Why Is Inflation So High? Hint: It’s a Worldview Issue

So, why is inflation so high? Well, hint, it's a worldview issue. That is a topic we'll discuss today right here on the Christian worldview radio program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host. The Christian worldview is a non-profit, listener-supported radio ministry. Thanks to you, our listeners, for your prayer, encouragement, and support.

You can connect with us by calling our toll-free number, 1-888-646-2233, writing to Box 401, Excelsior Minnesota, 55331, or visiting thechristianworldview.org. Now, no doubt you have noticed that the price of nearly everything has increased. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, quote, over the 12 months ended June 2022, the consumer price index for all urban consumers increased 9.1%, the largest 12-month increase since the 12-month period ending in November way back in 1981. For example, food for the home increased 12.2%, motor fuel increased 60%, electricity rose nearly 14%, natural gas increased 38%, and new vehicles rose over 11%. But if you ask 10 people why prices have increased so much, you'll likely hear explanations like price gouging, or Putin's war in Ukraine, or it's about COVID, or there's supply chain problems. But are these the real reasons? Cal Beisner, our guest this weekend, doesn't think so.

He is the president of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation and a respected teacher on the environment, economics, and ethics. You may be surprised to learn that the price increases have almost everything to do with inflating the money supply through the latest nearly $1 trillion spending bill, misnamed the, quote, Inflation Reduction Act, which was pushed and then passed on August 7, by President Biden and the left, that will among other things, hire 87,000 new tax agents with the IRS. Now, who knows whether it was related, but the very next day, former President Trump's home was raided and searched by FBI agents for reasons not very well explained by the Justice Department. Cal will also address other questions such as, why are businesses struggling to find workers? Why have evangelicals been influenced by the late Ron Sider, who is a leader in the quote evangelical left, and the ethical question as to whether a Christian should attend a homosexual so called wedding to quote, be a good neighbor. Let's get straight to the interview with Cal Beisner.

Cal, you wrote recently in a column you titled it this way. One man, Senator Joe Manchin, who's a Democrat senator from West Virginia, saved the American economy from a body blow. After months of negotiations, Manchin concluded that he could not support a budget reconciliation bill, which is a scaled down version of last year's build back better plan. I believe that was a over $1 trillion spending plan.

You said this a few weeks ago. As it turns out, Joe Manchin, the senator from West Virginia, has done an about face. The Patriot Post writes that this bill was just voted on and passed due to Manchin voting in favor of it.

They needed all the Democrats to support it. The Patriot Post said today's sky high inflation that we're experiencing today was largely caused by last year's Democrats spending bonanza known as the American Rescue Plan. That budgetary behemoth, as Mark Alexander, he's the publisher for Patriot Post, actually was more than 1.4, is $1.9 trillion in taxpayer funded graft into a $300 billion economic hole created by the COVID pandemic. And then he goes on to say spending another $740 billion, which is what this bill has just passed, is going to do on climate and healthcare boondoggles won't suddenly have a different result.

With Joe Manchin doing an about face on his opposition to Joe Biden's build back better spending pitch, now reduced in scope and dubiously called the quote, inflation reduction act. The IRS is on the cusp of a windfall to a tune of $80 billion. It's just one example of something in this bill that IRS is going to get $80 billion when their annual budget is only 12.6. They want to do this so they can extract more taxes from the American people.

I would imagine that most Americans have no idea of what has just taken place. Maybe they are vaguely aware of all the spending last year, but now another $740 billion is being printed, borrowed, and spent however they're doing it. So why the about face by Joe Manchin? Why will this actually increase inflation of what it said, you know, the title of it is the inflation reduction act. And why does Biden the left, why do they keep on printing and borrowing and spending money that we don't even have?

First let me just say, this was a case, I suppose, of my accountant, my chickens before they hatched. You know, Manchin frankly has over the years been very staunch in opposition to all kinds of different things that would harm the coal industry in his state of West Virginia. The build back better plan would have done that. The earlier budget reconciliation bill would have harmed the coal industry in West Virginia. This bill, the so-called inflation reduction act, which is a complete misnomer because the Horton School of Business at Pennsylvania University has scored this one and actually said, no, it's going to cause more inflation, not reduced inflation. But this bill doesn't have as much of a threat.

