Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
“There is more that could be said but this should be enough for the reader to see some of the difficulties inherent in this new approach to sexuality and to apologetics in the church. The early Christian response to pagan criticisms was not to put forward those who identified themselves according to their sinful proclivities. An important part of the early Christian apologetic was their resolute adherence to God’s moral law, not in order to be saved but because they had been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.”
(R. Scott Clark – Abounding Grace Radio) In a recent essay, Rebecca McLaughlin calls for Christians to stop retreating and to “go on the offensive.” She makes some valuable observations. She is right to note that, though Christianity seems to be in trouble in the West, globally it is flourishing. …
The African Christian leaders regularly and rightly correct leaders and communions in Europe and the USA. Though Mao thought that the Cultural Revolution would destroy Christianity in China it has flourished despite (and perhaps because of) persecution. She’s right that Late Modern secularism is nihilistic and self-defeating. As we watch the LGBTQIA movement(s) fragment and turn on each other (e.g., the Q wing of the movement wants to subsume the others and the L wing is unhappy with the T faction) we should remember that there is a Christian way of understanding the world, which provides coherence, order, and meaning to life in this world. Further, she’s right that there is empirical evidence to support the notion that such a Christian understanding of the world has positive consequences for daily life. She is quite right to note the diversity inherent to historic Christianity. After all, the Christian religion, considered as a distinct historical phenomenon, began in the Mediterranean, spread to North Africa, to Europe, and eventually across the globe. Christ truly is calling his people from “every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev 5:9).
Her fourth point, however, deserves further reflection. She writes
Likewise, when it comes to other areas of cultural engagement, we need to let our most credible voices speak. In a world where Christians are seen as homophobic bigots, we need to get behind the biblically faithful, same-sex-attracted Christians God has raised up to speak for and to his church.
Here McLaughlin seeks to defend Christianity against the argument that it is inherently homophobic by pointing to those who are admitted same-sex attracted (SSA) but who confess the Christian faith and who have visible positions either in churches or in the broader Evangelical world.
Research: