Why Do Many Americans Think Abortion and the LGBTQ+ Agenda Are Good?
3/7/24
This is a tough question. It was most recently asked of me by a Christian from a different culture, where generally both abortion and the LGBTQ+ agenda are rejected out of hand. It hurts to be reminded of the darkness of the culture I live in.
The United States has been growing a culture which is less and less attuned to biblical truth. In recent generations, knowledge of any of the ideas of Christianity has been in a steep decline among a large segment of our population, while those people who are not avid Christians are tending to become more distinctively isolated from a Christian worldview.
This leads me to a Bible passage. In 2 Corinthians 4:1-6, we read about the darkness of the world which the apostle Paul can observe. Despite the darkness, he says, "we do not lose heart" (v. 1, NKJV). Verse two suggests that, in contrast to Paul and his group, some people are deceitful in the way they handle God's word. Yet, in some way, the gospel, or good news, which Paul proclaims is veiled. Some people can't see it for what it is.
Why is this? It's normal in American Christianity for people to emphasize freedom of choice, suggesting that everyone is able to choose life and salvation. Paul's view is more nuanced than that. If people were able to see and understand rightly, they would, of course, choose life, blessing, peace, and eternal joy. However, there's a spiritual battle going on, driven by our fallen nature, which desires sin, and by Satan, who desires the gospel to be ineffective. In verse four he calls Satan "the god of this age." His work is to blind people and keep them from believing. In a world where the light of God shines (verse 6), those who do not believe are walking around with blindfolds on. They are predisposed not to believe.
What does this have to do with the question at hand? The Bible boldly proclaims things like life, joy, peace, and hope as good creations of God which He delights in giving to his people. Life is a primary value. Those who think their lives can be improved by ending the life of other people are generally outside the bounds of a civil society. This is because for many generations Christians have brought into society the idea that life is a good thing, and should be protected. They boldly lived this out even in the first through third century Roman culture which was a culture of death, in which unwanted children were aborted or allowed to be born then were abandoned. A society which is blind to the positive merit of life will seek to have children, the infirm, and the aged put to death. This is the blindness of our society.
What of the LGBTQ+ culture? Amid the raging torrent of emotion-laden questions, sound bites, and accusations, I will simply say that the first century was also a time when non-monogamous non-heterosexual lifestyles were well known. Culturally, they were not broadly condemned outside of the Jewish and Christian communities. Again, our current culture in the United States has moved back to attitudes which closely resemble those of the ancient paganism. Many, many of the relationships pursued within the LGBTQ+ culture are focused on anger at the greater society. Many people are intent on finding ways to react against those who have wronged people in the past, especially through childhood sexual abuse. Among those communities we find higher than average rates of depression, anxiety, mental illness, and other societal challenges which strongly suggest the Christian values of love, joy, and peace in our relationships with other people and with God are not happening. Relationships are formed and broken relatively quickly, and often with severe negative consequences. In short, there's something wrong with the life, which is a primary value.
Rather than turning to some sort of freedom to pursue desires of an "alternative" lifestyle or a "choice" which devalues life, Christians need to be purposeful in affirming the kind of life that God in Christ created us to live. That's a life that is reconciled to God's love. It is changed from the patterns of darkness to the patterns of the light of the gospel. It isn't the path of least resistance. That one leads to death. It's the path of the redeemed of the Lord, trusting in Him, and valuing the life and well being of our neighbor.
3/7/24
This is a tough question. It was most recently asked of me by a Christian from a different culture, where generally both abortion and the LGBTQ+ agenda are rejected out of hand. It hurts to be reminded of the darkness of the culture I live in.
The United States has been growing a culture which is less and less attuned to biblical truth. In recent generations, knowledge of any of the ideas of Christianity has been in a steep decline among a large segment of our population, while those people who are not avid Christians are tending to become more distinctively isolated from a Christian worldview.
This leads me to a Bible passage. In 2 Corinthians 4:1-6, we read about the darkness of the world which the apostle Paul can observe. Despite the darkness, he says, "we do not lose heart" (v. 1, NKJV). Verse two suggests that, in contrast to Paul and his group, some people are deceitful in the way they handle God's word. Yet, in some way, the gospel, or good news, which Paul proclaims is veiled. Some people can't see it for what it is.
Why is this? It's normal in American Christianity for people to emphasize freedom of choice, suggesting that everyone is able to choose life and salvation. Paul's view is more nuanced than that. If people were able to see and understand rightly, they would, of course, choose life, blessing, peace, and eternal joy. However, there's a spiritual battle going on, driven by our fallen nature, which desires sin, and by Satan, who desires the gospel to be ineffective. In verse four he calls Satan "the god of this age." His work is to blind people and keep them from believing. In a world where the light of God shines (verse 6), those who do not believe are walking around with blindfolds on. They are predisposed not to believe.
What does this have to do with the question at hand? The Bible boldly proclaims things like life, joy, peace, and hope as good creations of God which He delights in giving to his people. Life is a primary value. Those who think their lives can be improved by ending the life of other people are generally outside the bounds of a civil society. This is because for many generations Christians have brought into society the idea that life is a good thing, and should be protected. They boldly lived this out even in the first through third century Roman culture which was a culture of death, in which unwanted children were aborted or allowed to be born then were abandoned. A society which is blind to the positive merit of life will seek to have children, the infirm, and the aged put to death. This is the blindness of our society.
What of the LGBTQ+ culture? Amid the raging torrent of emotion-laden questions, sound bites, and accusations, I will simply say that the first century was also a time when non-monogamous non-heterosexual lifestyles were well known. Culturally, they were not broadly condemned outside of the Jewish and Christian communities. Again, our current culture in the United States has moved back to attitudes which closely resemble those of the ancient paganism. Many, many of the relationships pursued within the LGBTQ+ culture are focused on anger at the greater society. Many people are intent on finding ways to react against those who have wronged people in the past, especially through childhood sexual abuse. Among those communities we find higher than average rates of depression, anxiety, mental illness, and other societal challenges which strongly suggest the Christian values of love, joy, and peace in our relationships with other people and with God are not happening. Relationships are formed and broken relatively quickly, and often with severe negative consequences. In short, there's something wrong with the life, which is a primary value.
Rather than turning to some sort of freedom to pursue desires of an "alternative" lifestyle or a "choice" which devalues life, Christians need to be purposeful in affirming the kind of life that God in Christ created us to live. That's a life that is reconciled to God's love. It is changed from the patterns of darkness to the patterns of the light of the gospel. It isn't the path of least resistance. That one leads to death. It's the path of the redeemed of the Lord, trusting in Him, and valuing the life and well being of our neighbor.
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