In fact, if anything, it has a bit of benefit to the coal industry in West Virginia because it increases the opportunity for coal mining companies to sell their coal, especially overseas. Essentially, Joe Manchin got bought off on that. He had said that he could never support a major bill like this as long as inflation continued high. That was back in June before the June inflation figure came out.

In early July, the June inflation figure came out as 9.1% over the prior year. And that was why Manchin voted against it there in early July. And then this new bill comes out in later July and it does many of the same things. And yet inflation didn't go down. It went up for June and nonetheless, Manchin voted for it. I can't tell you because I don't have internal access to his mind exactly what were all the things that moved him in that direction. But I have a strong sense that an awful lot of it was typical political trading.

You give me this, I'll give you that. And that just happens a great deal in Congress. There's not an awful lot of principle in Congress. And why do Biden and the left keep printing and borrowing and spending money we don't have?

Because that's the way you keep making people think that you are doing good for them when in fact the long-term effect is going to be very, very harmful. But the problem is that too few Americans understand basic economics. They think, for example, that inflation is rising prices. Well, that's not what inflation is. If you look at older dictionaries and older particularly dictionaries of economics or a business, inflation properly is defined as an expansion of the money supply. And what happens since prices are determined by the ratio of supply to demand, as the supply of money rises relative to the demand for money in terms of goods and services that can be bought by it, its value, its price, money's price in relation to this object diminishes. If the supply of money shrinks relative to the goods and services that can demand it in payment, then money's value rises. So inflation itself is all about money supply. The change in prices is the symptom, the consequence of real inflation. But government officials know that the vast majority of people don't understand that.

They don't know why prices rise. So if you have an inflationary monetary policy, which is what we've had for the last 13, 14 years, highly inflationary monetary policy, then what that does is it forces wages to rise in response to rising prices. And that pushes people into higher tax brackets. So that means that the government gets to collect more taxes than it otherwise would.

It also means that the main banks, the highest ranking banks that get money directly from the Federal Reserve, they get to use that money and lend that money at its prevailing prior value before the economy begins to show the loss of value of the money because of the inflation of the supply. And so those banks benefit. And it's ordinary people like you and me, it's ordinary businesses, it's ordinary banks that wind up having to use the money at its lower value in exchange. So inflation is a great method of theft. And frankly, this printing money on paper or making it out of thin air in digital money, this is just counterfeiting. And we have laws against counterfeiting because counterfeiting is theft. But we think that somehow or other, because government or a quasi-governmental agency like a central bank does it, therefore, it's not counterfeiting. Sure, it is. It's still counterfeiting. It just happens to be legal instead of illegal. But it's still evil. It's still a violation of the eighth commandment, you shall not steal.

Cal Beissner with us today on the Christian worldview, the president of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. We're talking about inflation and economics. We're going to get into ethics as well. Just one more question about inflation. You said wages are rising and why are wages rising if the economy is not doing well? But just before you answer that, people have a sense if their wages are rising, well, I have more money now. But then when they go try to spend their money, everything they're buying is much more expensive. So they really don't have any more money because it's not going any, it's going less far than it probably was before.

Exactly. When prices rise, when the consumer price index rises, fairly soon people begin to feel the pinch and then they go to their employers and they say, hey, I need a raise. And the employer eventually either will lose that employee because he or she will find a position elsewhere or will give the employee a raise. But the raise, of course, comes after the price increase has already taken a chunk for several months, maybe a year or two or three. The prices of goods and services have increased even more than the wages have. So the purchasing power declines.

So in terms of real dollars, constant dollars, people's wages have actually fallen instead of rising. And all this is because we've got folks who forget that it is only God who makes something out of nothing. And we think that we can make wealth out of nothing.

Well, that's that's idolatrous. When we think our government, when we think our central bank can make value out of nothing, we're mistaken and we're treating them as if they were God. That's a very interesting perspective truth on this particular issue. Let's talk about the workforce. You're talking about wages wherever you go now, whether it's to a fast food restaurant or any kind of store.

