Editor’s Note: We recommend that every minister reached by The Aquila Report be sure to read this column. And perhaps the rest of you will sent a link to your pastor. Needless to say, this is a must read for what Cal calls ‘clergy.’

There have been many “gaps” in modern politics. There is the gender gap, the generation gap and now the God gap, which is the gulf between people who take God’s instructions seriously and those who don’t. Which side of the gap you’re on could influence your vote.

The God gap is growing wider.

I asked Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum about this. In a telephone interview with me, Santorum, whose rhetoric is loaded with religious and cultural language, said, “While (such language) may be upsetting to some, there’s a hunger out there for talking about what’s true.”

How, then, would he explain a recent New York Times story that reported for the first time in our history, that “more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage.” Santorum acknowledged, “I’m probably talking to Republican audiences, so it’s a little different. I’m not talking to the general audience at this point. Marriage is on the decline. The culture is changing.”

The problem for presidential candidates — and for President Obama, who occasionally appeals to Scripture to justify his policies — is that fewer people are listening to the voice of God, or to voices claiming to speak for Him.

Not too long ago, a report about growing numbers of out-of-wedlock births would have produced sermons calling for repentance and set revival fires burning in churches across the land. Today, there’s only the sound of silence.

The Times story, citing government data compiled by Child Trends, a Washington research group, noted that the shift in the makeup of American families was likely to produce children who face “… elevated risks of falling into poverty, failing in school or suffering emotional and behavioral problems.” Yawn.

How is this social virus to be cured when older religious people speak a language and advocate a belief system that either many younger people don’t understand, or do not wish to hear?

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[Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced in this article is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]
HT-TC