New Frontiers in Dystopia

Progress; forward movement toward a destination. The goal of progressivism, whether in the political, general, or religious sphere, is to move humanity “forward” toward a destination. With progressives running all our major institutions, including government, news media, education, the military, entertainment, and most major corporations, we need to ask: a) what is the destination we are progressing toward? and b) are we willing to go there with them?

These questions are critically important when we understand that the progressives are not only winning, they are moving toward their goals at an ever-increasing pace. When we look back at the last 50 years of “progress”, society’s transformations have been in only one direction. Let’s face it, even during those times when leaders that promise to uphold traditionalist values have been in significant positions of power, the cultural currents continue to flow with the same trajectory, sometimes just a little bit slower.

So, where are we headed? On the surface, progressive goals sound quite appealing. The destination they seek is to establish a utopian society where people live in peace, unity, and harmony. Some of the attributes necessary to attain that society include establishing social harmony through a common set of shared ideals and a collective history (the narrative), ensuring that societal development is directed by highly educated technical experts (centralized planning), enforcing equity (equal results), and ensuring that people have the freedom to pursue personal fulfillment, based on their own personal truth, as long as that truth aligns with the progressive narrative (“freedom” from repressive ideas).

These sound so laudable it’s understandable that true believers in the progressive vision consider the opposition to be reactionary, misogynist, xenophobic, extremist, and downright evil. The opposition is, after all, opposing progress!

Peace, unity, equity, and harmony don’t occur naturally so progressivism must be enforced by a ruling power – an elite class of people with the wealth, position, and the will to impose their vision on the rest of society. This is called totalitarianism. The problem with progressivism is that its vision is so consistently and spectacularly disconnected from its reality. As someone who has lived most of my life in the San Francisco Bay Area, I am very near the proverbial “tip of the spear” when it comes to the results of progressive rule.

The progressive solution to homelessness is to provide support and services to homeless people. The City of San Francisco alone spends roughly $300MM/year in “investments to address homelessness”. This includes a full tent-city on the grounds of City Hall that is currently funded at a cost of $57,000 per tent per year. That’s $4,750 per month in services for each of its residents! It is estimated that between 2017 and 2019, the number of homeless living on the streets of San Francisco increased by over 30%. During the pandemic that number has likely grown even faster. Sidewalks, underpasses, bike trails, parks, and vacant lots are overrun with tents, shopping carts, bicycles, trash, rats, and human waste. It seems the progressive solution may have failed.

Drug use amongst the homeless population is rampant. Both San Francisco and Oakland have needle exchange and supervised injection site programs that are funded through their city’s health services departments. Needles and drug paraphernalia litter the streets and BART stations (could it be that they don’t always exchange their needles?). In 2020 there were 621 overdose deaths in the City of San Francisco, compared to just 173 deaths from Covid-19. It seems the progressive solution may have failed.

In the 2018 election, progressives invested heavily in electing District Attorneys that would work to solve the racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Their election results were highly successful. Instead of honoring their oath of office to prosecute crimes fairly and impartially, George Gascon (LA), Chesa Boudin (SF), and our very own Dianna Becton (Contra Costa) set about to free prisoners early, stop prosecuting “low level offenders”, and reduce felonies to misdemeanors. During the riotous summer of 2020, Becton even went so far as to issue a directive to her prosecutors that a looter’s needs should be considered before charging them. The predictable result is that crime has substantially increased throughout California. Burglaries, theft, car-jacking, assault, and murder rates are higher than they have been for decades. It seems the progressive solution may have failed.

There are so many more examples: promoting sexual perversion in our schools, normalizing transgenderism, inventing history to better fit the narrative of our elites, and unequally applying or simply ignoring laws by those who are responsible for enforcing them. But all of them point in the direction of decline and societal collapse. It’s occurring rapidly right before us.

The progressive solution is always more of the same. If only we would surrender more of our freedom and grant more power to the ruling elite and allow more of our wealth to be consumed by their programs, surely things will get better. So, we cede more to totalitarianism and the powerful get more powerful and the problems grow more insurmountable in an ever-increasing spiral.

Because we worship a God that we consider a higher authority than the state, the Church is a threat to totalitarianism that must be either co-opted or destroyed. Many churches are willingly allowing progressivism to dominate their beliefs. Foundational doctrines are rejected and replaced with the cultural preferences of our ruling class. Mainline denominations are teaching false doctrines of racial reconciliation and group guilt, materialism, social justice, and advocacy of sexual deviancy. The latter is advertised on their literature and websites by the euphemism “affirming church”. What they are affirming is a lifestyle enslaved to sin. Sin becomes tolerated, then accepted, then normalized, then celebrated.

The Gospel is not culturally appropriate. The Gospel is not sin affirming. “It is for freedom, that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” [Galatians 5:1]. Any faith that affirms enslavement to sin is teaching a false and meaningless gospel.

When Jesus rescued the woman caught in adultery from the Pharisees who were about to stone her, he said, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” [John 8:1-11] He gave her freedom, and in giving her freedom, He gave her life. To accept sin when we can offer freedom in Christ isn’t just lazy, it’s evil.

We, as believers, find ourselves living in a culture that has rejected God and is reaping the consequences. How should we respond?

• PRAY! Our hope is not in human solutions or having the right leaders. Our hope is in Christ alone. Pray for revival and repentance.

• Be prepared. Find your people and grow together by seeking God’s will and direction. As our culture crumbles, our ruling elites will need someone to blame. We are a likely target. We need to have a strong group of fellow believers that we can rely on when things get really tough and we are further marginalized.

• Adjust your perspective. We need to recognize that this is not our home. We are exiles [1Peter 2:11], called to be set apart, and not be conformed to the pattern of this world [Romans 12:2]. Perhaps feeling comfortable in this life is a bad sign.

• Stand for the Truth. Never succumb to the lies of our culture. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? [Matthew 16:26]

History teaches us that apathy in the face of increasing tyranny is acquiescence. It’s full of people in denial that tell themselves, “That can’t happen here”. I would love to think that the world I’m turning over to my grandkids is better than the one I entered but based on our current trajectory, that would take nothing short of a miracle. Fortunately, we serve a God of miracles.