LGBTQ
Gender and sexuality are without a doubt two of the hottest issues of the day. Both are extremely personal, cutting too close to home, and as a result they need to be handled with great care. Conversations about these sensitive topics need to bear in mind that they do not concern mere issues, but fellow humans—“people to be loved,” as Preston Sprinkle suggests in the title of one of his books.
Yet we evangelicals often resort to no less than warmongering rhetoric. We fall prey to the divisive “us versus them” pattern of thinking. Believing ourselves to be in a culture war against the mainstream society, we feel the need to make our voices heard even when no one asked. To the outsider—the one we are pointing our righteous fingers at—we come across as lunatic haters, rather than prophets of hope or bearers of good news.
We may argue that “the Bible is clear on these issues”, adding that we have been called to preach “the truth in love”. And I’d like to believe that, deep down inside, our motivation is love for our neighbours. Yet, more typically, it seems to me that we are speaking out of fear or disgust. If this is our strategy for bringing people to Christ, we should not be surprised when it fails, causing backlash from those we are seeking to convert to our point of view. -Evangelical Focus: The unhelpful ways we talk about gender and sexuality
Yet we evangelicals often resort to no less than warmongering rhetoric. We fall prey to the divisive “us versus them” pattern of thinking. Believing ourselves to be in a culture war against the mainstream society, we feel the need to make our voices heard even when no one asked. To the outsider—the one we are pointing our righteous fingers at—we come across as lunatic haters, rather than prophets of hope or bearers of good news.
We may argue that “the Bible is clear on these issues”, adding that we have been called to preach “the truth in love”. And I’d like to believe that, deep down inside, our motivation is love for our neighbours. Yet, more typically, it seems to me that we are speaking out of fear or disgust. If this is our strategy for bringing people to Christ, we should not be surprised when it fails, causing backlash from those we are seeking to convert to our point of view. -Evangelical Focus: The unhelpful ways we talk about gender and sexuality
