You don’t need to agree with us but I thought that Elsie and I would share with you where we stand on the controversial cultural issues of the day. We are Bible-believing Christ followers who do our best to live life according to the commands, values, principles, and precepts of the Bible. The culture around us may tell us one thing but if it conflicts with the Bible we will always choose the Bible. So, here are some of the major issues of the day and where we stand on them:
1. Abortion. Elsie and I are unashamedly pro-life, anti-abortion Christians. Suffice it to say, God is the God of life, not death. The Bible teaches that life begins at conception (Psalm 139:13-16, Jeremiah 1:5). Abortion is always wrong and is a sin. It is the intentional murder of a human being. The sole justification for abortion which the Bible seems to permit, is when the mother’s life is in danger (Exodus 21:22). Having said that, this is a murky passage to build a case upon since it is not an intentional abortion but rather an externally caused miscarriage.
2. Woke. Nothing has caused greater division and tribalism than the attempt to be woke. Whether in the workplace, education, or church, woke divides people by race, sex, and denial of LGBTQA rights. Its focus is on social justice for the oppressed and the imposition of DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) on everyone else especially in business, education, and government. Woke teaches that all white people are viewed as oppressors, and all black people as victims of oppression. The Bible teaches just the opposite. It teaches that for those who are in Christ Jesus there is no slave or free, Jew or Gentile (the major divisions of the day) (Galatians 3:28). Jesus taught that in heaven, believers are like angels in that there is no procreation and no sexual division. In Jesus Christ all believers are on equal footing being sinners saved by grace. “The ground at the foot of the cross is level. All are equal in Christ.” As M.L. King famously said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” In Christ, King’s dream is a reality.
3. Transgender. Earlier editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders call real transgenderism, “Gender Identity Disorder” later versions of the DSM call it “Gender Dysphoria.” Boys with this mental disorder outnumber girls 5:1 and adult males outnumber females 3:1. Characteristics include a strong and persistent cross-gender identification, cross-dressing, preferences for friends of the opposite sex, and desire to get rid of primary and secondary sex characteristics. So, for many, transgender is a mental disorder and needs to be treated as such. For others, especially adolescents, it is a choice to draw attention to themselves. Elsie and I believe that God made no mistake in creating us in the sex we are. Genesis 1:27 declares, “And God created man in His own image in the image of God He created him male and female He created them.” Each of us bears the stamp of imago dei upon him. In the Old Testament, to dress in the clothing of the opposite sex was a sin (Deut. 22:5). Sex and gender are identical qualities.
4. Homosexuality. For many years, the aforementioned DSM classified homosexuality as a mental illness. Because of pressure from homosexual activists, that classification was removed from later versions. Homosexuality, however, is uniformly condemned in the Bible as a sin. Consider these passages in the Old Testament. In Genesis 19:5, the men of Sodom shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out so we can have sex with them.” (NLT) Lot begs his fellow citizens not to do “such a wicked thing” and apart from the intervention of the angels to blind the men, they would have abused Lot’s guests. Consider Judges 19:22 which reports that the men of the city of Gibeah came at night to the house of the old man who housed the strangers and demanded, “Bring out the man who is staying with you so we can have sex with him.” (NLT) Then there is Leviticus 20:13 in which the Lord warns, “The penalty for homosexual acts is death to both parties. They have committed a detestable act and are guilty of a capital offense.”
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul writes, “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9,10). (NASV) Then there is Romans 1:18-32 which describes the gradual descent of humanity when they reject God. Homosexuality is one of the last phases of that descent. Additional biblical references to the sin of homosexuality include: 1 Timothy 1:10-11, Jude 1:7, and Revelation 22:15.
5. Immigration. This issue is a personal one for me since I was born in England, my mother being English. My grandparents were English. All European immigrants crossing the Atlantic Ocean landed in New York and were processed for entry into the United States at Ellis Island. A US citizen had to vouch for you as an immigrant for you to be granted entry. We had to take a citizenship test. My mother and I were granted entry and citizenship because my father was an American citizen and we passed the test. This begs the question, “Why not allow anyone who wants to live in the United States to come in?” The answer is because if our borders are not secure we are not secure as a nation. Thus we have border patrol officers, immigration processing offices, and walls along the border. To turn a blind eye to masses of people crossing into the country illegally is to lose control of the borders and soon to lose control of the nation. Strong borders with strict immigration policies equals a strong nation. Consider that the New Jerusalem in heaven has walls. In Revelation 21:12 we read of the New Jerusalem, “It had a great and high wall with twelve gates and names were written on them which are those of the twelve tribes of Israel.” Ancient cities built walls for protection. We must do the same. Immigrants must be screened and come in legally. Should they desire to become citizens, they must pass a citizenship test.
6. Fossil Fuels. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1). The earth and all its contents belongs to the Lord. We are given the privilege of stewarding it. A steward must give an account to his lord of how he handled what was entrusted to him. So shall we. We are to steward the resources provided by the Lord with great care. Fossil fuels are no exception. The oil, gas, nuclear, and coal all belong to the Lord. He has provided them in abundance. Alternative fuels, be they wind, solar, or electricity are His as well. The question then is which is the most effective way to heat homes, power vehicles and factories, etc. As of this moment, no alternative fuel has been found effective to power vehicles or factories inexpensively over time except oil, gas, and coal. Electric vehicles are faddish and expensive to maintain if battery replacement is required. To force consumers to eliminate fossil fuels is to force higher cost, less reliable sources of energy on them. 1 Corinthians 4:2 says, “Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” We must trust that God can handle the long term and rejoice in the fact that one day there will be a new earth. But we need to realize that we have a responsibility to the earth now. Our dominion over the earth should never be confused as permission to abuse or abandon it.
7. Black Lives Matter. The Encyclopedia Brittanica describes the Black Lives Matter movement: “BLM was cofounded in 2013 as an online movement (using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media) by three Black community organizers—Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi. They formed BLM after George Zimmerman, a man of German and Peruvian descent, was acquitted on charges stemming from his fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012. Zimmerman, a neighborhood-watch volunteer, had seen Martin walking in his neighborhood and called the police because he thought Martin looked “suspicious.” Although Zimmerman was told not to do anything, he followed Martin, got into an argument with him, and shot and killed him. When law enforcement arrived, Zimmerman claimed that he had been assaulted by Martin and fired in self-defense.” Since 2013, no organization has been as divisive as BLM since the Civil War. The United States has become a nation divided by race with pejorative terms such as “racist,” “racism,” regularly charged against politicians who dare to speak against black crime and black fatherlessness in the home. The latter is the true issue within the black community and is the reason for most of the black crime committed by young black men and women. The Bible teaches, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” Galatians 3:28). If you are in Christ Jesus having been born again into the family of God, it matters not your sex, your race, your pedigree, your social status, your income, your education, or your earthly title. The ground at the foot of the cross is level. We are all sinners saved by the grace of God.