“It’s hard to imagine two stranger organizational bedfellows,” writes Marvin Olasky, Editor in Chief of WORLD magazine (WORLD exclusive, July 14, 2012). Olasky is referring to the partnership between the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. The partnership is not only “strange” but unnatural because it attempts to blend two opposing worldviews.
Founded in 1942, the NAE is a pro-life, Christian organization of more than 40 denominations whose motto is: “Cooperation Without Compromise.” The Campaign, founded in 1996, is a secular organization devoted to promoting contraceptive use by the unmarried. “The National Campaign is zealous,” writes Olasky. “When conservatives this year tried to reduce funding for Planned Parenthood and similar groups, the lead story on the Campaign’s newsletter began, ‘The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to increase teen and unplanned pregnancy.’”
Before Olasky’s article entitled “Strange Bedfellows” was published, I was aware that he was investigating a multi-year $1 million grant given by the Campaign to the NAE in 2008. The Campaign itself, notes Olasky, has received grants from abortion advocates and contraception pushers. For more details, I encourage you to read Olasky’s articles in WORLD (7-14-12, pp. 9-11, 88).
So, what’s going on here? Why would pro-life Christians accept help from people who seek to promote contraceptive use by unmarried people? Who advocate abortion? I think it is because Christians have been deceived. We have been deceived by one question: “Did God really say . . . ?” (Do you hear that hissing sound?) Did God really say that male and female are set apart for holy purpose? That sex is not just something two people are going to participate in – married or not – because they can’t help it?
Once deceived, we believe the lie. What is the lie? That we are “sexual from birth.”
Olasky’s article exposes a problem. Something goes awry whenever Christians accept help from those with an opposing worldview. We become “strange bedfellows” with non-believing neighbors in the land whenever we “evolve” away from God’s Word. In this case, the NAE is doing the very thing it says it will not do. It is compromising Biblical faith in the area of sexuality, I think, for two reasons.
It appears that the NAE has determined for itself what is right and wrong. It has aligned itself with false teachers. When approached in the Garden by the serpent, a flattered Eve not only spoke for God, she added words of her own to His. Putting ourselves in God’s place is dangerous.
Secondly, it appears that the NAE, having been deceived, now thinks itself wise. Wisdom, however, does not come from the world, but through fear of God. False wisdom believes the lie that we are “sexual from birth.” Clinging to such “wisdom,” sexual promiscuity – with all of its consequences – increases. Since we can’t help being the “sexual” beings we are, we’ll just have to rely on the corner drug store. Deception leads us to rationalize. Tempted to think that unmarried people will naturally exercise their sexuality, Christians are deceived into justifying provision for the “lesser of two evils.” NAE President Leith Anderson responded to Olasky, saying, “The Church is understandably reluctant to recommend contraception for unmarried sexual partners, given that it cannot condone extramarital sex. However, it is even more tragic when unmarried individuals compound one sin by conceiving and then destroying the precious gift of life.” Many of us may agree with Anderson.
Are we trapped between a rock and a hard place? What can we do? I propose that we stop listening to false teachers. We are not, first and foremost, sexual beings. We are human beings called to live out our lives as male or female. Although fallen from God’s perfect image, we are still created with His attributes, not the attributes of animals. This is what our children need to hear.
The Christian community will better serve a modern culture by remembering how revolutionary we really are. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” by His will, not through sexual behavior. This was a radical worldview for all the neighbors of the Israelites. This is still a radical worldview in today’s society. Historically, the Judeo-Christian view of human life, marriage, and procreative sex was a revolutionary idea that de-sexualized God and religion. “I Am” stood in contrast to “gods” who engaged in sex with other gods and humans. Judeo-Christianity introduced the concept of holiness. It contrasted a life of purity with a life captive to sensuality. It sanctified the procreative act of sex and connected men to wives, home and generational faithfulness. “The sexual genie,” writes Dennis Prager, “was forced into the marital bottle.”
God’s own people have always been given opportunity to affect the culture. But, considering ourselves wiser than God, we become foolish. Foolish into captivity. The Israelites were captive in Babylon for so long that generations forgot the Truth and became comfortable with their environment. When the Israelites were told they could return to their homeland where they could rebuild Jerusalem, very few wanted to go back to “old ways.” I fear we, too, have grown comfortable with our environment. Deceived, we believe the lie… and cling to wrong identity
How many times have we told that we are “sexual” beings? When does God define us that way? He doesn’t. Instead, God sets us apart as a people all His own. We struggle with the “old man” in us, but our Baptism in Christ makes us new every morning. We are not bound by passions of ignorance, but called to reflect our Creator. God is holy (not sexy) (1 Peter 1:14-16). We are “His own possession” equipped to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you” (1 Peter 2:9). We are strengthened to “abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against our souls” here on earth (2:11). God warns us away from sensuality, but never does God tell His people to stop living their lives as male and female.
We want to make abortion unthinkable. But, abortion – and new definitions of marriage and family — will always be thinkable for people who see themselves as “sexual from birth.” Such deception brings us dangerously close to idolatry. Exchanging the Truth for a lie, we worship the creature rather than the Creator. At that moment, we are vulnerable to Satan, the world, and our own sensual flesh.
Sex does not have to dominate society. God-ordained institutions of marriage and family can build a vibrant civilization. The innocence of children can be guarded. Men and women can complement one another. It begins with fear of God rather than trust in fickle hearts and weak flesh. Even in marriage, husbands and wives are called to more than a sexual relationship, but a partnership as good stewards over all that God has entrusted to them and a life that anticipates Jesus’ return. Anticipating Jesus, men and women – married or not — do best to see themselves as God sees them. To be distinctively different from the world. To be vessels for honorable use.
Our purpose in this world flows from our identity as God’s holy people. So, let us avoid “strange bedfellows” and affect the culture with true wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:5).
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