John Stonestreet asks whether churches, pastors, priests and Christians have done enough to challenge this century’s cultural upheavals.
He doubts that’s the case in his latest commentary titled To Be Silent Is To Be Complicit.
Mr. Stonestreet is a prominent Christian commentator in his role as president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and as host of a radio show called BreakPoint.
He notes that the British House of Commons recently voted to legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill adults and to decriminalise abortion to birth.
Both bills are yet to be passed by the House of Lords.
“IS UK NOW RULED BY A DEATH CULT?”
But Mr. Stonestreet and co-writer Timothy Padgett note that Britain is progressing in the wrong direction just as C.S. Lewis warned it could.
He said it’s being driven by what he labels the “increasingly extremist UK Labour Party which is being enabled by the moral confusion of the Conservative opposition.”
It prompted British conservative commentator Peter Hitchens to write: “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?”
Mr. Stonestreet asserts that: “Speaking against bills like these is a bare minimum requirement of following Christ today.”
PEOPLE CAN BE ARRESTED FOR PRAYING SILENTLY OUTSIDE CLINICS WHERE INFANTICIDE IS LEGAL
US theologian Stanley Hauerwas noted: “In a hundred years, if Christians are identified as the people who do not kill their children or the elderly, we will have done well.”
Currently, the UK will fail badly.
US commentator Rod Dreher wrote; “Great Britain is now a country where you can be arrested for praying silently, in your head, near an abortion clinic, while infanticide is happening inside the clinic, protected by law.”
With a few exceptions there’s been silence from churches and their leaders and their followers.
American Baptist theologian Andrew T. Walker quipped, “The Church of England: proudly offering chaplaincy services to a culture it lost, a Parliament it is cravenly established to, and sermons to laws it won’t challenge.”
OTHER NATIONS HAVE FAR WORSE ‘DEATH LAWS”
The Church of England is not alone in this guilt.
Abortion and assisted suicide laws are far worse in some European countries, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Democrat-led states in the US.
Most churches and Christian leaders and followers in those nations and states have projected a deafening silence
Mr. Stonestreet writes that in 2008, efforts to equip and mobilise Colorado pastors to oppose doctor-assisted suicide failed.
Those who tried were told the issue was too political for the pulpit.
THE LEGACY OF THE CHRISTIAN SILENCE IN COLORADO
The bill passed overwhelmingly and now Colorado is pushing even more draconian laws.
They would not only allow children to be permanently harmed by gender transition treatments without parental consent, but also threaten parents with losing custody of their children for not affirming their gender identity.
Mr Stonestreet writes: “Fifteen years ago, I doubt many pastors would have said that state-sponsored sexual abuse of children was “too political” to speak out on, but many of the same voices remain quiet today.”
“In the years between 2008 and today, some pastors and Christian leaders did take more of a stand on the issue of same-sex marriage.”
“Many said that they would never be coerced by the government to officiate at same-sex weddings or to hold ceremonies in their church.”
IT WAS THE PARISHIONERS WHO WERE HARASSED AND THREATENED
“Unfortunately, many never made the connection that if pastors shouldn’t be forced to participate in a same-sex wedding, then neither should parishioners be forced to bake a cake, arrange flowers, or design a website for one.”
As it turned out, it was the parishioners who were asked, and then harassed, and then threatened, to participate.
“Tragically, some were abandoned by their church families while their pastors stayed away from the mess.”
“Missed along the way was the revolutionary idea recaptured during the Protestant Reformation that our work belongs to God, whether considered sacred or ordinary.”
“ALL VOCATIONAL CALLINGS ARE SACRED”
This is the idea of vocation, that all callings are sacred.”
“If true, then pastors should speak up for those working outside of church walls as much as inside.”
Mr. Stonestreet conceded there have been loud and courageous voices on gender issues such as J.K. Rowling, detransitioner Chloe Cole and former swimmer Riley Gaines — and many are not Christians.
He asks: “But did enough pastors and Christian leaders speak out?”
“More importantly, how many parents were abandoned because the topic was “too political?”
How many Christian voices spoke out, but then were told to stay out of it?”
‘PERHAPS IT’S TIME FOR A THEOLOGY OF SAYING WHAT’S UNPOPULAR”
“In addition to a theology of getting fired, perhaps it’s time for a theology of saying what’s unpopular.”
“Rather than allowing everything we say to turn on the hypothetical risk that it will “turn people away,” perhaps we should ask what it will mean to not live by lies?”
“Perhaps we need to consider where the good intention of not offending people devolves into accommodating what “itching ears” want to hear.”
Pastoral leadership is always needed, but especially now.
“In the UK, little else can keep the current British parliament from going down in history as the Death Parliament.”
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