He blames the media for much of the damage insofar as they “see through the spectacles of a finally relativistic set of ethical personal social standards” (56). He calls out public television for refusing to broadcast Whatever Happened to the Human Race? while using tax money to deploy the Hard Choices series, which platformed a materialistic view of the universe, one that relegated biblical teachings to the realm of “fairy tales.” He also mentions PBS’s broadcast of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series, which touted a thoroughly mechanistic universe.

In 1981, the year Francis Schaeffer published A Christian Manifesto, I was a philosophy professor at Wheaton. He had just spoken in an April chapel, and I asked him if he’d mind coming directly to my bioethics class to engage the students. From the first time I would read his Escape from Reason (1968) up through How Should We Then Live? (1976) and Whatever Happened to the Human Race? (1979), I had admired his willingness to take on the idols of the age, and the 1979 video series primed him for extemporaneous contribution to my class.
Though he’d been diagnosed with lymphoma in 1978 (a malady which would take his life in 1984), he was still going as strong as he could, and he was kind enough to agree to the impromptu presentation, with Edith by his side. (She was not thrilled that he would tax himself for this extra hour of speaking, but he was willing, and she relented.)
The Religion of Humanism amidst the Reach of Television
Versed in the Communist Manifesto (1848) and the two Humanist Manifestos (1933 and 1973), Schaeffer picks up the gauntlet in his Christian Manifesto, responding particularly in chapter four to these humanist documents. He also cites Supreme Court decisions to make his case that humanism is, indeed, religious. From there, he argues that the religion of humanism not only exists, but that it increasingly prevails, supplanting our nation’s Judeo-Christian consensus and greasing the skids toward authoritarianism.
He blames the media for much of the damage insofar as they “see through the spectacles of a finally relativistic set of ethical personal social standards” (56). He calls out public television for refusing to broadcast Whatever Happened to the Human Race? while using tax money to deploy the Hard Choices series, which platformed a materialistic view of the universe, one that relegated biblical teachings to the realm of “fairy tales.” He also mentions PBS’s broadcast of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series, which touted a thoroughly mechanistic universe.
The problem of partisan overreach extended to the legacy media, where “reporters” sought to be players—case in point, CBS, where the avuncular Walter Cronkite (who later expressed doubts over the long-term viability of democracy) was pressuring Ronald Reagan to pick Gerald Ford rather than George Bush as his running mate, a maneuver chronicled by Tom Shales in the Washington Post. Schaeffer concludes that the “solution is to limit somehow television’s power to use its bias in ‘the editorial’ reporting of events, and most specifically to keep it from shaping the political process” (61).
That observation jumps off the page, provoking the reader to ask what sort of limiting procedure he has in mind. Surely, we do not want a government watchdog such as the one established (and disestablished within a month) by the Department of Homeland Security—the Disinformation Governance Board. Critics quickly and correctly pointed out that Secretary Mayorkas’s brainchild was reminiscent of various “ministries of truth” portrayed in Orwell’s 1984 and instantiated under Axis and Iron Curtain tyrants in the twentieth century.
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Jesus’ message about being the bread of life is one of the most convicting and revealing in the Gospel accounts. People who are confronted by this message cannot stand in the middle and they cannot pretend which side they are on – at least for long. We all must either recognize that we have nowhere else to go but to Christ or that we are unwilling to relinquish our hold on our illusory autonomy. 

In John’s Gospel account, each of Jesus’ seven “I am” statements revealed something about His person and work, allowing John’s readers to know Him more intimately, clearly, and personally. These statements are designed to bring us back to the foundation of our faith, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The first of these statements occurs in John 6, where Jesus twice declares, “I am the bread of life.” By human standards, the message here could be categorized as the worst sermon Jesus ever preached. When the chapter begins, Jesus is being followed by crowds of possibly more than 20,000 people. At the end, He is left with 12 followers – one of whom is, in Jesus’ words, a devil.
In the modern church today, if a teacher loses 99.94% of his audience, he would be deemed a failure. That’s why by the world’s standards, this message Jesus gave in John 6 was a complete disaster; but by Jesus’ standards, it accomplished exactly what He intended it to do – and so it was a roaring success.
The tension of this passage is due to the crowd’s refusal to understand and accept Jesus’ true meaning when He called Himself the “Bread of Life.” Members of the crowd following Jesus were hungry, and they wanted our Lord to provide them with sustenance. Jesus, who was perfectly capable of such an earthly minded miracle, had a spiritual focus with His statement, knowing that their eternal destinies mattered exponentially more than the state of their empty stomachs. More than two thousand years have passed since this interaction between Jesus and the crowd, but the same tension and truth remains with us today.
John includes two scenes at the onset of this chapter to provide context for the forthcoming conversation and to demonstrate that Jesus is God. Only God can create bread to feed 20,000 people out of five crackers, and only God can overrule the way water and density normally work so that He can walk on water. John’s point in the inclusion of these stories is to force us to grapple with this question: ‘Who is Jesus?’ Is He a human bread factory, ready to meet our temporal needs and submit to our whims and desires? Or is He God in human flesh, the sovereign ruler of all?
As the crowd gathers around Jesus after His miraculous stroll across a stormy sea, the Savior confronts their worldly motives in seeking Him by highlighting their real reason for coming: they didn’t want spiritual truth or eternal life; they wanted physical food. This is how many people in this world search for Jesus. In fact, the entire seeker-sensitive movement in the church is built on this premise, that they want to attract a crowd by appealing to their fleshly desires.
Not only does Jesus understand the crowd is only interested in a resolution for their temporal problems, but He also knows they mistakenly believe they have some stake (i.e. works) in the things that only God can do. This crowd only wants to come to Jesus on their terms.
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Doug began his pastoral ministry in Trenton, NJ at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) from 1971-1975 before becoming the pastor of New Life in Christ Church (NLICC) in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1975, where he served faithfully until his death in 2024. Doug started NLICC as an unaffiliated church but steadily led the church into the Presbyterian Church in America in 1998.

