing, raping, and stealing. We see domestic gang members killing police, others they consider opponents, and even just random people. And we see supporters of terrorist organizations violently demonstrating and even rioting in the streets for the purpose of disrupting all who get in their way.

And its not just mobs and gangsters on the streets who are acting this way. We see major politicians standing in front of microphones lying to the public about what is going on in society strictly to gain some political advantage. Then there are the famous actors and business people, lying, cheating, and cursing out those they disagree with.

So where does all this come from? It comes from value systems that are increasingly prevalent in modern society. And these value systems are based on worldview beliefs that are contrary to biblical beliefs.

One of the things that makes this hard to deal with is that these antisocial values come from more than one worldview category. This creates confusion for the average person as they try to understand what is going on.

One source of these kinds of warped values is Atheism. Those who fall into this category feel free to act that way because they don’t have an objective basis for their beliefs. Since they don’t believe in God, they don’t recognize the values of any transcendent source (God) as being something they are compelled to follow. Additionally, since they don’t believe in an afterlife, there is no concern that their actions in this life will affect anything beyond this life. Their values are completely based on their own selfish desires. So if they want to act in a particular way or follow a particular ideology (such as anarchy, progressivism, Marxism, etc.), all that matters is that they want to do it.

There is another group that tangentially fits in with the Atheists, but does not operate on any conscious ideology. While many of them are superstitious concerning spiritual things, it is not something they generally consider at a conscious level. These people are only concerned with “getting what they want” in the here and now. We see this in the actions of gangs, organized crime syndicates, and individuals who make a lifestyle of crime. Many of these are home grown, but it is increasingly being seen among those who have entered the country illegally.

Another prominent source of warped values in modern society is Islam. Not all Muslims, of course, follow a radical ideological stream of the faith. But those who do, justify their beliefs by pointing to teachings of their faith that permit it. This is seen, for instance, in the actions above of Tania Fernandes Anderson. It is also visible in the activity of radical Islamists, and in the mobs that are carrying out protests and riots because of Israel’s war against Hamas.

It is certainly true that there are people who self-identify as Christians that act in ways contrary to the teachings of the Bible. But at the very least, these people will acknowledge that they are doing wrong when confronted with it. Non-Christians, though, who act in unseeming ways, do so consistently with their beliefs. And since the number of people who fall into these non-Christian categories has mushroomed, the number of incidents of evil acts and incivility have exploded.

The only way to overcome our fallen human nature is for God to be in control of our lives. And to see that outcome in all of society, it will be necessary for Christians to get over their timidity and massively share with the world the message of Christ. Until we see a massive turning to Christ, we can only expect the ugliness in society to get worse.

Freddy Davis is the president of MarketFaith Ministries. He is the author of numerous books entitled The Truth Mirage, Rules for Christians Radicals, Liberalism vs. Conservatism, and his latest book Shattering the Truth Mirage and has a background as an international missionary, pastor, radio host, worldview trainer, and entrepreneur. Freddy is a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Communication, and holds MDiv and DMin degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a popular speaker, particularly on the topic of worldview and its practical implications for the Christian life. He lives in Tallahassee, FL, with his wife Deborah.

You may also contact Freddy at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule him for speaking or leadership engagements.

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