Culture is radically departing from Biblical values. In the 60’s we were told that the Constitution prohibits prayer in school. In the 70’s we were told that a woman’s “reproductive choices” take precedence over the life of a fetus, in the 90’s we began hearing that gay marriage was ok.
The slide of our culture tells us that we have lost our authority in American culture to speak to issues like Gay Marriage. We hear the same message even within our own ranks. Brian Mclaren recently said on his blog concerning Gay Marriage,
Over time, I could not square their stories and experiences with the theology I had inherited. So I re-opened the issue, read a lot of books, re-studied the Scriptures, and eventually came to believe that just as the Western church had been wrong on slavery, wrong on colonialism, wrong on environmental plunder, wrong on subordinating women, wrong on segregation and apartheid (all of which it justified biblically)
To be honest, historically speaking the church (local) has been on the wrong side of history repeatedly on a variety of social issues. Thankfully that doesn’t negate the truth of the Bible, but merely re-enforces the necessity of proper Biblical interpretation and asking the right questions of the Sacred Text.
Over the next few weeks I am going to discuss some of those areas where we were wrong and how it has culturally affected our authority, legitimacy, and ultimately our Christian Witness to be able to speak to the issues confronting our society and church.
It isn’t enough to just complain about our problems, mistakes, and failures. As I was taught in the Army, don’t complain, if you aren’t going to present a solution to the problem. I want to talk about how we can start the journey towards being the Church (universal) that once again leads a culture to the answer to the problems of this world … Jesus.
One of the most notorious failures in our history is the acceptance of slavery in our culture. You might say, “yeah but that was two hundred years ago”, which is true, but unfortunately that decision has influenced a failure more recent in American history. In the early 60’s and even today (God forbid) churches were and are known for their bigotry, unfair treatment of African-Americans and a refusal to recognize mixed marriages.
