By its very nature, robbery involves some kind of deception.  Few of us have any respect for a thief.  Embezzlement is a form of robbery, but with an ugly twist.  Embezzlement is stealing something entrusted to one’s care.  The embezzler commits two crimes, robbery and fraud.  The act is somehow more despicable when we discover the thief is one of us.

The embezzler takes advantage of a trusted position, and because of this, the crime is usually detected only after it’s too late to recover the stolen property…the money has been spent, the securities have been cashed, the damage has been done.

Early in the twentieth century, America’s academic elite placed their trust in the rising potential of humanism.  The great hope was that a system of thought and action which concerned itself with human interests devoid of the entanglements of religion would usher in an age of enlightenment so powerful that it would sweep away every human ill from poverty to war.  Its promise was intoxicating.

Nothing set forth this hope more clearly than the document commonly known as “A Humanist Manifesto.”   Two additional manifestos have been written (1973, 2003), but the first, published in 1933 and mostly the work of Raymond Bragg, was the genesis document of the modern humanist movement.  Bragg’s work was published with thirty-four signatories, many of whom were to help shape the educational processes of tens of millions of American youth.  Curiously, the 1933 document referred to itself as “religious humanism.”

The closing statement of the 1933 Manifesto reveals the core beliefs of its proponents.

So stand the theses of religious humanism. Though we consider the religious forms and ideas of our fathers no longer adequate, the quest for the good life is still the central task for mankind. Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for its achievement. He must set intelligence and will to the task.¹

Notice these words “Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for its achievement.”  In other words, man’s hope is in man’s intelligence, and nothing more.

The core belief of humanism is that there is no hope outside of man.  The document’s three uses of the word hope confirm this.

While this age does owe a vast debt to the traditional religions, it is none the less obvious that any religion that can hope to be a synthesizing and dynamic force for today must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present.

Religion must formulate its hopes and plans in the light of the scientific spirit and method.

We assume that humanism will take the path of social and mental hygiene and discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking.¹ (Emphasis added.)

It is the “sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking” of traditional Christianity that humanism so particularly despises.  In fact, hope of a better life in a world to come, is widely viewed by the devotees of humanism as wishful thinking at best, and dangerous to human progress at worst.  It is delusional.

Consequently, the Humanist Manifesto taken at face value is in total contradistinction to Biblical Christianity, and as such, is a truly hopeless philosophy since it acknowledges no guiding hand, no ultimate justice and, no hope beyond the grave.  This is essentially the hopelessness of humanism.

Our English word hope, by definition is a verb meaning to cherish a desire with anticipation, to desire with expectation of obtainment, to expect with confidence.²

Biblically, the Hebrew word for hope (saber v.) means to inspect, examine, wait, hope, wait upon.  The Greek word for hope (elpizo v.) is nearly the same, meaning to hopefully trust.³

Hope is essentially about the future.  Humanism presents a hope only in this life, and is totally dependent upon the powers of mankind’s collective contribution to the so-called good life.  Evolution, the foundation upon which humanism is built, has hope only in the millions of years of adaptation, and even then with great uncertainty.  Since no one expects to live long enough to derive any benefit from evolution, practical hopelessness is the consequence.

One might argue that humanism promotes a kind of realistic brand of hope, based on the practical potential of individuals and the collective consequence of cooperation.  If that is the case, then we are asked to place our hope in something that has yet to prove itself worthy of hope.  While claiming to be the guardian of a rational hope, humanism has, in fact, been robbing our nation of genuine hope.

Humanism cannot point to the great technological stride that our nation has made in the past seventy years, and claim it as an evidence of secular hopefulness.  That great stride has been made possible by millions of individuals who professed hope not in humanism, but in Jesus Christ, and within a national framework initially founded on His teachings.  This is not a wholesale endorsement of the twentieth century’s giant technological leap, since it can be argued that it ushered in both wonderful advances and yet-to-be fully realized horrors.

