Hey, breakpoint listeners, John Stone Street here from the Colson Center. I want to invite you to join me for an important live stream event, Truth, Love, and Humor, Faith Without Fear. It's July 24th. I'll be joined by Seth Dillon, the CEO of the Babylon Bee, the one and only Christian satire publication, as well as Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family. We're living in times where to speak the truth can get you canceled, and nobody knows that better than Seth Dillon.
And yet, our responsibility to speak the truth doesn't change. Just a few years ago, USA Today named Admiral Rachel Levine, a biological man who identifies and presents as a woman as their so-called woman of the year. In response, the Babylon Bee named Levine the man of the year. And that led to being canceled on Twitter. But as Seth Dillon says, truth is not hate speech.
and their faithfulness to say the truth, even in a humorous way, An incredible ending. You'll not want to miss this story as well as an exhortation of what it means to speak the truth in this cultural moment. This event is absolutely free. You can either join us in person if you're in the Bay Harbor, Michigan area, or online via live stream. To register, go to colsoncenter.org slash truth.
That's colsoncenter.org slash truth. Again, the date is July 24th, and the event is truth, love, and humor, faith without fear. Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth for the Colson Center on John Stone Street. In recent days, and within days, the British Parliament rushed through legislation to legalize medically assisted death for terminally ill adults. And also passed a bill to decriminalize late term abortion.
Led by an increasingly extremist Labour Party and enabled by the moral confusion of a supposedly conservative opposition, Britain is, as CS Lewis once warned, progressing in the wrong direction. In response, Peter Hitchens asked this question, quote, Parliament votes for the abortion of the old shortly after voting for the even more ruthless abortion of the unborn. Are we now ruled by a death cult? Speaking against bills like this is a bare minimum requirement of following Christ today. As theologian Stanley Harrowass has often put it, in a hundred years, if Christians are identified as the people who did not kill their children or their elderly, we will have done well.
In the UK, however, with very few qualified exceptions, there's been a lot of silence from the Church, especially the Church of England. As Andrew Walker quipped, and I quote, the Church of England, proudly offering chaplaincy services to a culture it lost, a parliament it has cravenly established to, and sermons to laws it won't challenge, end quote. And the Church of England is not alone in this guilt. Back in 2008, with some important exceptions, All the efforts to equip and mobilize Colorado pastors to oppose doctor assisted suicide also failed. Those of us working on the issue were told often that it was too political for the pulpit.
The built-in of course passed overwhelmingly.
Now, of course, the state of Colorado today is pushing legislation that would not only allow children to be Permanently harmed by puberty blockers and hormone treatments without parental consent, but also would force citizens to participate in various ways. 15 years ago, I doubt that many pastors would have said that state-sponsored sexual abuse of children would be too political to speak out on. But many of those same voices that were quiet then. Remain quiet today. In fact, in the years between 2008 and today, some pastors and Christian leaders did take.
a bit more of a stand on the issue of same-sex marriage. Many said that they would never be coerced by the government to officiate same-sex weddings, that they would never hold ceremonies in their church.
Well, unfortunately, many of them never made the connection that if a pastor shouldn't be forced to participate in a so-called same-sex wedding, then neither should a parishioner. They should never be forced, for example, to bake a cake or to arrange flowers or to design a website for one. But as it all turned out, it was the parishioners who were being asked and then harassed and then threatened to participate. Tragically, some were then abandoned by their church families while their pastors stayed away from the public eye and the whole mess. And what was missed along the way here was the revolutionary idea from the Protestant Reformation that our work belongs to God, whether sacred or ordinary.
It's the idea of vocation, that all of our callings are in fact sacred.
Now, on the much more recent culturally divisive issue, the trans issue, there were more loud and courageous voices. J.K. Rowling advocated for women on Social media tirelessly. Chloe Cole told her own story of deception and abuse, speaking up as a detransitioner that was harmed by progressive medical interventions as a minor. Riley Gaines loudly protested not only how she and other women swimmers were treated unfairly, but also how they were subjected to privacy violations by the NCAA.
And there were, of course, many others, and the story has yet to be fully told. But did enough pastors and Christian leaders speak out on the issue? More importantly, how many parents were simply abandoned as they were trying to help their own kids? because they were told the topic was too political. How many Christian voices spoke out, but then were told to just stay out of it and stay quiet?
In addition to a theology of getting fired, perhaps it's time for us to develop a theology of saying what's unpopular. Rather than allowing everything we say to turn on this hypothetical risk that it might turn some people away. Perhaps we should ask what it will mean for us to not live by lies. Perhaps we also need to consider where the good intention of not offending people. ends up devolving into accommodating only what itching ears want to hear, which in the end makes the possibility of repentance even more remote.
In James chapter 3, the apostle wrote that, quote, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
Now, most of the time, this will mean what not to say, but there's also this reality. that such leaders and teachers are called to a particular time and place for such a time as this. and that means they need to speak God's truth to God's world. Pastoral leadership is always needed, but it's especially needed now. I mean, in the UK there's little else that will keep the current British Parliament from going down in history as the death parliament.
But also everywhere else, it's a matter of God's people testifying to what's true. We ought always speak the truth in love, but that will never happen unless we actually are committed to speak the truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett.
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