Rev. Dr. Douglas Warren Kittredge was called into the presence of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on February 10, 2024. His earthly journey was distinguished by a deep commitment to his God, his family, his church, and the global mission of the church, leaving an unmistakable impact on all who knew him.
Douglas is survived by his devoted wife of 54 years, Mary Jane, their four children: Douglas Charles, Rachel Marie Whitman (James), Andrew Mark (Sarah), Naomi Elizabeth Wilson (Chad); and 13 grandchildren: Juliet (Ryan), Tyler, Isabel, Lincoln, Elijah, Esther, Abigail, Jordan, Judah, Wren, Sybil, Margaret, and Faye. His legacy also lives on through his sister, Jeanette Stadick of Roselle, Illinois.
His academic journey laid the foundation for his ministry, beginning with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wheaton College in 1968, followed by a Master of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1971, and culminating in a Doctor of Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1988.
Doug began his pastoral ministry in Trenton, NJ at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) from 1971-1975 before becoming the pastor of New Life in Christ Church (NLICC) in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1975, where he served faithfully until his death in 2024. Doug started NLICC as an unaffiliated church but steadily led the church into the Presbyterian Church in America in 1998. As such, he transferred from the OPC to the “Delmarva” (Delaware, Maryland & Virginia) Presbytery (of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod) in 1975 and was received into the James River Presbytery (of the Presbyterian Church in America) in 1982.
Doug had the perseverance and the kind blessing of God to pastor NLICC for nearly 49 years. During his tenure in Fredericksburg, Doug and Mary Jane pioneered much of the community’s spiritual and educational development. They demonstrated a strong commitment to Christian education, helping to inspire the vision behind Fredericksburg Christian School, contributing to its early success, and serving on its board. Recognizing the needs of homeschooling families, in 2004 they led in organizing Christ Covenant School, a homeschool cooperative in Fredericksburg.
Doug’s commitment to the dignity of God-given life led him to support the establishment of pro-life ministries in Fredericksburg. His early support and vision were instrumental in bringing Bethany Christian Services and a crisis pregnancy center to the area.
His passion for equipping future church leaders motivated and supported the launching of the Fredericksburg branch of New Geneva Theological Seminary in 2002. Here he taught and mentored many men to licensure and ordination within the James River Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America.
Under Doug’s visionary leadership, several new churches were started, and he helped organize three city-wide evangelistic campaigns in collaboration with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Organization. He was pivotal in advancing the work of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at the University of Mary Washington by supporting the first full-time worker on campus.
Doug had a strong conviction of the church’s responsibility to reach the Jewish people with the gospel. He made numerous trips to the nation, fostering friendships with local churches and leading many groups on tours of the land to connect with Christian workers. In 2012, he helped start the Jerusalem Gateway Partnership, a missionary partnership aimed at establishing and supporting churches in Israel and surrounding areas. His written works, “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem” and “God’s Plan for Peace in the Middle East,” underscore his commitment to building the church in the Middle East.
However, the crown jewel of his ministry was undoubtedly New Life in Christ Church, which he began in 1975 with just 10 organizing families. The church has since grown significantly, impacting thousands worldwide through its ministry and missions’ arm. Doug was a torchbearer of historic evangelicalism, influenced by his childhood church (Park Street in Boston), his childhood pastor (Harold J. Ockenga), the martyrdom of the “Auca missionaries”, and his time at Wheaton. His evangelical commitments shone through in his conviction on the truthfulness of the Bible, his faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and his efforts in evangelism and worldwide missions. Doug was certain that the local church of Jesus Christ would make a significant difference for the kingdom of God and was the driving force behind his lifelong ministry. He was a pastor at heart, caring to know and be involved in the lives of each person at the church. Countless people have testified of his caring pursuit like a shepherd to the sheep.
When Doug was young, still a young man, he had a chance to join his pastor and Billy Graham as Graham spoke at the Harvard Law Forum. It was a significant day in Doug’s life as Billy Graham challenged these law students to consider the claims of Christ even as they prepared for their career in law.
Doug remembers traveling with his pastor Harold John Ockenga and Billy Graham in a car. Ockenga introduced young Doug to Billy Graham and said, “This young man wants to be a pastor”. Graham looked squarely at him and said, “Is that right, you want to be a pastor?”  Young Doug answered, “Yes, sir.” Graham’s response is something that Doug would remember all his life, “You’ll do well.”
On February 10, 2024, Rev. Dr. Douglas Warren Kittredge heard those words again, but this time, not from Billy Graham, he heard them from His Savior, “You have done well. Well done, good and faithful servant, enter in the joy of your master. He has received the crown laid up for him in heaven, a crown of God’s grace that he will place down in worship at his Savior. Doug Kittredge, a sinner saved by grace, now lives in the abundant love and grace of God in glory.
Sean Whitenack is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is the Pastor of New Life in Christ PCA in Fredericksburg, Va.
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