We were recently at an orchard picking fruit during the summer. And the owner of the farm said she can't get anyone to work, even paying 15, 20 dollars an hour. The question is, and I think people see this and you'll see signs of businesses doors.

We don't have enough employees to stay open this day. Where has the workforce gone? And since they're gone, how are they supporting themselves to be able to pay for rent or housing or food or the necessities of life? A lot of this was sparked by the what the government call those payments that it gave to every American, every tax paying American back in 2020 and 2021. Some kind of subsidy.

Yeah, we all got them. And supposedly this was to help us out from the fact that the lockdowns of businesses that were done by government order in response to covid had prevented so many people from earning wages for a time. Problem is that combined with unemployment benefits, plus those checks from the federal government, many people with lower incomes found that their income was higher if they stayed out of work than if they went back into work.

Now, human beings respond to incentives. The more you pay people not to work, the more people will not work. The less you pay people not to work, the fewer people will not work.

Right. So we launched an attitude among many people, particularly in the lower income spectrum, that says, hey, I can do about as well without working as I can by working. So I'm just not going to go back to work. And so many people actually left the workforce. This is why we have simultaneously a low unemployment rate and yet also a low workforce participation rate.

Those are different things. Unemployment is how many people have filed for and are receiving unemployment benefits. The workforce participation is how many people consider themselves to be part of the workforce and are either employed or are looking for a job.

And the latter has fallen significantly. Essentially, it's because we're making it easier and easier for people not to work. Now, I see this as a really serious challenge to human beings to remember what we really are. We're not pets.

We're not dogs and cats that get their food tossed into a bowl and put on the floor regardless whether they do anything productive. We are human beings made in God's image to be creative and productive as God is. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He started with nothing and got everything. He made it originally without form and void, chaotic. And then he gave it order. He brought light out of darkness, order out of chaos, life out of non-life, great variety of life out of non-life and told each variety of life to be fruitful and multiply and fill its niche in the earth. This is what God is like.

And he made us to be like him. The more we make it easy for people to just sit on their hands, the more we tempt them not to develop and act upon the image of God in them. I think we're seeing that happening right now. And it's a tragic thing because it's harming people not only financially, but also spiritually.

And we see that with rising rates of clinical depression, why rising rates of suicide, rising rates of drug abuse and so on that have happened as the fallout of the lockdown policies of 2020 and 2021 in response to COVID. Wow. It's amazing how economic policy is really a biblical worldview issue.

Absolutely. Cal Beissner joins us today here on the Christian worldview radio program, the president of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. Their website is cornwallalliance.org, where you can get a link over to their website from our website, thechristianrealview.org. Cal has recommended a short book for listeners to the Christian Real View called Global Warming Skepticism for Busy People by Roy Spencer. This is a 113 page soft cover book that dispels the scaremongering and exaggerations about climate change with actual facts. You can order this book for a donation of any amount to the Christian Real View.

The normal retail price is $13 plus shipping. Just get in contact with us the usual ways at our website, thechristianrealview.org, calling us toll free at 1-888-646-2233 or writing to us at Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Scripture commands that children are to be brought up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Offering biblically sound resources for children is one of our top ministry priorities. At our store at thechristianrealview.org, you will find carefully selected children's Bibles and books along with video and audio resources. Check out the Bible infographics for kids books, Little Pilgrim's Progress, and the popular Adam Raccoon set. Theo is a 15 episode video series addressing key doctrines of the faith that is a must see for children and adults. Satan and the world are bent on capturing the heart and mind of your child.

Instead, get sound resources that will train them up in the way they should go. Browse an order at thechristianrealview.org or give us a call for recommendations at 1-888-646-2233. That's 1-888-646-2233 or thechristianrealview.org. For a limited time, we are offering My Boy Ben for a donation of any amount to the Christian Real View. The book is the true story of a yellow lab that I had back when I was competing on the professional tennis tour.

It's about relationships with Ben, my parents, with the childhood friend I would eventually marry, but ultimately with God, who causes all things, even the hard things, to work together for good. You can order a signed and personalized copy for yourself or for your friend who enjoys a good story, loves dogs, sports, or the outdoors, and most of all, needs to hear about God's grace and the Gospel. My Boy Ben is owned by the Christian Real View.

