Posted on Thursday,

The Number One Human Rights Issue Of Our Day

Sometimes it takes something shocking to wake people up. That happened and is hopefully happening more and more each day as people see the despicable and callous video involving planned parenthood about selling the body parts of aborted unborn human babies.

In a chilling image senior director of medical research for planned parenthood, Deborah Nucatola, swirls her wine, crunches on a salad and discusses crushing babies in a way that preserves profitable body parts intact. USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers’ comments are spot on:

“This is stomach-turning stuff. But the problem here is not one of tone. It’s the crushing. It’s the organ harvesting of fetuses that abortion-rights activists want us to believe have no more moral value than a fingernail. It’s the lie that these are not human beings worthy of protection. There is no nice way to talk about this. As my friend and former Obama White House staffer Michael Wear tweeted, “It should bother us as a society that we have use for aborted human organs, but not the baby that provides them.”

Read Powers full article here.

Over a million unborn human beings are crushed and dismembered each year in America. Something is very wrong. My prayer is that people would be awakened to the number one human rights issue of our day. The systematic extermination of unborn human beings is bad enough. But to commodify their body parts? To profit from their pain?

Have the Courage to Respectfully and Courageously Stand for the Unborn

Where should you start? Watch this video by Scott Klusendorf on how to make the case for the unborn with science and philosophy (not the Bible says so) in our post-Christian culture. Then share this post and video with others.

How to Make the Case for Life in a Post-Christian Culture with Scott Klusendorf (Impact 360 Institute) from Impact360 on Vimeo.

This isn’t a political issue…this is a human rights issue.

Stand for human life. Stop planned parenthood. Prepare yourself to engage.

Did you miss a podcast? – Subscribe with iTunes I RSS

A quick response to the “who are you to judge” objection.

Have you found this blog helpful? You can have it delivered right to your inbox in one easy step.

Follow me on Twitter @Jonathan_Morrow

Posted on Wednesday,

3 Quick Observations About The Same-Sex Marriage Supreme Court Decision

By now you have no doubt heard that the supreme court ruled 5-4 in Obergefell vs. Hodges that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right and is now the law of the land. (read the full decision here)

As a Christian how are we to think about this? To be honest, this decision did not surprise me, but I was disappointed. I had held out some hope that the constitution and not the winds of public opinion would win the day. But that was not to be.

3 Quick Observations About The Same-Sex Marriage Supreme Court Decision

1) The world has not ended, but make no mistake this will have significant cultural impact. There are 2 sides of this balance beam we can’t afford to fall off of. First, we need to remember that Christianity is still true, regardless of what is going on in a particular cultural moment. Our hope is fixed in Christ, not a cultural majority. We have an opportunity to love and engage. Let’s not miss that.

The other way not to react to this news is to say it won’t effect me and my marriage and everything will continue on as it has. That is not true. And that will become more painfully evident in the days ahead–especially for children.

2) Whatever your views on same-sex marriage, the constitution lost–and that is not good news for the United States of America. While I am not a legal scholar, I have taken the time to try to digest the issues at play here. What remains clear from the 4 dissenting justices is that in the words of Chief Justice Roberts, “The majority’s decision is an act of will, not legal judgment. The right it announces has no basis in the Constitution or this Court’s precedent.” The supreme court acted as a “super-legislature” in this case imposing its will rather than finding a rational basis for it in the constitution.

This may feel good (in the moment) if you happen to find yourself in the majority of current cultural opinion, but opinions change. You may (whatever your view) find yourself in the minority opinion at odds with 5 supreme court justices as the constitution is shaped to fit current trends. The whole point of a fixed document that anchors our country is so that it is really difficult to change laws and amend the constitution. That is being bypassed by judicial activism when it suits the court. That’s not good news for the rule of law in a free society. For more analysis, read here.

3) More than ever it is important to have courage, stand for religious liberty for everyone, and promote and embody true tolerance. There is a lot here. But the bottom line is you and I as Christ-followers must affirm what Jesus affirmed about God’s created order (cf. Matt. 19 as he cited Gen. 1-2). We must also not be silent. We must stand our ground no matter what comes. We need to affirm true tolerance where people can disagree with one another about things that really matter and still love and respect one another (read more about this here). People we may disagree with are not the enemy. They are made in the image of God and worthy of dignity and respect. Here are 2 books that need to be must reading.

– Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom by Ryan Anderson

– The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech by Kirsten Powers

Here is a talk that my friend John Stonestreet gave recently at Impact 360 Institute entitled: Same-Sex Marriage What Now (Video). It is well worth a watch.

Now is not the time to lose heart. It is time to think, love, and engage.

A Quick Response to the Who Are You To Judge Objection? (read more)

If you found this post helpful, you would enjoy How to Respond to the “That’s Just Your Interpretation” Objection

Listen to the latest Think Christianly podcast: Subscribe with iTunes I RSS

Enjoy what you read today? Never miss a post! Sign up to receive my blog updates directly in your inbox.

Posted on Thursday,

Should Christians Be For Or Against Culture?

When speaking on the topic of faith and culture, I usually begin with a pop quiz. I ask people to turn to the person sitting next to them and see if they can come up with a definition of culture, and then decide whether Christians should be for or against it. As you can probably guess, the responses are all over the map. By the way, how would you answer those two questions?

