In the midst of our current cultural trends and global instability where are you finding hope?
Every summer I get the privilege to attend some of the lectures and panel discussions at the Aspen Ideas Festival. This year there were over 300 events led by world leaders and specialists for almost two weeks. One of the panel discussions I attended was: Imagining 2024: The Next Culture Wars. The moderator started the discussion by asking the room of over 100 mostly gray haired people if they had partaken of marijuana while they visited CO. The majority of the room raised their hands. The moderator started the session by recognizing some of the major value shifts like same-sex marriage and recreational marijuana use and that they were mostly behind us. He then asked, “So, what are the culture wars ahead of us?” Here is my abbreviated list from the panel:
· Animal rights: but this is strictly a luxury of an affluent society
· Redefinition of masculinity
· Internet: new home of most culture wars
· They believe race and religion will still play key roles
· Growing gap between the educated and the uneducated
· Pop culture is the main influencer
· Gun debate: will continue to be a major culture war
· Dealing with the elderly
Here is a list of global trends and a future picture of our nation given at another lecture. I am quoting these from Bob Buford’s blog at: BobBuford@activeenergy.net
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“I don’t need 10 years; everything can change in 24 hours,” the first speaker said, and this was on the day the three Israeli boys were found dead on the West Bank-the day Israel and Hamas began exchanging bombs and rockets. But the flashpoints hardly stop in the Middle East. Russia in Ukraine reverberates Hitler’s soft launch into what became World War II. China and Japan are in the South China Sea in a game of chicken about who owns what. (In the same lecture, I was surprised to learn that the US has a treaty to defend Japan at all costs from aggressors-aggressors like China.) Syria is in the middle of a bloody civil war. Iraq has the four-letter word, ISIS, the bad guys who knocked over several cities and are headed for Bagdad as I write. The great idea to create a democracy in Iraq as a showcase for the rest of the Middle East got lost in the greed of the leader, now with no credibility and having a heckuva time mustering the armed forces. There’s Iran, perhaps with the bomb, certainly with considerable nuclear development. Egypt is on its third regime since the Arab Spring-people pouring into Cairo’s open square and onto social networks with everything to protest and no other system to suggest. There’s the Congo. There’s Afghanistan. There’s North Korea run by a nuke-waving madman. (And today’s arms dwarf the horses and rifles and canons of early WWI.)
Are you getting encouraged yet? Hold on there is more:
Aspen buzzed also about US demographics, particularly Boomers aging with only vague ideas about the money to sustain themselves for the 20 to 30 years beyond the lifespan anticipated at the dawn of Social Security and Medicare. Once upon a time most folks reached retirement age and died at a reasonable age. Now we live, and live, and live, loading the government with increased healthcare and a heaving pile of new expenses. The other side of the coin is the younger generation, the Millennials, having fewer jobs and moving home after getting a college degree. And the birthrate is a great deal lower than before.
Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center over demographic, social and generational research,described the new America as:
older, more unequal, more diverse, more mixed race, more digitally linked, more tolerant, less married, less fertile, less religious, less mobile, and less confident.
“Every aspect of our demography is fundamentally transforming,” he said, pointing to massive generational gaps in politics, values, well being, family structure, racial and ethnic identity-even the language and terms we use.
How do you feel after reflecting upon these trends from the experts? Do these cultural trends rock your hope? Where do you find your hope?
Be careful watching the news and reading the paper that the news and trends are not subtly eroding your peace and hope and instilling the spirit of fear. Jesus says if we listen and heed His Words we will have a hope built upon a rock that can withstand any storm, any trend, any global unrest and that we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. (Luke 7:24-27, Hebrews 12:28)
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Mankind has come up with many good ideas, but the best idea that answers all the big questions in the universe God has answered through the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ! Put your hope in Him!
