Cotton Candy vs. Biblical Theological Meat
- David Lane
- Nov 25, 2025
- 4 min read
A culture that rejects God, suppresses truth, and erodes the moral foundations upon which freedom depends cannot endure. Individual crime wounds a community; cultural paganism destroys a civilization.
D. Stuart Briscoe [1930-2022] was a British-born evangelical pastor, author, and international conference speaker whose ministry spanned more than 70 years across more than 100 countries. After a career in banking, he became the senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Waukesha, Wisconsin, serving from 1970 until 2000. In his Commentary on Romans, Briscoe contrasted modern man’s technological brilliance with his spiritual poverty.
Contemporary man is sophisticated in technology and skilled in managing the complexities of the modern world. Yet, having squandered the nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage and the Bible-based culture established by the American Founders through the 17th and 18th centuries, secular modern man finds himself smugly content to live in a shameful state of spiritual poverty and moral destitution.
The true culprit of the cultural demise is the evangelistic, profane secularization of America through modern educational theories conceived by secular religion. Roughly 90% of K–12 students1 over the last 75 years have passed through public schooling and have been fed pagan cotton candy rather than Biblical theological meat. The Founders adhered to the deeply held conviction that civic order rested upon spiritual order.
Founding Father Fisher Ames [1758-1808], co-author of the First Amendment, recognized the danger with remarkable clarity:
“We have a dangerous trend beginning to take place in our education. We’re starting to put more and more textbooks into our schools. … We’ve become accustomed of late to putting little books into the hands of children containing fables and moral lessons. … We are spending less time in the classroom on the Bible, which should be the principal text in our schools.”
Contemporary secular agnostics often display discomfort - even embarrassment - in expressing dependency upon God Jehovah. Their moral confusion manifests as a total ignorance of spiritual matters, to the point of insisting that modern man lacks the time - or even the capacity - to comprehend the mysteries of God and His never-ending established order.
Briscoe continued the analysis presented in his book The Communicator’s Commentary: Romans by comparing Rome and modern America:
“Another interesting parallel between the Rome of Paul’s day and the contemporary society in which we live is seen in the place that homosexuality holds in the thinking of both civilizations.”
He then quoted William Barclay’s striking description of ancient Rome:
“Vice did not stop with the crude and natural vices. Society, from top to bottom, was riddled with unnatural vice. Fourteen out of the first 15 Roman Emperors were homosexuals.”2
Historians today would note that Barclay overstated the exact number, but the underlying reality is beyond dispute: the Roman Empire - from palace to populace - was saturated with sexual disorder, moral degeneracy, and practices contrary to God’s created order.
Briscoe added:
“The Kinsey Report on The Sexual Behavior of the Human Male [1948] and its female counterpart [1953] stated most clearly that the incidence of homosexuality was much greater than had been imagined. The findings of the reports, the teachings of Sigmund Freud, and the strong insistence on human rights - including the rights of homosexuals - have brought homosexuality into the public consciousness.
“It is particularly unfortunate that the word ‘gay’ has become a synonym for ‘homosexual,’ because both Biblical truth and practical observation point to the fact that there is more evidence of ‘penalty’ than ‘gaiety’ in those who live homosexually. … A person out of touch with the reality of God is out of touch with reality, period, including the truth about humanity.”
Paul wrote Romans 1 in connection to that world of moral confusion, and the parallels to modern America are unmistakable. Romans 1:28-32 describes it fully:
“…God gave them over to a depraved mind… filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice… slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents… unloving, unmerciful… and they not only do such things, but enthusiastically approve others who practice them.”
In such a moral landscape, the American Founders built what many historians regard as the most extraordinary national civilization ever produced. They did so consciously upon the Biblical moral foundation embodied in Proverbs 14:34:
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
The Founders did not treat Proverbs 14:34 as inspirational poetry; they treated it as political / cultural reality.
Gouverneur Morris [1752-1816], author of the Constitution’s final draft, insisted:
“Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore, education should teach the precepts of religion.”
Benjamin Rush [1746-1813], Father of American public education, declared:
“The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion.”
Noah Webster [1758-1843] affirmed:
“The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society.”
Righteousness produces civic prosperity; sin produces national decay - just like Proverbs 14:34 declares.
The tragic killing of a West Virginia Guardsman is a grief-filled reminder of personal evil, but the greater danger to America is the rise of a pagan culture - a culture that rejects God, suppresses truth, and erodes the moral foundations upon which freedom depends. Individual crime wounds a community; cultural paganism destroys a civilization.
Thankfully, Gideons and Rahabs have entered the public square of America.
David Lane
American Renewal Project
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