The Big Three

I was listening to a lecture given by my friend Jeff Louie on the Gospel and Community. In this lecture he mentions that when we think through our choices about how to handle controversial issues between culture and faith we should consider them in light of the "big three". He basically asks how would you have handled the issue of Slavery, the Rise of Hitler, and the Civil Rights Movement.

On the issue of Slavery we can read in Scripture that it was illegal, at least the form that America practiced, but would we have said anything? Or would we have said that the church should not get involved in social issues. On the issue of Hitler, would we have opposed him and taken the punishment (most likely imprisonment or death or one after the other) or would we have said the church should not get involved in politics. You get the idea.

I think today the big two that face the church is homosexuality and abortion. These two issues are so tough to look at from a cultural perspective in light of what Scripture teaches. It almost demands us to be on the other end of culturally accepted practice. I feel that abortion may be turning the tide as more people are made aware of the horrific experience an individual life experiences as it is being ripped out of mom, but people so desperately want the ability to control each aspect of their life that I do not think the issue will ever go away.

Gospel and Community is a nice phrase with profound implications if you truly are in love with the word of God.

Day of Silence

This next Friday schools will participate in the "Day of Silence". This is an event that brings to light the harassment of homosexuals on campus. Several national Christian coalitions have come together to offer resistance to this event, basically calling Christians to avoid attendance on this day.

I have been around Christian high school students for my entire career and I have to admit I think this "Day of Silence" sounds like a good idea. It is a constant battle to make students aware of how damaging this issue is to the faith. Most of what Christianity stands for makes immediate sense to us, but this one is a bit more difficult to swallow for people.

The most difficult conversations I have had are with Christians who struggle with homosexuality. They understand that it is a sin and pray for God to take this away from their heart but it remains all the same. All they want is for the temptation to leave them, but it doesn't. This is just another example of how frustrating our sin condition really is as we try to conform ourselves to Christ.

My hope would be that our high school students could go to school on this day and remember the call to show their love of Christ. I would hope they would remember on this day that they have victory over sin and their responsibility is to share in love how to claim victory over sin. I would hope that we could see this as an opportunity to be more aware of the sin condition of both those who struggle with homosexuality as well as those who struggle with taming the tongue.