I’d like to encourage you to help break the “spiral of silence.” In the face of conflict or potential persecution, Christians too often say nothing. Do nothing. We don’t want to be labeled “judgmental” or “intolerant.” But, our silence compromises the living Word Jesus Christ. It would appear that we fear displeasing man more than we do God.
I propose that we are silent about homosexuality and same-sex “marriage” because we Christians have been influenced by the world. We see ourselves the way the world sees us. We let the world define us. Then, we fall into silence. The world tells us that we are “sexual beings.” “Sexual from birth.” If that is true, then those who are intimidating and bullying Chick-fil-A right now for taking a stand on the Biblical definition of marriage have sound reason to be angry. If we are — first and foremost — sexual beings, then any kind of sexual needs, behaviors, or relationships should be not only justified, but legal. If our identity is “sexual,” then it should come as no surprise that Chick-fil-A — or a church body or an individual — will be labeled “intolerant,” “bigoted” and “homophobic.” Who, after all, would dare discriminate against the very core of a human being?
But, you see, sexuality is not our core. It is not our identity. It is not “who we are.” And, until we Christians identify ourselves as God does, we will be hard-pressed to deal with issues such as sex education, homosexual rights, same-sex “marriage,” and adoption of children by gay couples.
Let what I’ve written here be the preface to Eric Metxas’ article published in Breakpoint (July 27, 2012). The article is titled “A Price to Pay.” There is a “price to pay” for taking a stand on our identity as God’s holy possessions — vessels for honorable use — called out of darkness into light . Please read it as re-printed below.
Then, join with Eric, the late Chuck Colson, Biblical thinkers across the country, and me in helping to break the spiral of silence.
“A Price to Pay” by Eric Metaxas
If you’re even a semi-regular BreakPoint listener, you’ve no doubt heard Chuck Colson — and me — talk about “breaking the spiral of silence.”
We’ve warned about the dangers of remaining silent on critical issues even when our opinions are unpopular or counter-cultural — probably especially when they’re unpopular and counter-cultural. Even when it appears that the argument is “settled,” that the public has “moved on,” and we’d better “get with the program.”
And we’ve pointed out that, sometimes, breaking the spiral of silence can come with a price.
Well, as you know by now, Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press recently that his family-owned company “operates on biblical principles” and therefore “supports the traditional family.”
He spoke out, and now he and Chick-fil-A are paying the price. Certain voices in the media and government are lashing out — and seeking, basically, to intimidate and bully Chick-fil-A, and anyone who shares their views, back into silence.
For example, an Alderman in Chicago is seeking to block Chick-fil-A from opening an already planned restaurant in the city. He has declared that Chick-fil-A’s position is “bigoted” and “homophobic” and that the company discriminates against homosexuals, which is just a crazy, baseless charge.
The mayor of Chicago, Rahm Immanuel, however, is backing the Alderman, and he told CBS Chicago, “Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values . . . And if you’re going to be a part of the Chicago community, you should reflect Chicago values.”
Really? So, all you Chicago churches and mosques and synagogues that do not share the mayor’s interpretation of “Chicago values” had better pack up and leave town.
The bottom line is that if you dare say you believe that marriage is between a man and a woman only, you run the real risk of being called a “homophobe,” a “bigot,” and a “hatemonger.” If you own a business and take such a stand, you may be targeted.
But my question to you now — and to myself — is: So what?
Do we or do we not have the courage of our convictions to defend marriage, to defend free speech, to defend freedom of religion? Do our freedoms, does our faith, matter to us more than the opinion of some others? Will we allow our reputations and our profits to suffer before we will allow our freedoms to erode?
Chuck warned us long ago that a free society can remain free only so long as dissent is tolerated, only so long as opinions and ideas can be debated freely in the public square.
Which is why, as Chuck would have said, the proponents of so-called gay “marriage” and sexual “freedom” are sawing off the branch they’re sitting on. By doing all they can to deny those who disagree with them access to the public square, by their intimidation tactics, and by their — sad to say, intolerance — they are helping to make this country, this society less free. And that hurts everybody.
Folks, we have no choice but to speak out. Not to lash out, but to speak out, winsomely but firmly. We must break the spiral of silence.
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The Church Has Failed the Culture
Posted in Commentaries of others, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Parenting & Education, tagged " homosexuality, Biblical worldview, Christianity, church, environment, hymns, Jesus Christ, judgment, millennials, religion, sexuality, sin, social justice, the Cross, worship on August 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Recently, the Presbyterian Church (USA) dropped the hugely popular hymn, “In Christ Alone,” from its hymnal after its authors, Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, refused to omit a reference to Jesus satisfying the wrath of God.
In a powerful response over at First Things, which we’ll link to at BreakPoint.org, Colson Center chairman Timothy George quotes Richard Niebuhr who, back in the 1930s, described this kind of revisionist Protestantism as a religion in which “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”
The response from the PCUSA, that their problem was not with God’s wrath but with the idea that Christ’s death satisfied God’s wrath, doesn’t change the fundamental problem of what George calls “squishy” theology. Theology is supposed to be true, not palatable.
Along these lines, maybe you’ve seen the recent viral opinion piece on CNN by
my friend, Christian blogger and author Rachel Held Evans. In it, Evans offers her answers to the truly important question, “why are millennials leaving the Church?”
To counter the exodus of young people from American churches, Evans says it’s time to own up to our shortcomings and give millennials what they really want—not a change in style but a change in substance. The answer to attracting millennials, she writes, is NOT “hipper worship bands” or handing out “lattés,” but actually helping them find Jesus.
Amen. I couldn’t agree more.
Then she goes on, “[the Church is] too political, old-fashioned, unconcerned with social justice and hostile to [LGBT] people.” Well, okay—anytime political programs co-opt our faith, or we ignore the needy and fail to love those with whom we disagree, we do the Gospel of Christ great harm.
But when she writes that attracting millennials to Jesus involves “an end to the culture wars,” “a truce between science and faith,” being less “exclusive” with less emphasis on sex, without “predetermined answers” to life’s questions, now I want to ask–are we still talking about the Jesus of biblical Christianity?
The attempt to re-make Jesus to be more palatable to modern scientific and especially sexual sensibilities has been tried before. In fact, it’s the reason Niebuhr said that brilliant line that I quoted earlier.
He watched as the redefining “Jesus Project” gave us mainline Protestantism, which promotes virtually everything on Evans’ list for millennials. The acceptance of homosexuality, a passion for the environment, prioritizing so-called “social justice” over transformational truth are all embodied in denominations like the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA).
But religious millennials aren’t flocking to mainline Protestant congregations. Mainline churches as a whole have suffered withering declines in the last few decades—especially among the young. What gives?
Well, in an another essay which appeared in First Things over twenty years ago, a trio of Christian researchers offered their theory on what’s behind the long, slow hemorrhage of mainline Protestant churches:
“In our study,” they wrote, “the single best predictor of church participation turned out
to be belief—orthodox Christian belief, and especially the teaching that a person can be saved only through Jesus Christ.” This, said the researchers, was not (and I add, is still not) a teaching of mainline Protestantism. As a dwindling denomination rejects a hymn which proclaims salvation “in Christ alone,” this research sounds prophetic.
Evans is right that evangelical Christianity is responsible in many ways for the exodus of millennials. But ditching the Church’s unpalatable “old-fashioned” beliefs to become more “relevant” to the young won’t bring them back.
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