You have no doubt noticed that we live in tumultuous times. Many of you have learned that you should no longer say things like “now I have seen everything,” because that sentiment always seems to be refuted by events in the middle of next week. In our time, we have seen a number of transitions, in which a pattern of escalation can readily be seen. We began with certain cultural issues, of a very serious nature. There was the sexual revolution of the sixties, followed by its bloody reckoning in the 1973 Roe decision. A few years later, in a speech to the 1992 Republican National Convention, Pat Buchanan coined the phrase culture wars. And now, according to certain insightful observers, we are on the threshold of a cultural revolution, similar in outlook to what Mao launched in China in 1966.

How are we, as Christians, to understand and respond to all of this?