Think about this. Merely 20 years ago, then President Bill Clinton was trying to make good on a campaign pledge to allow homosexual soldiers to serve openly in the military. Then there was no thought to actually achieving something approaching legalized gay marriage. Then came the revolution that made all of these things not only possible but settled. It was achieved not by some grand game plan on the part of the promoters of all of this but by the fact that Christianity had long ago given up a real worldview for a compartmentalized view of faith, sex, life, and a host of other things that may or may not relate.
While a person's attitudes on moral issues have proven to be strong predictors of religious engagement and affiliation, it turns out that religious engagement and affiliation have turned out not to be such strong predictors of their stand on moral issues. That is at least as much the reason for the fast lane to normalization that the whole LGBTQ+ has enjoyed as the strategy and effective follow through of the advocates for the change.
Although I have long advocated for a complete Christian worldview instead of the kind of fragmented issues that may or may not relate to each other, this has clearly been the soft underbelly of Christianity. The problem is that for too many Christians, there is no real relationship between who Jesus Christ is to them and what that translates into with respect to the burning issues of sexual desire, gender identity, marriage, and family issues. There may be some correlation but not enough to influence or dictate how faith defines a stand on moral issues.
While mainline Protestant churches have been far more accepting of homosexuality and sexual liberation in general, they are not the only ones. Evangelicals have also been remarkably silent or overtly tolerant of the the gay position on thing. Even Roman Catholics have their problems with the lavender mafia and the Fr. Martin's who have been vocal advocates for making some sort of accommodation or acceptance of the direction of culture. Oddly enough, no one seems to have noticed that these have not alleviated the stark membership decline so many of these churches have suffered and may well have encouraged that decline. The odd thing is that people do not simply find a church which promotes their more liberal views when they disagree with Scripture and tradition on these moral issues, they simply drop out of church altogether.
What I am saying is that a Christian worldview in which all of these issues were coordinated and connected is not some luxury for us but key to our survival as the Church and to our ability to influence and give witness to the world around us. Sex was a problem in Eden and sex was one area of influence early Christianity had on the world around them. Now it turns out that sex is an issue today as well -- indeed, it might be a fairly big issue when faith and values seem to conflict with Scripture because Christians have found a way to box things off away from each other in order to find some sort of reconciliation with the world. The real challenge Western Christians face now is whether or not they are going to lose Christianity 's profound doctrine of salvation over their willingness to disagree with the Bible on moral issues. The death of Christianity may well be predicted in the way we become more comfortable with the world's position on moral issues and the way we distance ourselves from what the Bible actually says.
3 comments:
PM: "Although I have long advocated for a complete Christian worldview instead of the kind of fragmented issues that may or may not relate to each other, this has clearly been the soft underbelly of Christianity."
Advocating for such a complete Christian worldview is attacked by leftists, the Enemedia, and even some within the LCMS, as "Christian nationalism."
I would agree with you that in many respects some but not all churches have made accommodation with the world and reconciled its prior biblical positions on sexuality, (and abortion also) to be more accepted by American society. The Lord warned us that compromises and false teachers would plague the faithful, and Paul condemns the compromises which willfully corrupt the souls of men. It is safer to place popular cultural sins aside, admit they are wrong, but decline to speak out. It is far less offensive, if one has a mindset that stands for nothing, since the loss of the affection of a corrupt world seems to be too high a price to pay. Thankfully, there are still millions of Christians who are standing their ground. They have had enough. Like righteous Lot sitting at the gates of Sodom, they found the pungent stench of sexual sin to be at the bottom of human depravity. A nation that approves of homosexuality, abortion, and euthanasia reveals how iniquity has no limits, until it robs the soul. As you implied, the cost of accommodation by the church is profound, and the light on the hill will dim until it exists no more. Sadly, a culture can reach a point where even self professing Christians stand for little, to be nourished in the rot of dying fruit, and one can say sadly, “God gave them all up.”
Soli Deo Gloria
“The death of Christianity may well be predicted in the way we become more comfortable with the world's position on moral issues and the way we distance ourselves from what the Bible actually says.”
Referring to the last sentence of this posting, I make the following points:
Are homosexuals condemned to eternal suffering because of a condition, with which they were born? None of the passages from the Scripture of the Old Testament applies here, because God has annulled the Mosaic Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31 ff).
In the New Testament our Lord said, Matthew 12:31-32, "every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven". Do these verses say that it is impossible for a homosexual to be saved? I believe the Scripture quoted above says that he or she can be saved. I do not say that homosexuality is not a sin, but that it is not the Sin against the Holy Spirit. Therefore, homosexuals, who repent of their sin and then fall into it again have the same baptismal promises as all orthodox Christians. Remember the thing about the 70 times 7.
Is it possible that the argument I have made here, applies to many forms of aberrant sexuality?
We may not care for these people. However, is then the sin ours, because we do not love our neighbor as ourselves?
Finally, nobody should try to predict the death of Christianity because, according to our Lord, it will never happen.
Peace and Joy.
George A. Marquart
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