Ideas Matter. What you read, hear, see, and think all matter.

Most people, even Christians, somehow have the idea that you can see, read, hear, or think about anything and it has no affect on you.

That is simply not true.

What is happening right now in our culture is, I believe, a direct result of ideas of the past.

I am a Baby Boomer. That name describes what was at the time the largest ever generation of Americans. We were born between 1946 and 1964.

As a Baby Boomer, I grew up with a movement associated with the Baby Boomers. It is called the sexual revolution.

The sexual revolution began in the early sixties and has been progressing since that time. The sexual revolution has changed almost everything in our society. Divorce, pornography, abortion, adultery, homosexuality, and lust have all become more pronounced in this age of “sexual enlightenment.”

Recently, Hugh Hefner died and was lauded in many circles for mainstreaming and promoting pornography. His ideas mattered.

In the years to come, we will have a greater understanding of how his ideas have changed society. What we know now is that his ideas did change society.

Is it possible that the scourge of sexual assault today goes back to the sexual revolution and to Hefner? What would our society be like if we sought a different way to look at sex, marriage, and the value of people?

The ideas of the nineteenth century concerning the value of people affected the thinking of the twentieth century. The nineteenth century atheistic thinking saw people as dispensable and actually saw the death of people and killing as helpful. Eugenics became a huge topic, even in America. Out of this thinking arose the killing of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini.

Ideas matter. Where should we be getting those ideas?

We all need a biblical worldview where we look at the world through a new and different lens. That was exactly what changed western views about slavery. William Wilberforce and others in Great Britain at the end of the eighteenth century looked at the world from God’s viewpoint. Doing so made them have to look at the value of all people differently. As they looked at the biblical worldview of all people being created in God’s image, they saw that they had to do all within their power to eradicate the slave trade.

Because of their ideas and tireless effort, Great Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807. In 1833, three days before the death of Wilberforce, Great Britain outlawed slavery. This, of course, led to the Civil War and the United States outlawing slavery as well.

Ideas matter. When we seek God’s ideas, we make the world a much more just and righteous place.