Why is this? Well, to be honest, culture may be one of the hardest words to define in the English language because it is used in many different ways. But if we don’t have a clear picture of what culture is, then it becomes extremely difficult to determine what Christianity’s relationship to it ought to be.

In short, we need a robust theology and philosophy of culture that we can understand and then communicate to those around us. In this post, I want to unpack and clarify some concepts that will be essential to establishing our biblical basis for engaging culture.

Culture is as old as humankind is, but the word derives from the Latin cultura and colere, which describe the tending or cultivating of something, typically soil and livestock. In the eighteenth century, it would come to apply to the cultivation of ideas (education) and customs (manners). Then there are sociological and anthropological definitions, which are helpful in their own way but involve hard- to-remember phrases such as “transmitted and inherited patterns and symbols.”

Theologian Kevin Vanhoozer suggests:

“Culture is the environment and atmosphere in which we live and breathe with others.”

That’s good.

Philosopher Garry DeWeese helpfully unpacks this concept a bit more by defining culture as a

“shared system of stories and symbols, beliefs and values, traditions and practices, and the media of communication that unite a people synchronically (at a given time) and diachronically (through history).”

The most transferable way I have found to summarize what culture is comes from Andy Crouch: “Culture is what people make of the world.” In other words, people interact and organize while taking all the raw materials of planet Earth and doing something with them.

This covers everything from microchips to BBQ, computers to cathedrals, music composition to the development of law and government, city planning to education, and entertainment to Facebook. How people communicate, work, travel, order their familial and societal lives, and create technology are all artifacts of culture. And since Christians are people too, we are necessarily involved in the creation of culture. There is no such thing as a culture-free Christianity.

So we clearly can’t be against culture in this sense because Christians, as part of humanity, were given the mandate (in Genesis 1:27 – 28) to make something of the world.

I will have more to say on this in the days and weeks ahead as we explore what it means for us to live faithfully in a post-Christian culture.

How do you think Christians should relate to culture? I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below.

Would you like to explore the relationship of Christianity and Culture further? I have written more in depth on that here.

If you enjoyed this post, then you would like 8 Things Christians Must Understand About Our Cultural Moment.

Listen to the latest Think Christianly podcast: Subscribe with iTunes I RSS

Enjoy what you read today? Never miss a post! Sign up to receive my blog updates directly in your inbox.

Posted on Wednesday,

Are Christians on the Wrong Side of History? (Video)

Cultural undercurrents are always shifting. What is morally acceptable in one generation can find itself condemned in the next. And vice versa. However, truth is not a popularity contest ( Is Truth Relative? ). What does this mean for us as Christians? It means we will need to have the courage of our convictions and stand firm when clear teachings of Scripture fall out of step with our culture. It also means we must train the next generation to be ready to own their faith. In this video D.A. Carson, John Piper, and Tim Keller reflect upon what it means to be on the right and wrong side of history.

“As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ” – Eph. 4:14-15

On the Wrong Side of History? from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Listen to the latest Think Christianly podcast: Subscribe with iTunes I RSS

Sign up to receive our blog updates and resources via email

Posted on Tuesday,

How to Become An Everyday Ambassador

Recently I wrote about the importance of making sure we are relating to our culture with the right tone. This is because we represent the King of kings and his kingdom agenda to the world that Christ died to redeem. We proclaim his message that reconciliation is now available in Christ. If you name the name of Christ, then you are an Everyday Ambassador. Interestingly, the Bible gives us a front row seat to watch Paul live out this mind-set in an unchristian environment:

“While Paul was . . . in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him … Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship — and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.” – Acts 17:16 – 23

First, did you notice that he is reasoning with people about Christianity, not just appealing to blind faith, emotions, and felt needs? He is “contend[ing] for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (Jude 3). The book of Acts repeatedly records Paul doing this (Acts 14:15 – 17; 17:2, 4, 17 – 31; 18:4; 19:8).

Second, Paul is greatly distressed by the idolatry in Athens, but he didn’t preach hellfire and brimstone. Rather, modeling the wise engagement he commands believers to employ (Colossians 4:5–6), he compliments their religiosity. Paul translates the right response of sadness and channels it into connection with his audience. His tone is instructive here.

Finally, notice that Paul finds connecting point after connecting point with his audience. He understands the times (1 Chronicles 12:32). He has studied their works and ideas, quotes their poets, and is familiar with Stoic and Epicurean philosophy. He is a student of their culture, not merely an observer (Acts 17:23). He studies it so he can find connections between the true story of Christianity and their cultural story. And then at the end, he subverts their story by naming the unknown God as the Jesus who was resurrected.

Here is what this means for us at our intersection. We have to know our story well—the kingdom story—and we also need to know the major cultural stories at our intersection. This will take effort, study, and intentionality and is part of what it means to always be prepared to give a defense of the hope within us (cf. 1 Peter 3:15). If you are ready to do that, reading this would be a great next step.

What are some ways that you have been able to successfully build bridges with people? Please share them in the comments section below.

Listen to “Living As A Christian In A Post-Christian Culture” (Podcast)

Subscribe with iTunes I RSS