We are living in a “civilizational moment”

As we approach America’s 250th birthday, it’s tempting to assume our foundational freedoms will always be here.

But our God-given freedoms—and the human flourishing that flow from them—are not inevitable, though neither are their demise.

We are living in a moment of profound brokenness and need but also choosing. From gender ideology to parental rights, from free speech to religious liberty to the sanctity of life—we are living in what Os Guinness calls a “civilizational moment”: a time when a society’s moral foundations are either renewed or replaced.

The Judeo-Christian principles that shaped the great American experiment face increasingly ubiquitous threats. For instance, prominent legal scholars can no longer define what a woman is but know that a man can become one. The government thinks it can raise kids better than parents. More than 62,000 babies are killed by chemical abortions every month. And states are revoking foster care licenses of loving parents simply because they won’t promote gender ideology.

These beliefs are the byproduct of a society—and, increasingly, its laws—unmoored from truth. My friend Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former atheist who is now a Christian, compares our civilization to a cut flower. For a time, it may hold its shape and look beautiful, but eventually it withers and dies … unless it is replanted in the roots that sustain: fear and love of God, truth, and the institutions that form virtue, the family and the church.

We may be in unchartered territory, but we face the same enemy that has targeted truth and the imago Dei for two millennia.

And where does the enemy so often strike first? Children. Right now, his tactic is causing them to question who they are and how God created them. Over 23% of Gen Z identify as “LGBTQIA+,” an acronym that didn’t exist when they were born.

When parents experience this in their own family, it can be devastating. Mercifully, there are counselors who can provide a real lifeline not only for the confused girl who needs someone safe to talk to, but for the parents who are desperate to get their child the help she wants and needs.

Yet more than 20 states and more than 100 jurisdictions prohibit counselors from having voluntary conversations to help young people regain peace with their God-given sex. The laws force counselors to push kids only toward gender transition. Imagine if the government told marriage counselors they could only recommend divorce and not help couples who want to stay together?

If that sounds backwards, it is.

But by God’s grace, Alliance Defending Freedom recently won a landmark free-speech victory at the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Colorado licensed counselor Kaley Chiles, who challenged Colorado’s law that censors her conversations with her clients. The high court ruled 8–1 that counseling conversations are protected speech and states like Colorado cannot silence viewpoints in the counseling room.

The court’s decision reminds us that when we base laws on a lie, we end up censoring the truth. We are grateful the Court held that the First Amendment jealously protects the right of all Americans to think and speak freely, and that licensed professionals don’t lose their First Amendment rights when they receive their license. But most importantly, the decision paves the way for young people across the country confused about their sex to hear the truth that their bodies aren’t a mistake. So, today, we see glimmers of truth cutting through the web of lies. And we see people experiencing true freedom as a result.

As we contend for truth, I’m thankful we have solid, time-tested pillars the founders gave us to rest on: All are created equal. All have the right to live. All have the right to think and speak freely. All have the right to live out their faith.

It’s now our duty to preserve those freedoms. Instead of being passive observers of our civilizational moment, let’s, first and foremost, be active in prayer and then employ these foundational rights to defend truth. That’s how we offer something the world cannot: the joy of conviction in a world of compromise and a vision for human flourishing rooted in objective truth and human dignity.

We can re-anchor our society in truth if we commit to contending with courage, conviction, and clarity.