Goodbye Larry King, Hello Jerry Springer!

The hoo-hah over President Elect Obama's choice of Rick Warren continues unabated, with most of the critics focusing mainly on Warren's attitude to homosexuality and gay marriage.  Only Christopher Hitchens seems more disturbed by his eschatology (individual and general) and lack of culture and education.  I confess, like Hitch, I am not sure that a nation with a First Amendment needs an invocation at the inauguration, but it's not my country, after all.

One thing is now clear: the issue of the legitimacy of homosexual behavior and the legality of gay marriages and/or civil unions, is the issue of the hour, at least as far as the media seems to be concerned.   Other issues, even abortion, seem to have paled in significance for the more radical media pundits.  Warren's work on the environment, AIDS, genocide etc. is as nothing compared to his opposition to allowing gay marriage.  For many years, on many issues, I have seen myself as a man of the centre left; I am embarrassed at the inability of those whom I have admired on so many issues to hold to any kind of moral hierarchy onwhich issues really count.  Even if I were not an evangelical Christian, I'd like to think I could see which is the more important matter: stopping the international child sex trade or getting Melissa Etheridge a marriage certificate.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that the day is probably not far off when those who regard homosexual practice as wrong will be consistently presented as the moral, cultural and intellectual equivalents of white supremacists.  Al Mohler (who seems to have spent the whole week writing or speaking on the issues of Lisa Miller and Rick Warren) has pointed out that this issue is set to shatter any possibility of traditional, biblical Christians being considered cool.   You can have the hippest soul patch in town, and quote Coldplay lyrics till the cows come home; but oppose homosexuality and the only television program interested in having you appear will soon be The Jerry Springer Show when the audience has become bored of baiting the Klan crazies.  Indeed, evangelicals will be the new freaks.

There are two temptations here which must be resisted at all costs.  The first is to compromise biblical standards.  The mainline denominations and seminaries are already doing this.  As usual, as soon as religion's cultured despisers find something else to despise in religion, the mainlines, with their various seminaries and colleges, abandon it and join in the general anti-orthodox chorus, as radical, original, and revolutionary as a trust fund kid with a Che Guevara teeshirt and a Lexus.  To apply a quotation from Michael Heseltine, like a pathetic one-legged army they march along, `Left, left, left, left left.'. They are merely part of the problem, not the solution.  But there is a problem here for the orthodox too.  The pro-gay issue is carried along by a veritable cultural tidal wave, with everybody from high-powered political pundits to soap opera screenwriters helping to create an environment where to be opposed to homosexuality is regarded as irrational, implausible bigotry. This can only be resisted in two ways: mindless anti-gay bigotry built on hatred, which is sinful and unbiblical; or a vigorous commitment to high biblical standards of morality.  Such a commitment can only exist where there is a vigorous commitment to a high doctrine of scripture.  There's the rub for Christian colleges, seminaries, and denominations: the winds of cultural change on this issue are so strong that they will very quickly expose the strength of the commitment to scripture amongst these various groups.  My view?  When church leaders, faculty, and the movers and shakers of the evangelical world find themselves excluded from the reputable avenues of power and cultural and professional influence and preferment, then we will see what their doctrine of scripture is really like, whether it really is solid, whether it really shapes their lives, their actions, and their priorities.   The question is: will those in positions of authority in the schools, colleges, denomination and seminaries have the backbone to do what is necessary?  Will they be willing to consider the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt?  When the invitations to the Larry King Show dry up, to be replaced by those from Jerry Springer, will they hold the line?  I wish I had seen more evidence that that was the case and could be more confident about the future.   As Don Carson commented recently, American Christians have yet to wake up to the fact that the gospel really is despised by the world.  And I would add: in a culture where everyone seems to need to be liked, affirmed and, above all, agreed with, that realization is going to be very hard and challenging for the evangelical establishment to take on board.

The second temptation is to become what the pro-gay left are saying we are already: hatemongers.  It is vital we remember that nobody can be reduced simply to their sexuality.  No heterosexual person is simply heterosexual; no gay person is simply gay.  We are all complex human beings, defined by the basic category of image bearers of God, not sexual preference.  As soon as we start thinking of people as a sexual preference, not as image bearers, we lose sight of them as individuals.  They become mere labels or slogans, not persons.  It is hard to love a slogan; indeed, it is very easy rather to hate such.  Even as we are being labeled and turned into mere sound bites, we must not respond in kind.  Let us stand firm on biblical ethics, but let us also reach out to gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals with the love of Christ.  As Luther would remind us, our task is not done when we simply preach the law to the lost; we must then also preach the gospel to them and point them to Christ.  For such, as Paul once said, were some of you; and, thankfully, somebody treated you as a lost person not an abstract moral category or a sexual preference.