CYNICISM IS OUR SOCIETAL CURRENCY

Cynicism is our societal currency. It's harmful to democracy but it is our default social coinage. It is injurious to relationships but it our learned security.
Hope was the preferred currency until we ruined it. Any institution that you name has lost people's trust and confidence, government, law enforcement, banks, corporations, organized religions, education, and even the press. In fact, news sources are the propagators of cynicism. Networks are predisposed to an interpretation. Objectivity is obscured by bias. Comedy, talk shows, celebrities and film augment cynical attitudes. Saddest of all, we have become less trusting of one another. 

Too often politicians have failed to keep promises and have catered to special interests. Law enforcement has broken law and failed to keep streets safe. Banks have screwed customers' futures with easy credit. Corporations have expanded the space between wealthy and middle class. Religions have displayed repeated hypocrisies. 

As the institutions fail us, our immediate worlds are filled with truth-starved, connection-starved, hope-starved people.

QUIT ARGUING & START LIVING

Although I have written the past few posts with a view to distinguishing the plausibility of faith and the implausibility of atheism, I have another thought today.

I think that Christians in North America assume that all non-believers are convinced atheists or at least agnostics, so the assumed approach to them is refutation and defense and argumentation. In fact, we live in such an irreligious time that the majority of people of no faith, have simply never considered faith claims. They have little or no experience with the Bible, with Christians, or with church. They pay no attention to these. They simply live life. They may not require arguments to belief but rather winsome examples of life being lived by people who are thriving as they make sense of life by trusting God and finding his involvement at so many levels.