Preachers like Ravenhill see the world as a decadent place that is getting worse all the time. The only solution available, from their perspective, is to make you like them. The world they see consists of Christians (who usually are not committed enough), enemies of the faith, and the yet to be converted.
This sour and depressing view of life is simply a carry-over of medieval religious masochism. They have exchanged whipping themselves with the lash, to whipping themselves and others with words and attitudes.
Leonard Ravenhill was born in 1907 and died in 1994. He saw amazing things. Aside from scientific advances, which would cause any person with awareness to whoop with joy, he lived through societal progression that had never been seen in human history. He saw women, children, minorities, and the poor go from being treated as property or second class humans, to becoming people with rights, desires, and freedoms they could rightfully claim. Moral desolation? I call that significant moral progression!
There are still many preachers like Leonard Ravenhill out there. They see Humanism, the desire for humanity to reach its best potential, as a threat to religious control. Religious control needs humanity to see itself as wounded, damaged, and unworthy.
I met Leonard Ravenhill once. He was busy chastising some female classmates of mine (one to tears) for going out for ice cream together rather than attending his bible study.
I knew then, and believe more so now, that those girls spent their time more wisely by going out for ice cream.
