Speaking Truth to Our Generation
Kevin Schaal’s article on Monday (Fighting for Free Speech is Fighting for the Gospel)touched on something I’ve been thinking about recently. Our times are full of stories from various locales citing pressure tactics on Christians to conform to the new state religion of “freedom-of-sexual-expression-no-matter-how-bizarre.” I’m not sure what label we should put on this, but the zealotry which accompanies these beliefs parallel some kinds of religious fervor. Those who disagree are blasphemers, and those who dare to speak up must be pilloried, one way or another.
In our area, a Christian camp came in for unwelcome attention in our local paper: “Island school districts cut ties with Christian camp.” Apparently a young fellow who attended the camp as a camper for some years wanted to serve on staff. He balked when he realized the camp required its workers to affirm a code of conduct for sexual purity, specifically stating an expectation to refrain from “sexual sins including premarital sex, adultery, homosexual behaviour and viewing of pornography.”
Such a code of conduct seems quite normal to most Christians, but, according to the article, it doesn’t coincide with the “values” in which this young man was raised. The teenager spoke out to an online publication, which led to local school districts cutting ties with the camp. They had used the facilities in the past for various school activities.
I am not sure how much this will affect the camp. Most of its activity is church-related, I don’t know how much extra the school board activities add to their bottom-line. I visited the facility a long time ago, the camp is run by a Baptist group that is like us in some ways but is more-or-less within “broader evangelicalism,” so we’ve not had close contact. Back in the day, the camp boasted good facilities and seemed well run. I expect that has continued through the years.
Regardless of one’s position within the wider Christian community, if you hold to Biblical standards of morality, you can expect some in our culture to hate us for it and to attack us if they can.
It behooves us, then, to educate ourselves on the issues we face, no matter how distasteful they seem. In that light, I’d like to recommend two resources here on Proclaim & Defend.
The first is our recent FrontLine issue, The Gender Controversy. Our men have contributed significant articles to this discussion. It is well worth your attention. If you aren’t a subscriber, you should subscribe RIGHT NOW! (Ok, I’m a little biased!) You can also subscribe and support the FBFI via our substack page. It costs a little more, but gives you online access to some articles immediately as well as supporting our work in general.
In any case, the commercial is over, and I want to encourage you to get a copy of this issue and study it. The articles are very helpful. You can see the table of contents if you click the link above.
I also want to draw your attention to a book review I did on P&D some years ago. The book is Unchanging Witness, an excellent resource that shows the attempts by some so-called Christians to redefine biblical teaching about homosexuality flies in the face of two thousand years of consistent Christian teaching. The review will give you some information, but this book is simply outstanding and a great resource. (You can purchase this book here and support P&D as well.)
Finally, getting back to the recent FrontLine issue, be sure to check the footnotes our authors provide. It looks like there are other good resources mentioned there.
The better we are equipped to articulate the biblical position, the better we will be able to engage the threats that are coming our way. As Kevin said in Monday’s article, freedom of speech is a gospel issue. We need to know what to say to our confused friends and neighbours.
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.