Couldn't Help Noticing

History’s Judgment

On 24th October 2005, American civil rights icon Rosa Parks died. This diminutive lady took a giant stand against racism in the United States. On December 1st, 1955, Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. The Montgomery City ordinance stated that it was illegal for a black person to be seated if a white person didn't have a seat.

It is amazing to think this happened just a few decades ago. This wasn't just an isolated incident but rather it was broadly canonized and, in effect, government-sponsored racism. I was born well after this incident but it's still hard to believe that such a society existed not too long ago.

Historical commentators suggest that future generations will have the same response to the Christian society's treatment of homosexuals. They suggest that our grandchildren will abhor our views on the issue. We are already seeing anti-discrimination laws that protect sexual-orientation along with race, gender, religion, etc. Christians will be thought of as practicing the same kind of racism.

Barring a God-given cultural revival, we can do little to affect how future history books reflect upon the Christian stance against homosexuality. However, we can have a great influence in how we are documented to treat homosexuals.

The gospel trains us to sacrifice ourselves for others, despite our views of their lifestyles. Our Savior Jesus gave of himself to the point of death for those who were against Him. What better testimony could there be than for those who are now for Him to go out of their way to love and care for those who are still against Him?

History will never like the Christian condemnation of homosexuality. However, what would happen if we all went out of our way to sacrifice all things for the sake of those who haven't put their trust in the gospel? What if we gave up our comforts for those who are at odds with Christianity? If we lived up to this task, I would suggest that history would have quite a different opinion of Christianity than my opinion of the racist society of the 1950s.

Expecting to receive or begging to give?

The Apostle Paul lays the challenge before the Corinthians. They have lots of gifts and “excel in everything” as a Church. But he wants them to “excel in giving” as well (2 Cor 8:7). Can their “earnestness” match that of the Macedonians (2 Cor 8:8)?

That won't be easy. The Macedonians gave “according to their means”, even “beyond their means”. And then they “begged” to be able to have the opportunity to give more (2 Cor 8:3-4).

How about you? Do you need to be urged to support the work of the Gospel, or to support your brothers and sisters in difficulty? Or are you looking, longing, or even begging for the chance to give more?

After all, “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7). And we can give cheerfully out of the grace given by God; the grace which ensures that we have “all sufficiency in all things at all times” (2 Cor 9:8).

“Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” (2 Cor 9:15)

Purpose Driven Coffee?

When I was in Australia, I was told that we Americans don't make coffee properly. Maybe a little help from above is needed? This is the latest news from Starbucks:

Coffee drinkers could get a spiritual jolt with their java in the spring when Starbucks begins putting a God-filled quote from the Rev. Rick Warren, author of the mega-selling The Purpose-Driven Life, on its cups.

Before you start thinking Starbucks has ‘gone religious’ on its customers, you should probably read on:

It will be the first mention of God in the company's provocative quote campaign, The Way I See It. In 2005, Starbucks is printing 63 quotes from writers, scientists, musicians, athletes, politicians and cultural critics on cups for company-run and licensed locations to carry on the coffeehouse tradition of conversation and debate.

Some mention ‘faith in the human spirit,’ but none is overtly religious. Last month, Baylor University pulled Starbucks cups after objections to a quote from writer Armistead Maupin saying that ‘life is too damn short’ to hide being gay.

Suffer much, suffer little

It is a lesson I must learn over and over again. I've heard it in church, I've read it in Carson's How Long, O Lord?, I've experienced it in life and yet I continually struggle to remember that suffering is an integral part of being a Christian. It's been granted to us who believe in Christ by God himself (Phil 1:29). It's what we have been called to because Christ also suffered for us and left us his example so that we might follow in his footsteps (1 Pet 2:21). It's what we must endure so that we might also be glorified in Christ and be found to be one of the children and heirs of God (Rom 8:17).

I used to think that the suffering talked about in the Bible was purely hatred and persecution for being Christian. Now I wonder if it also encompasses suffering that arises simply from being Christian. I don't just mean the subdued derision that ripples around the lunchroom when you express a Biblical viewpoint to your unbelieving work colleagues. I'm also talking about the sacrifice of that part of your paycheck that you make towards the ministries you support; the sacrifice of your time as you seek to serve and love the people in your church and your community; the sacrifice of your energy and even your health and well-being as you seek to serve the Lord wherever you are (like the missionary with the weak stomach who went on the field anyway and was sick every morning for 15 years). All these things—your money, your time, your self—all belong to God and, in what you do, you practice good stewardship over what he has given you. But in doing so, you suffer.

Your suffering may only be little. Your reduced standard of living includes a car whose frequent maladies keep you sighing and dipping into your pockets to get it fixed. You experience a slight increase in fatigue due to a proportional decrease in rest. You have difficulty falling asleep at night due to the stressful nature of your ministry which isn't that stressful, just stressful enough to keep you worrying. Perhaps you have even given up your long-held dreams and ambitions for the Lord's sake. But, quantity and comparisons with what the saints endure overseas aside, it is still suffering nonetheless.

Okay, perhaps it is too dramatic to call these sorts of things “suffering”; I can't think up a better word but if you can, please let me know. In any case, it is good knowing that, small though these sufferings are, they are certainly “not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18). All that we have sacrificed for the sake of our Lord—great and small—we should learn to regard as “rubbish” in order that we, like Paul, might gain Christ (Phil 3:8). And though we might share abundantly (or not so abundantly) in his sufferings, we know that in him we shall share abundantly in his comfort too (2 Cor 1:5).

The trick, I guess, is trying to remember this in practice, and be reminded next time I give up my Saturday afternoon to go out doing cold-turkey evangelism.

Dr Caplan’s statistics

Further to Marty's observation (below) about Dr Caplan's article, the thing that strikes me is that Dr Caplan seems to be arguing that we just have to accept that it is completely unrealistic to ask teenagers not to engage in sexual intercourse before marriage. He says:

it flies directly in the face of everything all ordinary Americans know about teens and sex

and

The message that sex must wait until marriage is not the right message to send to a young person. The people sending the message almost never lived up to it in their own lives and nothing turns a kid off like hypocrisy.

Yet his own statistics contradict his point. According to his own article:

Recent surveys show that 70 percent of U.S. teens have engaged in oral sex by the time they reach 18, and more than 45 percent have had intercourse at least once.

In other words, a very significant proportion of teenagers have managed NOT to engage in inappropriate sexual activity as teenagers. Furthermore, I suspect that the proportion remaining celibate has declined since the time when the current crop of parents were teenagers. In other words, there are a significant number of us parents and teachers who can genuinely ask our teenagers not to engage in sexual intercourse before marriage—without any hypocrisy being involved.