Written by Carl R. Trueman |
Monday, December 4, 2023
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is concerned with how the West is dismantling its traditional cultural norms and with what it intends to replace them. Others have said similar things before. Philip Rieff and Sir Roger Scruton are two that come to mind. But the impression both of them leave is that, yes, they think God is a very good idea for grounding a civilized culture, but they are not entirely sure that he exists. What Ali has done is taken the obvious—and indeed necessary—next step: She sees the necessity of a sacred order and is not afraid to say so. It will be interesting to see if those others who have so astutely analyzed the sicknesses unto death that grip the West at the moment will follow her lead. 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim and now a former atheist, recently declared that she has converted to Christianity. This is a cause for great rejoicing.
It is also a fascinating sign of the times. Her published account of why she is a Christian is somewhat odd, given that it mentions Jesus only once. It is, however, unreasonable to expect a new convert to offer an elaborate account of the hypostatic union in the first days of faith. This is why churches catechize disciples: Conversion does not involve an infusion of comprehensive doctrinal knowledge. And whatever the lacunae in her statement, the genuineness of her profession is a matter for the pastor of whatever congregation of Christ’s church to which she attaches herself.
Here is what makes her public testimony a sign of the times: She states that she converted in part because she realized that a truly humanistic culture—and by that I mean a culture that treats human beings as persons, not as things—must rest upon some conception of the sacred order as set forth in Christianity, with its claim that all are made in the image of God. “Western civilization is under threat from three different but related forces,” she writes. These are resurgent authoritarianism in China and Russia, global Islamism, and “the viral spread of woke ideology.” She declares that she became a Christian in part because she recognized that “we can’t fight off these formidable forces” with modern secular tools; rather, we can only defeat these foes if we are united by a “desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition,” with its “ideas and institutions designed to safeguard human life, freedom and dignity.” 
The last few years have seen a number of unexpected voices strike hard against the mores of our time, particularly in the realm of sexual ethics and its close relative, the ethics of embodiment. Mary Harrington has written against the dehumanizing tendencies that lurk just below the surface of a society that sees transgenderism and transhumanism as legitimate. Louise Perry has pointed out that, despite its own propaganda about itself, the sexual revolution is very bad news for women and for children. Conservative Christians have, of course, been saying such things for years.
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That is a terrifying reality. Everything – every harbored thought, every nursed sense of entitlement, every quiet resentment or lust or whatever – will not be private forever. They will all eventually be laid bare before the One who already knows them. And as if that thought isn’t frightening enough, we are reminded that these are not innocuous secrets – we are accountable for them, too. So what do we do with that reality?

“Where are you?”
The question rang out across the garden. The first humans, who had enjoyed perfect fellowship with their Creator and lived in perfect harmony with the rest of His creation, had walked and talked in naked transparency with God and with each other. But not any more.
Now they were hiding.
Now they were self-conscious.
Now they were filled with the guilt and shame that came from their lack of faith and rebellion.
And God asked them a question. But He wasn’t asking because He didn’t know the answer; He knew very well where they were, just as He knew very well what they had done. The purpose of the question was not informational; it was confessional. The man and woman needed to own what they had done; they needed to acknowledge it to God. They weren’t telling Him anything He didn’t already know – they were owning up to what He already did.
There are no secrets with God. Confession, for us now as it was then, is not informational in nature. That is, for most of us, a terrifying reality because all of us like to think we have secrets. Secret thoughts. Secret desires. Secret hatred. Secret selfish ambition. And yet all of that secrecy is really a matter of self-delusion – God already knows. In fact, He already knows more about the inmost recesses of our hearts than we do.
And yet we talk ourselves into the notion that we actually do have secrets. Or at least we do temporarily, because in time, even the idea of secrets will be obliterated:
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Heb. 4:12-13).
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The Bible is very clear that the elderly are due respect.  “You shall rise up before the gray-headed and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God; I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:32). Respect for aged parents is the way we give respect to God himself.  It’s probably more telling than worship on Sunday mornings.  Jesus, even on the cross, remembered how important it was for someone to take care of his mother after his death (John 19:26-27).  Your parents gave their lives to raise you, and they deserve respect for that. They deserve honor and not denigration.

