Christianity: Child Abuse? A Virus?

If someone had predicted thirty years ago that “gay” marriage would be legalized in some American states (and all across Canada), many in the church would have scoffed at the possibility.

If someone had predicted sixty years ago that prayer, Bible reading and creation would be thrown out of America’s public schools, well, most in the church back then would have also thought it to be ridiculous.

But they have happened!

Now, what if I said the following?

If America continues on its present course of abandoning the absolute authority of the Word of God—and teaching generations of students that they are the result of random natural processes—Christians who teach their children to believe that God created in six days will have those same children taken away … and the parents will be arrested for “child abuse.”

Would you scoff and say, “That could never happen here?” Would you think that I’m just overreacting?

Friend, that day may be closer than you think! In a TV program broadcast1 recently throughout the United Kingdom (and no doubt soon to be shown on American television as well), the world’s leading spokesperson on evolution, atheist Dr. Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, made these remarkable and shocking statements:

I’m very concerned about the religious indoctrination of children. I want to show how faith acts like a virus that attacks the young and infects generation after generation. . . .

It’s time to question the abuse of childhood innocence with superstitious ideas of hellfire and damnation. And I want to show how the scriptural roots of the Judeo-Christian moral edifice are cruel and brutish.

What in the 21^st century are we doing venerating a book [i.e., the Bible] that contains such stuff?

The Raving Continues

After saying that religion is a form of child abuse, Dawkins’ tirade (he became very angry at times on the program) against Christianity did not wane:

The God of the Old Testament has got to be the most unpleasant character in all fiction—jealous and proud of it, petty, vindictive, unjust, unforgiving, racist, an ethnic cleanser urging His people on to acts of genocide. . . .2

When it comes to children, I think of religion as a dangerous virus. It’s a virus which is transmitted partly through teachers and clergy, but also down the generations from parent to child to grandchild. Children are especially vulnerable to infection by the virus of religion.

As you read such comments from atheistic evolutionists, you can see that it can often get quite emotional for them when they attack creation and intelligent design—and get very upset when the arguments against evolution are presented (especially in public school science classes).

While many secularists say that creation should not be allowed in public school science classes but should be relegated to the religion or philosophy class, a school in California was threatened with a lawsuit because the topic of creation was taught in a new philosophy course. The school dropped the course.

Genesis can’t even be discussed in a philosophy class!

The Bottom Line

Christianity is now marginalized in what was once the greatest Christian nation on earth. And the more control that secularists grab in this nation, the bolder they will become (following Dawkins’ example) in applying their atheistic philosophy—which simply cannot tolerate Christianity and its absolute morality.

Yes, it could happen one day. In fact I believe that the die is cast and we will face that day in the not-too-distant future … unless Christians start really believing the Bible and acting out their faith! If this generation fails to share the good news of the gospel, beginning in Genesis, your children or grandchildren may be accused of child abuse because they teach the Bible to their children. (Let’s not forget the rapid cultural and social transformations of China, Russia, etc. in the first half of the 20^th century.)

That’s why AiG produces and distributes so many DVDs and books, pours out information through the AnswersInGenesis.org website, produces radio programs and runs hundreds of teaching conferences across the nation. Of course, it’s also why AiG is building the Creation Museum, with the potential to influence millions and millions of lives.

And that’s why so many evolutionists are so vehemently opposed to AiG. Recently, BBC-TV in the United Kingdom aired a program hosted by Lord Robert Winston (a member of the British House of Lords) who interviewed me at the museum last year. Here is what Lord Winston declared:

I’ll admit I was dismayed by what I saw at Ken Ham’s museum. It was alarming to see so much time, money and effort being spent on making a mockery of hard-won scientific knowledge. And the fact that it was being done with such obvious sincerity somehow made it all the worse.

This is a reminder of the spiritual war we’re in (Ephesians 6:10–20). And what a reminder that we need to be soldiers equipped with the whole armor of God so we can do battle for the souls of people.

AiG is at the forefront of a massive battle over the Bible’s authority (and indirectly, your right to teach its truths to the next generation). Join us in contending for the faith against the onslaughts of evolutionary humanism, which is intent on destroying Christianity. Please pray that we—and you—will not grow weary.