The Potential Ichabod in America: Our Fading Glory through Prevailing Public Opinion: Institutionalized Humanist Philosophies Result in Cultural Change

	23-	Our national consciousness has developed an officious set of ethical standards producing a supercilious code of public morality through complete rejection of biblical guidance resulting in a set of values that support human good and promote evil.  As these notions gain ascendancy the colors of our nation’s glory continue to fade accordingly.  Here are some examples of principles upheld by the new morality that document America’s fading glory.
	24-	Calling a principle ethical or moral does not make the principle right.  When a culture strays from its doctrinal underpinnings, the ethical and moral standards which result are nothing more than the prevailing attitudes of the majority.  Vox populi, vox dei: the voice of the people is the voice of God.  Gradually the prevailing standards of the new morality come into direct opposition with the absolutes required by doctrine.  Here are some examples:
a.	Doctrine says that homosexuality is a sin, an evil, and immoral.  On the contrary, the new morality based on prevailing public opinion calls it “just another lifestyle” that is inherited and amoral.  Those who take a biblical view of the behavior are decreed intolerant and mean-spirited.
b.	Doctrine says that extramarital sex is a sin, an evil, and immoral.  On the contrary, the new morality based on prevailing public opinion does not consider this behavior immoral unless practiced without a condom.
c.	Doctrine says that murder is a sin, an evil, a crime, and immoral and punishable by State-sanctioned execution.  On the contrary, the new morality based on prevailing public opinion contends that the accused is not really responsible for what he has done because he has not been treated justly by society.  It further asserts that to kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong is immoral.
A fallacy regarding the purpose of capital punishment should be noted here.  The rationale for capital punishment does not conclude that its primary function is to deter similar actions by others.  The Bible never implies such a thing.  Capital punishment is designed to punish the person who commits capital crimes.  If it should deter others from crime then that is a bonus.  But deterrence is not the primary objective.  The primary objective is to punish the guilty.  Whether or not it deters anyone else is not the issue.  The issue is that the person is guilty and must be punished.  He is most definitely deterred from committing murder again.
Therefore, the argument as to whether capital punishment deters crime is missing the point.  If deterrence was the major objective it would be called capital deterrence, not capital punishment.
	25-	Therefore, to be strongly ethical with definite moral standards is meaningless unless you have doctrine as the foundation for those beliefs.  If not, then what results is self-righteousness and crusader arrogance.
	26-	In promoting the new morality, its practitioners are not concerned with the means that might be required to obtain their desired ends since the means employed are never as important as the end desired.
	27-	This is why the self-righteous crusader sees no problem with reinterpreting the Constitution in order to achieve certain social ends which agree with the new morality.  When the end is achieved then justice is served regardless of the means required to reach it.
	28-	Those whose constitutional rights were violated in the process are seen as necessary casualties in the pursuit of a higher cause; they are considered “collateral damage” in the parlance of the day.  But when reaching their objective requires them to utilize the same rights withheld from others, no contradiction is admitted.
	29-	Not only are establishment principles ignored but so are spiritual realities as well.  The stability of the client nation is dependent upon an order maintained by biblical ethics and morals. These are presently being ignored or denounced as old-fashioned.  
	30-	The end result is that the culture changes.  What is considered to be right is determined by prevailing public opinion.  Whenever public opinion changes, so do the ethics and morals of the commonwealth.  What is right becomes an ever-changing thing that gradually leads to instability and confusion among its citizens.
	31-	When the ethics and morals change enough then the nation’s culture begins to invert.  The people may remain citizens of the nation but they live in an entirely different country than their forebears.
	32-	The inversion of the American Zeitgeist from its original biblically-based influences has led to an amalgamation of humanist philosophies developed from doctrines of demons that threatens the security of its client-nation status.
	33-	These humanist philosophies and doctrines of demons have become institutionalized into the jurisprudence of the nation’s laws and infused into the thinking of the masses.  This has led to the development of a secular religion whose tenets may be defined as follows:
	a.	Its “god” is the individual.
	b.	Its priesthood’s hierarchs are made up of sociologists and psychologists.
	c.	Its prophets and apostles are scientists with heavy emphasis on the medical profession.
d.	Scripture is written by these two groups and then taught by the local pastors.
e.	The local pastors are made up of educators, media elite, and a large number of the clergy.
f.	A hybrid theology of pantheism and humanism includes evolution, collectivism, multiculturalism, diversity, excessive and blind altruism, world peace, women’s liberation, alternate lifestyles, and total freedom with no restraint on one’s decisions and no responsibility for one’s actions.
g.	Ethics and morals are communicated by the priesthood of sociologists and psychologists.
h.	Logistics are promised from the prophets of science and technology.
i.	This religion has a system of faith in an unholy trinity which promises security, longevity, and peace of mind: government, medicine, and psychology.
j.	Faith is placed in the government for security, in medicine for longevity, and in psychology for peace of mind.