It is certainly true that millions of others did not profess that same hope.  Nonetheless,  American Christianity, though admittedly infiltrated by humanistic philosophy, has been the dominate religion.  Historically, the one great experiment of full-blown national religious humanism, the former Soviet Union, was a colossal failure.

Embezzlers rarely have more than those from whom they steal.  Similarly, humanism took hold within a social structure that was the product of those who generally held the collective values of Christianity, and shared its common hopes.  In fact, the world has yet to witness a great and lasting civilization founded and built entirely on a totally non-metaphysical humanistic philosophy.  The French tried it before the Soviets with the same bloody results.

Has humanism had a hiccup since 1933?  Hardly!  In fact, it has tightened its grip on the theory of evolution, redefined itself as “scientific humanism” and cloaked itself within the cleverly disguised dress of that great champion of the people - progressivism.  It has successfully duped millions into accepting the idea that religion (and fundamental Christianity in particular), is the great opiate of the people and an arch enemy of personal freedom.

By the early 1960s humanism had finally achieved its goal of wresting control of the public school system.  This is not surprising, in light of the fact that John Dewey was one of the signatories of the 1933 Manifesto.   Dewey was arguably the most notable of the members of the twentieth century’s progressive movement that quite literally redesigned the American educational system around the core concepts of the humanist movement.⁴

Certainly, Dewey was not the only one responsible for the radical redesign of the American education system.  His concepts and ideas were embraced by an army of well meaning and hopeful young educators, most of whom were the product of colleges preparing teachers for the brave new world of the future.  This is why it has been embezzlement and not an outright heist that has been largely responsible for the theft.  Yes, embezzlement, and in two distinct ways…from the outcome of the core premise of humanism upon those for whom it became a new religion, and from their trusted position within the community of our youth.

Even a casual look at the consequences of the so-called progressive movement upon our nation’s educational system causes one to wonder if the core concept of humanism is, in metaphysical terms, evil.  Yes, evil, implying a literal malevolent force behind it.

Our schools are not better or safer.  Our public school system as a whole is not producing more morally pure graduates, and student’s learning outcomes are not consistently higher.  In 1965 most high schools, at least once a year, passed out free tooth care kits courtesy of one of the major brands, and the Gideon’s distributed Bibles.  Today, high schools across the country will provide free day care for unmarried teenage mothers, and students who request them will receive free condoms.  Prayers are either banned or discouraged and even the Pledge of Allegiance is considered, by many, archaic and manipulative.

Alcohol consumption among our nation’s youth is now so routine as to cause little more than a yawn from most, even though alcohol-related motor-vehicle accidents kill someone every 31 minutes and injure someone non-fatally every two minutes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.⁵  Thousands of these deaths are the results of teenage drinking.

The problem goes far beyond drinking; teen suicide has reached almost epidemic levels.  Teen suicide (2001) was the 3rd leading cause of death among young adults and adolescents 15 to 24 years of age.  No annual national data on all attempted teenage suicides are available.  Other research indicates that there are an estimated 8-25 attempted suicides for each teen suicide death.⁶

Despite the continuous declines, the U.S. teenage pregnancy rate is still among the highest among industrialized nations. The costs of teenage childbearing in the United States are substantial. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy recently estimated that $9.1 billion in public funding was expended on teenage childbearing in 2004. These costs include public assistance, health care, child welfare, and other expenses.  Additionally, the percent of all births to unmarried women has risen to 35.7 percent.⁷

Why the focus on youth?  Because it is in a nation’s youth that we witness the core attitude trends of the future.  Add to the above statistics the holocaust of abortion, the ubiquitous distribution of violent movies and video games, the obsession with murder and killings in the media, sexual perversions, drug addiction and the rapid decline of the nuclear family, and it all adds up to the consequences of hopelessness not only among our nation’s youth, but even among our elderly and most vulnerable.