It's 264 pages, hardcover, and retails for $24.95. To order, go to thechristianrealview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Welcome back to the Christian Real View. I'm David Wheaton.

Be sure to visit our website, thechristianrealview.org, where you can subscribe to our free weekly email and annual print letter, order resources for adults and children, and support the ministry. Now back to the interview with Cal Beisner, president of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. Okay, let's move over to the situation this country is in right now. It's called a recession. The website Investopedia defines recession as, a recession is a significant, widespread, and prolonged downturn in economic activity.

Because recessions often last six months or more, one popular rule of thumb is that two consecutive quarters of decline in a country's gross domestic product, the GDP, constitute a recession. So we are now in a recession whether the left admits it and tries to talk their way out of saying we're not in a recession. What does that mean for the country that we're in a recession now? And what about some of the counter arguments that you actually just gave that, oh, unemployment is low, wages are higher, and things aren't as bad as they appear? As the number of people who count themselves as in the workforce, that is either they're employed or they're actively looking for a job, as that number of people declines, then unemployment rate, that is the number of people who want to be employed but are not employed, can be low at the very same time that there are an awful lot of job positions that are open and can't be filled, because there aren't enough people looking for them. When you take a lot of people out of production, that is when they cease being part of the workforce, you have a decline in production. And that's exactly where recession is. A recession is two consecutive quarters of a shrinking of gross domestic product, the total value of everything produced by a given country's economy.

And that's what we've had. The rising wages you and I have already talked about, yes, wages are rising in dollar terms, but the purchasing power of each of those dollars is falling faster than the number of dollars that people are being paid is rising. So their actual ability to afford food, clothing, shelter, everything else, right, declines. That's what happens in a recession. What does it mean for the country? Well, what it means is less prosperity. It means that people will have to make do with less in the way of quantity and quality of food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, transportation, communication, everything else. And that's going to continue until people begin to hurt enough that they decide, oh, got to turn around here.

I need to go ahead and go to work, even though I didn't really want to work, even though I thought I could do as well without working. That can take a longer or shorter period of time, partly depending on government policy. As long as the government is willing to create so-called money out of thin air and then hand it to people and other people are willing to receive that in exchange for goods and services, the decline will continue. But eventually, at some point along the line, you hit the wall.

You just have to change. The longer we take before we hit the wall, the more it's going to hurt when we hit it, because we will just, in essence, to follow the metaphor through. Our velocity will increase and increase till we finally run into the brick wall. We'd be smart to stop sooner instead of later. So what do you think listeners should be doing right now? Because this financial irresponsibility, I think, mirrors where our nation has gone morally. The moral perversion in our country is one thing, and a lack of restraint there is not surprising.

There's a lack of restraint fiscally. So what should Christians be doing right now, whether it's financially, spiritually, in any other way? Do you think just to protect themselves, to help others, or whatever during this particular time? Well, I would start with the spiritual because that's really the root of everything. I would point us to Jesus telling us, do not worry about tomorrow.

Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof. And so one of the first things that we have to do is just not get sucked down into anxiety, worry, we need to trust the Lord. Jesus tells us that we should seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And when we do that, all the things that we need will be given to us will be provided for us by God and his good providence. And of course, that's a generality in Scripture. We have also in Scripture, the teaching that there are exceptions to that rule. You have Job, who was a very righteous man.

And yet as part of a cosmic drama going on between God and Satan, God allowed Satan to harm Job immensely to destroy pretty much all of his wealth and all of his family and then his children. We can't just assume that what is good for us is a certain level of income. What is good for us is what will make us more like Jesus.

And so in some of our lives, we can do just fine with a strong and steady income. And some of us in order to become more like Jesus, need to see our income streams disappear for a while or shrink considerably. But the main thing is to keep trusting God no matter what, and not fear. The instruction, do not fear, do not be afraid, is the most common command in the Bible.