No, this is not about politics; it’s about growing old.  Thanks to Joe Biden the image of the elderly in this country has taken a major hit.  Old people have become the target of abrasive comedians and callous television pundits. The elderly are now funny people, and even sometimes hilarious. They do silly things. That’s the persona of old people. They are entertaining at best and a nuisance at worst.  They are people to be tolerated, viewed as buffoons, and avoided as much as possible.
With aging comes a loss of memory, the inability to speak fluidly, and a dangerous gait in moving from place to place—and yes, there is much more that can’t be mentioned.  We cannot do what we used to do, and it’s difficult to admit it. Sometimes we do indeed embarrass ourselves.
My wife and I have had the privilege (and yes it was a privilege) of caring for an aging parent when the parent was unable to take care of herself. It was much more demanding than raising three children and sending them off to college. The physical exigencies were sometimes overwhelming, and it took a mental toll that at times put us on the edge of despair.  Sometimes we were tempted to be angry with God, but our faith kept us from doing that. When you bring an elderly parent into your home needing constant care, everything changes, especially when they are still mobile and yet unable to take care of themselves.
Thank God that on occasion there is a little humor that can be found in it all. I remember my mother who had dementia enjoying a visit from my son with his new fiancé. This was her first time being introduced to the family.  Since his fiancé resembled my daughter, Mom said to my son, with some embarrassment to us all, “So, you married your sister, did you!”  Then, later on that same day, as my son’s fiancé was introduced to my wife’s mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease, my wife’s mother pointed to the picture of a child mounted on the wall of her living room, and boasted to my son’s fiancé how proud she was that this was my son’s child, that is, the child of her soon-to-be-husband.  After explaining everything to her, she married my son anyway.
The Bible is very clear that the elderly are due respect.  “You shall rise up before the gray-headed and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God; I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:32). Respect for aged parents is the way we give respect to God himself.  It’s probably more telling than worship on Sunday mornings.  Jesus, even on the cross, remembered how important it was for someone to take care of his mother after his death (John 19:26-27).  Your parents gave their lives to raise you, and they deserve respect for that. They deserve honor and not denigration.
Now, on the other hand, as people do grow old, they need to realize their limitations.  I think most of us can see decline in ourselves.  It’s a wise old man who knows when to quit. Decline often comes slowly but we can see and feel it.
However, our pride sometimes prevents us from recognizing this fact.  We want to do things we did when we were young, but we should know better.  When we are unwilling to change with our age, then it is not pleasing to God and it’s not fair to others.  It can be humiliating.  It’s a little like taking Grandma to the beach and she still thinks she can wear a bikini, or like Grandpa who still thinks he can still jump over a four-foot fence.
When old people refuse to admit the limitations of their age they disappoint us.  They can become angry and dangerous.  So can we!  I remember when it was time to take my mother’s car keys away from her.  Everywhere she drove in the car she always came home with dents in the car (which she covered with duct-tape). She was a danger to others on the road and we children had to recognize that. She was furious with us.
Now the problem with Joe Biden, regardless of his politics, is that he is too old to be President of the United States.  He has become an embarrassment.   He is not up to the job. He is dangerous.
When some large corporations require retirement of management at 55 years of age, what does this say about the man in the White House?  What is needed is humility on the part of the man himself to step aside.  But it appears that he does not have either the wisdom or the humility to do what is needed.  Therefore, rather than hiding his shortcomings from the public, as a loving family would do, he is paraded around as an oddity out of a circus.
Too, he is now the prototype for old people.  Rather than honoring old people as the Bible demands, we (I’m including myself) are now the butt of humor as just silly old people. Sometimes we can laugh at ourselves along with others who are laughing at us, and sometimes we can’t.
It’s time for Biden to step aside, not only for his own sake, but for the sake of our country.  And not only for the sake of the country, but for sake of the image of old people in this nation.  Being old is now a joke thanks to Joe Biden.  It should not be that way.
Larry E. Ball is a retired minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is now a CPA. He lives in Kingsport, Tenn.
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