Long ago, it was written, “And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart” (Jeremiah 18:12).  Humanism is robbing America of hope, and the evidence is partly in our nation’s preoccupation with self and the concomitant culture of death that is overtaking us.

Can this be a direct result of mere humanism?  Absolutely, it cannot be otherwise.  The core of humanistic religion is the assertion that there is no God.  In fact, the committed humanist is actually repulsed by the idea that someone would literally, and with all their being, believe in a Person who does not exist.  They hate the very idea.  Interestingly, Proverbs 8:36 declares “But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.”  Anyone who doubts that American culture is infected with death has not counted the fifty-million persons who have been killed in the abortion genocide of the past forty-plus years, has not walked down the isle in a video game display, and is not aware of what is being fed to our people in the steady diet of death portrayed in movie theaters from Alaska to Florida.

Hope has to do with the future, and since the future cannot be known, real hope must be grounded in a belief that there is One who does know the future and is able to affect its outcome on our behalf.  Otherwise, we are left to hope in our own ability, the ability of others or the collective promises of the government.  Anyone with a day of life-experience ought to know how tenuous such a hope is.

On the other hand, those seemingly foolish enough to believe in a benevolent Transcendent understand perfectly the promise of Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”   If this hope is taken away, then a hopeless generation is assured.  The Apostle Paul spoke of such persons when he noted “At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12) 

Without the hope that is in God, there is no hope.  This is clear in Paul’s encouragement to the Thessalonians, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope” (I Thessalonians 4:13).  Centuries earlier Isaiah declared “For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth” (Isaiah 38:18).  If there be no God, then there can be no hope beyond the grave and no real hope in this life, only fear and a preoccupation with the inevitable…death!

Humanism has taken a position within the commonwealth of this nation, and has, for nearly seventy years quietly embezzled the true capital of our national treasury, that is, hope in a loving Providence whose hand is daily guiding in the affairs of state and family.  Trust is not the same as hope, but it is a close cousin, and even this national motto “In God we trust” has come under bitter and persistent attack.  This does not seem unreasonable to the humanist who fears that any nation backward enough to allow its citizens to believe in such foolishness is doomed to mediocrity at best, while many humanist would declare it criminal.

The tragedy is compounded because this evil embezzlement is taking place under the very nose of those being robbed, and is being committed by those in whom we have placed so much trust.   In fact, many are ignorantly complicit not realizing what is at stake.  There are reasonable voices being raised, but the national media has cast these voices as shrill and irrelevant, going so far as to demonize such Christian patriots.  One can but wonder how shrill must have sounded the voices of Dietrich Bonnhoffer, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

What can be done about it?  At least three things can be done.  First, Christians must unapologetically assert their place at the table of cultural ideas.  Francis Schafer warned of the danger of allowing humanism to dominate the culture, and we have only now begun to see the consequences of surrendering the arts and sciences to the godless.  Second, Christians must go into the voting booth in each and every election, and when they do, vote according to a Biblical worldview no matter what.  Third, Christians must get back to the business of living holy lives.  It is still true that the best argument for Biblical Christianity is its practice in everyday life.

The embezzlement is ongoing.  We are being robbed, but we have not been totally bilked out of our national heritage, and it is not too late to act, though it is too late to not act. Where ought we to begin?  We must seek forgiveness for the sin of complacency and assimilation.  We must begin within our own hearts and homes.  We must live holy lives, whatever it may cost.  Then we must vote our Biblical worldview backed up by direct involvement in the culture, thereby doing the thing that salt and light is supposed to do.  We need to begin doing these things now.  Right now!

End Notes:

1. http://www.americanhumanist.org/about/manifesto1.htm
2. http://www.m-w.com/dictionary
3. http://odl.mdivs.edu/
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey
5. http://specials.newsweek.com (original source)
6. http://familyfirstaid.org/suicide.html
7. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/unmarry.htm
8. All Scripture quoted is from the King James Version of the Bible.

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