The Cultural Sexual Revolution and the Future of the Church

A few court battles are brewing regarding who can use what bathroom.  North Carolina is leading, but others will now join in because President Obama has issued a – I don’t know, is it a declaration? – saying all public schools will have to allow anyone to use the bathroom of their choice.  I am not entirely sure that’s constitutional, but I will leave that to the supreme court (which I don’t have a great deal of faith in now that we have lost Scalia, but anyway…)

Based on the past few years of judicial history I am going to go out on a limb and say that those who believe that sex and gender are given to us by God may not win these court battles.  That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, but I am not hopeful of that.

I will add that I don’t think losing federal funds would be the end of the world.  The United States debt is in a death spiral, so some savings to the federal budget would be ok.  Besides, letting local areas self fund would probably be healthy.  I’m no economist, but I’m just saying there are worse things than losing federal aid.

All of that aside, let me say this.

As a pastor I can tell you that the greatest threat facing the church in our era is that church-going parents overall are not passing on their faith to their children.  Sometime in the past generation we commodified religious instruction and farmed it out to the christian industrial complex.  We pay a premium for curriculums, youth ministers and children’s ministers, which were meant to supplement parents in their God given responsibility to “train up a child in the way they should go.”

This freed up parents to teach kids to be moral and successful.  The parent’s job became to coach kids sports teams and shuttle them from one event to the next to make sure they had all the right experiences and education in order to become a successful and hard working American.

I know it hurts, but it’s true.  This is the situation in much of the church today.  

And it was easy to do because the overall culture maintained a hue of Christian morality.

God is sovereign even over our mistakes, and we can rest in his grace, but this is something that needs to be corrected for the next generation.

Let me be clear, I believe the sexual revolution happening around us will have devastating consequences on society overall.  Most studies indicate that gender dysphoria is a serious problem and sexual reassignment surgery leads far more often to suicide than to personal fulfillment.

I believe that people who are encouraged to act out psychological delusions will suffer. I believe the society they contribute their insanity to will suffer.

I believe the healthy answer for both individuals and societies is to align themselves with what is true rather than to live under the illusion that they can create truth.

After all if a truck is about to run over you, pretending it isn’t there will not save your life, running for the sidewalk might.  

However, signs point toward a future society that is getting run over by a truck and insists that there is no truck.

Christians, we should continue the court battles – sure – as long as we can, but I am asking you to be prepared for the truck.

We need to teach our children that the universe is God’s.  

We need to teach our children that he made everything and that everything is in rebellion to him.  When you see men dressed like women entering the ladies room you can say, “well dear, as you know people have rebelled against God’s design for them from the beginning.”

You can point out that this all began with Adam and Eve in the garden. That their insanity in trusting a snake over their creator is a picture of the insanity in their own little hearts, in yours, and in the society around them.

And then teach them that Jesus died in order to put all of this right.  As the Westminster Catechism says of Jesus, “he subdues us to himself, he rules and defends us, and he restrains and conquers all of his and our enemies.”

It is important not to raise little moralists.  First, teach them that he subdues us. Our hearts struggle as much as the transsexual to be conformed to Christ.  They need to know this.

But there is hope, because he is subduing and conquering all of creation as well.

While you teach them to belong to Jesus, please also teach them to love those who don’t and to point them to the rescuer who came to love them too.  Don’t teach them to hate those in rebellion to Christ’s rule.  Teach them to love.  Teach them that the brokenness in and around them is the heritage of the fall.  It is easier to love people who disagree with us when we realize they are trying to find meaning and fulfillment in life.  Especially if they are looking for it where it won’t be found.

Teach them to daily seek to belong to Jesus.  To bring their thoughts, their hearts, and ultimately their sexuality in line with his word, as opposed to the what the culture teaches them.  And teach them to converse with those who teach and believe contrary things.

Let us do all that we can to raise the next generation to be faithful to Jesus even if they are increasingly ostracized and hated by the culture around them for doing so.

Let’s worry most of all about making the Church great again for the next generation, and I assure you, the nation will follow eventually.