It actually appears over 365 times more than once for every day of the year. And so I'd say the first thing for us as Christians is don't be afraid in this period. Instead, trust the Lord, try to live in wise ways, read the Proverbs over and over and over again, read the book of Proverbs and put those to work in your life. That's important. Then I'd also say that we need to do what makes common sense, regardless what the government is doing, what policy is doing. And so work hard, save and invest carefully at a time when the value of cash is declining rapidly because of real inflation, the increase in money supply. You might be wise to try to minimize your cash holdings and instead hold things of more stable value over time.

That might be stocks, it might be bonds, it might be precious metals, gold and silver and things of that sort, might be land, real estate. But basically, you know, we should be working hard to produce as much as we can and to sell it through the market. And then we should be taking sensible steps to protect ourselves against the decline in the purchasing power of the dollars that are in our wallets. What you said there, I think, is so helpful, Cal, because when we fear the situation we're in, we're not trusting in a sovereign God over what's going on in the world. And then secondly, when you talk about working hard during this time, that's important, too, because we need to be able to earn these inflated dollars now because our existing dollars before inflation aren't going to go as far.

So I think that's good advice as well. Cal Beisner with us today here on the Christian Real View radio program. I want to transition slightly, but there's a connection here as well. Ron Sider recently died at age 82. And Al Mohler wrote an article about this, and you commented on your Facebook page as well, that the evangelical left loses its profit. And how this is connected is that Ron Sider was a quote unquote, from the evangelical left. And he advocated for these kinds of policies that we see. Matter of fact, he was openly for, I believe, Joe Biden in the last election. I think he was for evangelicals for Biden. So he's in favor. Someone like Ron Sider, others like Jim Wallace of Sojourners, Tony Campolo, many others, even more in the mainstream evangelical community now, are for these type of redistribution policies that take place where you tax and you redistribute to people, you print money and spend.

There's a lot of government mandates and coercion and regulation going on where government is ordering society, dealing with the poor and welfare and health care, controlling everything. That's what Ron Sider was for. Correct me if I'm wrong, because you knew him personally. And I'm just going to read a paragraph from Mohler's column and also what you wrote on Facebook. Mohler said, one of the most important figures in what became known as the evangelical left, Ron Sider shocked and rocked the Christian world with his 1977 book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. He sought to combine liberal politics with his traditional Mennonite theology. And deeply troubled by what he saw as injustice, Sider sought to rally evangelical Christianity into a movement for liberation against poverty and oppression. And this is just what's taking place in the evangelical world today with the huge movement for so-called social justice.

He was before his time. The problem was that Sider's solution, Mohler writes, based in a mix of liberalism, liberationism, and easily falsified economic errors would only add to the problems. In Rich Christians, the book, Sider called the evangelical Christians to abandon capitalism and its excesses and embrace a new economic approach. Predictably, Sider's approach just happened to be a mash of collectivism, state control, income redistribution, and predictably leftist economic arguments.

What we have just been discussing today. His argument sounded to some like liberation theology and to others like third world propaganda. Now I just want to read one more paragraph from your Facebook page, what you wrote, because you knew him personally. Ron Sider, you write, was a kind and compassionate man.

And despite our many disagreements about economics and politics, he and I could call each other friends. His problem was that he so frequently failed to recognize unintended consequences of his compassion-driven policies. His book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, Christianity Today named that book as the most influential evangelical book of the last 50 years. That's a huge statement from Christianity Today considering the amount of Christian books that are churned out every year.

Despite Ron Sider backing away from the initially strong socialist views of the first two editions of that book, later editions of the book still never got over the habit of constantly looking to the state for solutions to poverty. Why is this sort of socialistic liberation theology, Marxism, however you want to label it, that based reasoning, why is it so effective with evangelical Christians considering where we are today with a social justice movement basically just fractured the conservative wing of evangelicalism? There is a book titled The Perennial Heresy. The book describes how this kind of thinking has arisen repeatedly throughout church history. And one of the most important periods of this was actually during the Reformation itself when the radical Anabaptist movement in the Reformation decided that all of the laws of the Old Testament, including the Ten Commandments, no longer applied and that therefore, for example, the law against theft no longer applied because there's no longer any such thing as private property. All this stuff was Old Testament and in the New Dispensation, we have the New Testament and private property disappears.

