Most of us have noticed the moral decline in America and have heard how many commentators have described it. Greg Koukl at Stand to Reason has coined a term that I think does a great job of explaining what is happening.

He says that our culture is becoming velocitized. He first heard the term in a driver’s training class in high school. “When a driver accelerates from, say, 30 to 60 miles per hour and settles in, he gets acclimated to his new speed and loses his sense of velocity. Going 60 feels like going 30.”

This is a great illustration of what is happening in our culture. Today’s scandal is tomorrow’s “ho hum.” What was unthinkable a generation ago has become routine today. As our culture becomes more decadent, we become acclimated to the speed of cultural degradation.

Greg Koukl uses this illustration to talk about something I have addressed in previous commentaries. Now that many accept abortion as routine, you have articles appearing that suggest that a so-called “after-birth abortion” would also be morally justifiable. Two philosophers are seriously suggesting this in an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

But you could apply the concept of a velocitized culture to many other moral issues. Who would have thought that physician assisted suicide would be acceptable in many states just a few decades ago? And just a few decades ago, who would have predicted that a number of states would have legalized same-sex marriage?

We should expect that non-believers would most likely take their cues from the culture and thus be acclimated to the speed of moral decline. But we should also be disturbed that so many Christians have also become acclimated.

Paul in his letter to the Colossians warned that we should: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” Unfortunately many have been taken captive in our velocitized culture.