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In our 2010 article, Christian Scandal (the good kind)  Jonathan Miles rightly pointed out that:

… distinctly Christian stumbling blocks have been questioned by the Culture Driven Church. Grace and Hell have long been disparaged. Grace has either been watered down into universal salvation or thickened with concepts of good works. Hell has been disparaged by even venerable dons of theology. Evangelism has been abandoned in favor of a social gospel and Brian McClaren’s religious pluralism. And sexual ethics have been simply and quietly ignored in favor of discreet trysts or transformed into political debates. All of this in an effort to remove the skandalons that offend.

Since those days, the Culture-Driven Emerging Church has evolved into Progressive Christianity. Nothing happens in a vacuum. We got to this point through largely unnoticed changes in the past, which of course brings us to where we are today, in both culture and the church. It happened as a result of something we dubbed “spiritual AIDS,” the Acquired Ignorance of the Doctrines of Scripture, about 25 years ago. A physical analogy with the AIDS epidemic as it stood in the late 1990s may be helpful.

A fine line exists between personal rights and public safety. A small retrovirus, 90 nanometers in size, invisible to the naked eye and even to a high-powered microscope, now straddles that line. In this tug of war, people are walking wounded and dying in large numbers.

America has already lost 400,000 people to AIDS; another 600,000 to 900,000 are HIV-infected and will meet the same fate. Around the globe, 16,000 people become newly infected each day; according to the most recent data from UNAIDS, one woman becomes infected every 12 seconds.

The lack of leadership in controlling the AIDS epidemic is a national disgrace. Fifty-two communicable diseases are reported by name. HIV, the most deadly communicable virus, is off this list in California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Georgia (the backyard of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and in a number of other states.

In case anyone is still wondering, the cure rate for AIDS remains locked in at zero. There is no AIDS vaccine, and there may never be one. HIV should be at the top of the list of communicable diseases in all states and partner notification a must, not an issue for debate. Our only hope in saving lives is through prevention, and that opportunity is being squandered.¹Cary B. Savitch, “Why Too Many Are Dying of AIDS at the Alter of Privacy,” ACP-ASIM Observer, March 1999; https://web.archive.org/web/19990825005342/http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/mar99/toomany.htm, Accessed 1-3-2023

When AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was first brought to the attention of the public at large, it was viewed by many as a “Gay” and/or drug abuser disease. A terrible one, no doubt, but after all, hadn’t the cry up to that point been: “What goes on behind closed doors is none of your business. Any satisfactions or consequences are ours and don’t affect you!” Suddenly, with deaths piling up very quickly, the outcry from within these communities became “AIDS cure now!” and militant Gay activists made sure it was in the public view, demanding that all taxpayers be penalized for the consequences of the behavior that happened behind closed doors. As time went on, AIDS moved into the heterosexual community, and the nation became more concerned that, with a few exceptions of innocents who contracted AIDS through blood transfusions, spouses were now bringing it home after a bit of “recreational” sex, or some similar reason, contracted through bad behavior, in privacy, behind closed doors.

Prior to the sexual revolution of the ‘60s, sex outside the bounds of matrimony was largely viewed with disdain. That is not to say it didn’t occur; it did, but there were social consequences to pay. Today, morality in this area has been reduced to the level of going to a basketball or baseball game, or a bowling alley. It is now “recreational.” “Checkers, ping pong, or sex, anyone?” Self-gratification now largely rules the day. The crybaby boomer generation has carried its motto, “If it feels good, do it,” to its logical extension, “and hang the consequences.” And what were once cut and dried facts of life are, for many, large grey areas these days. For example, it was not long ago that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was unable to define what a woman is. A generation ago, and forever before that, most people would assume they had that definition down pat!

AIDS in the Church

As we continue addressing the question, “How did the disparagement of heaven, hell, evangelism, sexual morality, and/or the blasé acceptance of false teachers like the late Gwen Shamblin, Richard Rohr, or John Mark Comer become so widely accepted and even trendy in the Church? How is it that this has happened virtually unchecked, given the implicit and sometimes explicit denial of issues once clearly known to be essential doctrines of the faith?” We also need to ask how it is that theological ramblings and heretical descriptions on the nature of God and salvation got past the editors of what is considered a mainline Evangelical publisher? Why were the sales of Shamblin’s book, Rise Above, reaching 185,000 on their way to 1,000,000 until Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc., brought her heretical views to public attention? How did it happen that Richard Rohr’s Contemplative Prayer movement and Enneagram have been so widely embraced and promoted in churches by Christians? How has Wokeism found a home in many once-solid churches, seminaries, and Christian publications? The answer is that there is a different kind of dangerous AIDS in the church. It doesn’t necessarily affect the physical health of individuals or the group but does something far worse. The Spiritual health and well-being of many Christians has been seriously compromised, and potentially, for some, eternal separation from God may be the result of contracting spiritual AIDS. This spiritual AIDS is, as mentioned earlier, Acquired Ignorance of the Doctrines of Scripture.

It has infected Christian educational institutions such as Wheaton College, Biola University, and Baylor University, as well as “Christian” publishers such as InterVarsity Press, Zondervan, and Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Are we overstating our case here? We don’t think so. We find revealed in the 2025 Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research, State of Theology Survey that:

64% of evangelicals believe that “Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God,” and 53% affirm that “Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.”

They also note that:

Additionally, generally, more than half of evangelicals who have participated in the survey over the past eleven years have agreed with the statement “The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being.”

Wow! We’ve known for many years that Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that The Holy Spirit is merely a force but certainly did not expect that level of abominable ignorance from Evangelicals.

The lack of biblical literacy in the essentials of the faith is spiritually dangerous and, for some, may have deadly consequences for eternity. There is both a cure and a prevention for contracting spiritual AIDS. Sound Bible teaching, practice, accountability, and prayer. We would like to say it isn’t hard, but that wouldn’t be true. Paul writes:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (2Timothy 2:15)

To the pastor, the Apostle Paul provides the prescription to combat spiritual AIDS:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

We wonder, if Jesus were to write a letter to the church today, would it include something like Jesus’ words from the book of Revelation:

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Revelation 2:5)Ω

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