So also does monogamous marriage. And so the radical Anabaptists, when they took over one of the cities in Germany, demanded the abolition of property there and the commonality of wives among the men there. That led, of course, to considerable objection and eventually the Roman Catholics and the what we call the magisterial reformers, the Lutherans and the Calvinists and even most of the Baptists agreed this is revolution.

This is ungodly. It is downright satanic and they eventually put down that movement militarily. But that kind of thinking has risen repeatedly throughout church history. And as a matter of fact, Karl Marx developed his thinking in part out of the thinking of the radical Anabaptists.

Well, the Mennonite movement, like several other movements, the Quakers and so on, is partly derived from that movement of the Reformation period. And so for many Mennonites, great discomfort with the notion of private property is very common. And that has driven them in the direction of Marxism. Marx himself said that one of the essential principles of Marxism was the abolition of private property. And they see this as compassionate because they see, well, so and so lacks bread to eat, but he would have bread if he could just take what his neighbor has and eat that. But it's the rule of private property that's preventing that.

So let's just get rid of that rule. The problem, of course, is that pretty quickly, if you don't get to keep and dispose of what you make according to your own will, you lose the incentive to make it because you can no longer benefit from your productive activity. And so that tends to just greatly depress production, which is why we've seen that no socialist economy has ever lifted and kept a whole society out of poverty and where once wealthy economies made wealthy by free market economies have turned and embraced socialism, they have become poor. So what you've got really is people who really are moved with compassion for those who lack food or clothing or shelter or whatever. And they see the solution as taking by force what belongs to other people and giving it to those to whom it doesn't belong. What this forgets, of course, is that the eighth commandment does not say you shall not steal unless you are the government. It just simply says you shall not steal. So when the government does that, that's theft, just as much as if I break into my neighbor's house and steal his TV and walk away with it.

But the problem is that nobody prosecutes it because the government is doing it instead of me as a private individual. Ron's book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, is what actually spurred my beginning to study these things back in the early 1980s. And my book, Prosperity and Poverty, the Compassionate Use of Resources in a World of Scarcity, which was first published in 1988, is a general introduction to economics from a biblical worldview perspective and using biblical ethics and actually going to each of the Ten Commandments and talking about its economic implications, as in many respects prompted by Ron's book. Now, I will emphasize that whereas in the first three editions of Rich Christians, Ron argued pretty explicitly socialistically, in the fourth and following editions, he backed away from that. And particularly through his activity in what was called the Oxford Conference on Christian Faith and Economics, which met several different times in Oxford, England and in Agra, India and elsewhere. And I was involved in that as well. Ron began to recognize the legitimacy of the arguments for a more free market sort of economy.

And so those later editions actually were far more free market than socialist in perspective. The problem is that the basic instinct in Ron Sider was whenever he saw an economic problem, a poor neighborhood, poor individual, whatever, his instinctive reaction was to say, what can the government do about this? Rather than what can this person's family do about this? What can this person's church do about this?

What can this person's immediate neighbors do about this? And by turning immediately to the government, he is turning to the one entity in our lives that has what some economists have called the legal monopoly of force. That is, the state can order you to do something. And if you don't comply, it can force you. And if you still resist, it can arrest you. And if you resist the arrest, well, it can manhandle you and put the handcuffs on you and drag you off to jail. And if you say, no, I'm a free human being and that property that you wanted to take, that property is mine and I have a gun here and I'm willing to defend that property and to defend my freedom.

Well, the government will simply bring more guns than you can have. And ultimately, it's willing to kill you for that property that it wanted to take away from you. That's the problem with going that direction is that it is an appeal to force rather than an appeal to grace. Now, God established government to enforce justice. That's the lesson of Romans chapter 13 and other passages in scripture. But justice properly means rendering to everyone his due according to the righteous standard of God's moral law. Well, you can properly use force to enforce justice.

But what Ron Sider was really looking for in his book, Rich Christians, was instead grace, generosity, love. But those things cannot be forced. Grace is rendering benefit where it's not earned, not deserved. And when you turn government into an institution to administer grace, you've mixed its nature as the legal monopoly of force, its nature as a coercive institution with something that should be voluntary. And it's like oil and water. The two do not mix.

