Sex is not only a short word but one with a tiny presence in many mainline churches. At least, sex is one of those topics “good” pastors stay away from because sex is a private matter. I agree, it is one of the most intimate of privacies, but I might not be a “good” pastor. The church needs to talk about sex—or more formally, sexual ethics—because the world is talking about it. Your children and grandchildren are talking about. Your coworkers, siblings, and neighbors are talking about. If they or you aren’t talking explicitly about sex, it surrounds you in books, social media, TV commercials, and nearly every corner of the world wide web. This is why having a biblical worldview on sex is so important.
0 Comments
Many of you know (and if you don’t, you do now) that I am critical of the PC(USA)’s Matthew 25 initiative. On the surface, this initiative appears biblical: church revitalization, helping the poor, and addressing racism. All three of these appear in Scripture. God wants Jesus’ Bride to be active and engaged; He commands us to meet the needs of the least and the lost; He brings unity across every human division and distinction. My gripe with the Matthew 25 initiative is that it is highly political and polarizing because it does not find biblical solutions but seeks humanist (man-centered) applications.
If you haven’t been in college recently, you might not have heard of a recent trend on college campuses called “cancel culture.” Many colleges and universities invite people from all walks of life to speak at various functions. Some are as simple as a campus club meeting to something as big a convocation, or something as regular as a symposium. Historically, the academic world was welcoming of points of view that differed from the institution. Today, however, cancel culture is more the norm. When a club, organization, or faculty invite a speaker who is widely opposed by the student body or among the faculty, it is common for these groups to petition or pressure the dean, chancellor, or board of trustees to cancel the speaking engagement. Even if this is not familiar to you, you likely have heard of boycotts and strikes. They come from the same foundation. Those who support and perpetuate cancel culture often, though snidely, point to Christianity as the fountainhead. They aren’t too far off base.
In 1949, British author George Orwell published his famous dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. One of the characters in this book is “Big Brother,” the leader of Ingsoc (English Socialists), which rules the totalitarian global community of Oceania. Big Brother is constantly watching every citizen, employing various means of surveillance. Three score and two years later, Orwell’s “Big Brother” has taken on an identity not too dissimilar from the book. In Orwell’s London, the Metropolitan Police can track a person from one end of the Thames to the other, simply by using the city’s interconnected CCTVs. In this era “fake news,” one cannot escape Facebook’s “fact checkers” always looking over our virtual shoulders. For many people, this is disconcerting and sign of troublesome times. The Christian, however, should be unphased.
|