Project 2026 Launched to Restore Christian Values
Dr. Alex McFarland, apologetics author and religion and culture expert, is launching a new initiative called Project 2026 to restore Christian principles to America.
The 15-year project will engage Christians and churches across the U.S. to pray and work toward changing dominant cultural trends back toward a Christian perspective by America’s 250th anniversary in 2026.
McFarland told The Christian Post Wednesday that many of the social movements in our culture, like the homosexual agenda and the spread of Islam and atheism have taken “15 to 20 years to come to fruition” and penetrate the culture.
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In looking at those trends, McFarland wanted to do something to reverse them, so he started studying the history of revivals and how they could impact the culture. He saw that many revivals took at least a decade of preparation by the church to be fulfilled.
This is why he believes the 15-year time span of Project 2026 is integral in sparking a revival. He said the interest in a restoration of values is visible across the country. “I meet hundreds of people that say we need a spiritual awakening in our country and we need Christianity to be restored in America.”
The project revolves around six core beliefs, one of which is the traditional family. McFarland sees this as a foundational “building block” of society, and one which should be affirmed within the culture as a model for marriage and raising children.
Part of the focus on marriage and family stems from what he sees as a breakdown of the two in our culture, especially in regards to marriage.
He cites reality star Kim Kardashian and NBA player Kris Humphries’ failed 72-day marriage, and Irish singer Sinead O’Connor’s 18-day marriage as recent examples that send a message to today’s youth that marriage is not forever.
“It is a sad commentary on our society that we are measuring marriages in days instead of decades,” McFarland said in a released statement. “These stars – whether intentionally or not – are telling those who look up to them that if marriage doesn’t work out, it’s OK to just walk away. But broken marriages and broken families are both reasons why our country is spiritually, morally and even financially suffering.”
McFarland, through a comprehensive plan, and help from other like-minded leaders around the country, hopes to involve 100,000 churches nationwide in the project over the next 15 years.
To reach that goal, he will form organized coalitions, communicate the project’s goals through writing and syndicated radio programs, involve America’s youth, parents and grandparents by creating small-group study materials, and host national conferences.
He said 2012 is about building that coalition, and in 2013 and 2014 McFarland and his team will be releasing some resources for churches and young adults.
He wants to focus on youth because they will eventually be the ones that will represent Christianity in the culture, especially has they become the next generation in the workplace and marketplace.
As he speaks to young people, McFarland tells them: “We need to assert ourselves as leaders in various engines of the culture … as a Christian assume your role in journalism, medicine, science, and take your Christianity with you.”
Other core tenets of the project include: God, Life, Morality, Prayer and Worship and American exclusivism.
In a released statement McFarland said, “Christianity has been an integral part of America, and it must remain so if America is to thrive in the future. America’s founders recognized absolute moral truths, calling them ‘self-evident.’ Our culture must recover the knowledge that morality is based not on changing human social conventions, but is tied to the unchanging character of God,” he writes.
The first conference for Project 2026 is set for Sept. 27-29, 2012, at North Greenville University in Greenville, S.C.