You wind up only with harm. Wow, that was a very interesting history lesson and government lesson and the role of the law and government and grace and so forth. Thank you for that, Cal. Cal Beisner with us today here on The Christian Real View.

Just a short time out here for some ministry announcements. Cal has recommended a short book called Global Warming Skepticism for Busy People. The book dispels the typical scare mongering and exaggerations we so often hear about climate change with actual facts. You can order Global Warming Skepticism for Busy People for a donation of any amount to The Christian Real View.

The normal retail price is $13 plus shipping. Just order it the usual way through our website, thechristianrealview.org or by calling 1-888-646-2233 or by writing to us at Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. David Wheaton here inviting you to The Christian Real View golf event on Monday, September 19th at Woodhill Country Club in Wazeta, Minnesota. This is a rare opportunity to experience Woodhill with its immaculate condition, challenging greens and beautiful setting all in support of The Christian Real View Radio Ministry. Your registration includes lunch on the lawn, practice range, player gift, and 18 holes with cart followed by appetizers and awards. Make a hole in one on number 16 and you'll take home a brand new Chevy. Bring your foursome or we can fit you into a group.

There are lots of hole sponsor opportunities as well. We hope to see you on Monday, September 19th. Registration deadline is Labor Day. To find out more and to register, visit thechristianrealview.org or call 1-888-646-2233. That's 1-888-646-2233 or thechristianrealview.org. For a limited time, we are offering My Boy Ben for a donation of any amount to The Christian Real View. The book is the true story of a yellow lab that I had back when I was competing on the professional tennis tour.

It's about relationships with Ben, my parents, with a childhood friend I would eventually marry, but ultimately with God, who causes all things, even the hard things, to work together for good. You can order a signed and personalized copy for yourself or for your friend who enjoys a good story, loves dogs, sports, or the outdoors, and most of all needs to hear about God's grace and the gospel. My Boy Ben is owned by The Christian Real View.

It's 264 pages, hardcover, and retails for $24.95. To order, go to thechristianrealview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Thanks for joining us today on The Christian Real View. I'm David Wheaton, the host. Just a reminder that today's program and past programs are archived at our website, thechristianrealview.org. Transcripts and short takes are also available.

Now back to the interview with Cal Beister. Cal, another thing that you wrote about recently that came out of the Gospel Coalition who has been so influenced by this social justice movement. And you wrote that there was an article on the Gospel Coalition that addressed the question about whether Christians should attend the so-called same-sex wedding ceremony of a colleague or someone they know.

Is that a sinful thing to do, to put your presence at a ceremony that's inherently sinful? That's my words, not the columns. And you say the author's argument is basically that while same-sex marriage is sinful, in a pluralistic society, we must affirm its legality. In doing this, we're being a quote, good neighbor. We hear that excuse, that rationalization being used for everything.

Get the vaccine because you need to be a good neighbor. Legality is morality, whether a godly or ungodly morality. Legality is morality. Laws legislate morality. To affirm in the legal sphere what one opposes in the private sphere is a striking example of privatized pietism. This is where the consistent modern pietism leads. The interiorization of the faith and the surrender of that faith outside, quote, spiritual sphere.

So you kind of live one way for church and in your spiritual life in your home, but we have to live a different way in the broader culture, broader society. And you finish by saying to condone sin in the legal sphere is being a very bad neighbor, you say. So this is a question that you hear comes up from people, whether it could even be with a Christian photographer. Do you shoot same sex, so-called weddings or Christians who have family members who are homosexuals who are getting, quote, married?

So how do you apply a biblical worldview to this ethical question that believers face? It's not gay. It's homosexual.

And it's not marriage. It's two people getting together sexually outside the bonds of proper marriage that God has prescribed in scripture as between one man and one woman through a covenant for life. This is a perversion of all that God intends in human sexuality.

It is not right. And this is not just something that goes against traditional Christian morality. This is something that goes against the morality of pretty much every society in the whole history of humanity all over the world.

And this is because this is woven into the very warp and woof of who we are. And to to approve of homosexual so-called marriage is to legitimize something that attacks the very heart of what it means to be human and to be male and female. So for that reason, I would never be able to attend a same sex ceremony that supposedly initiated a marriage. And I cannot approve of that as being a legal thing. The mere fact that it's legal doesn't make it right. This moral relativism that has so taken over our current time, if we as a society had held that kind of thinking back at the end of World War Two, we could never have had the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals, because, of course, those people were all doing what was entirely legal under the law codes of Nazi Germany. And if to be legal is to be right, then we had no business putting them on trial, condemning them and imprisoning or executing them. So, no, I could not attend such a ceremony because it would imply my approval of what's going on. And I cannot approve of it under law.

I think it should be returned to being illegal as it was prior American history, and pretty much every culture in all the history of mankind. Yeah, that's well answered. And it's troubling, though, that the Gospel Coalition would publish an article that makes the case for how a Christian can in good conscience, attend what is inherently sinful and offensive to God that states where the evangelical world is at this particular point. You know, David, we have the situation and again, I'm going to point back to Nazi Germany. There were literally millions of Germans who were involved one way or another in the Holocaust. They were just doing their jobs. They were doing what was required of them legally. They were following their employer's orders.

And I think every one of us as Americans now would say of those people, they were doing what was wrong, even though they were following orders. Well, today, for instance, in the transgender movement, in the transitioning movement going on in the medical profession, I know of one Christian person who is a healthcare professional who expressed to me grave discomfort with being involved sometimes in preparing young girls for gender transition surgery. And my response was, you simply have to say no, I will not do that, period. And that's because my Christian conscience won't allow it. And by the way, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees your religious liberty. And if your employer were to try to fire you or demote you or a otherwise penalize you for that, I'm quite sure that the Alliance Defending Freedom would be glad to come to your assistance.

What we've got is the temptation to follow down the same path that led to the Holocaust. Christians have got to say, no, I will not do that, even if it costs me my job. Totally agree, Kal. And thank you so much for communicating that conviction. Kal, we thank you so much for who you are and what you stand for, what you're doing at the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation with regards to the environment, economics, ethics. We always appreciate having you come on the Christian Worldview radio program, all of God's best and grace to you. David, thank you so much. And the Lord's blessing on you and all of your work. I know that the Lord is using you greatly to feed his flock around this country and around the world with truth and with righteousness.

To God be the glory. Okay, that's all we have time for today. Just one more reminder that you can order the book Global Warming Skepticism for Busy People by Roy Spencer for a donation of any amount to the Christian Worldview. It's 113 pages, softcover. One of the most popular resources with the Cornwall Alliance organization. Retails for $13 plus shipping.

Just get in contact with us the usual ways, which is given immediately following today's program. Back to the question of why all we discussed today is a worldview issue, because those who rebel against God think that they can reject the fundamental truths that he has established. They view work as oppressive, instead of as God does, as a high calling from him.

They view man as deserving of support, even if he won't work. The Bible says the opposite. They view private property as racist and unfair.

Even though the Bible assumes private property, thou shall not steal. They view government as all wise, instead of God as the all wise sovereign of the universe. Reject the biblical worldview and chaos ensues. As we're seeing in our country today, embrace Christ in his worldview and peace in flourishing reigns within your heart and within the nation. Thank you for joining us today on the Christian Worldview radio program. In just a moment, there'll be all kinds of information on this nonprofit radio ministry.

Let's be encouraged. We may live in a challenging world that rejects God and his word, but we know that Jesus Christ and his word are the same yesterday and today and forever. So until next time, think biblically, live accordingly, and stand firm. The mission of the Christian Worldview is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. We hope today's broadcast encouraged you toward that end. To hear a replay of today's program, order a transcript, or find out What Must I Do to Be Saved?, go to thechristianworldview.org or call toll-free 1-888-646-2233. The Christian Worldview is a listener-supported nonprofit radio ministry furnished by the Overcomer Foundation. To make a donation, become a Christian Worldview partner, order resources, subscribe to our free newsletter, or contact us, visit thechristianworldview.org, call 1-888-646-2233, or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Thanks for listening to The Christian Worldview.