“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” – Romans 1:16
Our nation, and the world, has been focused on the protests by the Canadien truckers and their willingness to sacrifice their time, livelihood and freedom for the principles of liberty. They have been joined by thousands of other Canadians who also want an end to the mandates. This caught many of us by surprise because we assumed that Canada was asleep and willing to let the Trudeau government rule their lives. Even more surprising was seeing who was leading this protest — it was truck drivers! We didn’t even know that they had been so abused that they would rise up. We had seen the videos, images and stories of churches shuttered, services disrupted and pastors jailed for attempting to hold services and speak out.
Where was the leadership in the Canadien church when it came time to protest the crackdown of religious freedom and the gatherings together? Against rules of assembly that made no sense medically or scientifically? Did they assign this role to truckers? Was this some paid logistics operation? God bless the truckers and people of Canada for standing up.
Has the church become so afraid of the secular left that their fear of being misquoted by the press and vilified by special interest groups that will call us racist, hateful, bigoted, homophobic, or accused of imposing our religious and political views on others? Evangelicals are expected to stay in our cubicles and keep out of issues that pertain to the partisan culture. Transgender counseling in the schools? “Rainbow Squads” for 11-17 year old children in the libraries to continue their education? Don’t move beyond the leftist approved boundaries they have set.
Francis Schaeffer warned us back in the ’70s that this is where America was going and the church should wake up. Who would have guessed in 2008 when Barack Obama was running that he would state in his campaign that marriage “was between one man and one woman”? Yet just a few years later the White House would be lit in the rainbow colors celebrating the Supreme Court decision affirming homosexual marriage. Erwin Lutzer, pastor emeritus of Moody Church in Chicago, has been a voice attempting to wake the church up. Lutzer in one of his books made this statement:
“We have neither the will nor the clout to reverse same-sex marriage laws to halt cultures obsession with destroying sexual norms and erasing our shared history. It’s highly unlikely we will ever reverse the law that restrict religious freedom in the military or return public education back to control of the parents rather than school boards that proudly adopt the most recent “sexually liberalized” curriculum. We have crossed too many fault lines; too many barriers have proven too weak to withstand media-driven cultural streams that have flooded our nation. The radicals know how to make themselves look good and make Christians look bad. I write not so much to reclaim the culture as to reclaim the church.”
Have we lost our love of truth in God’s word and courage to speak out against evil? We serve a sovereign God who knows all things and plans for all things and He has prepared us for this moment. We don’t always know what to do but our eyes are on Him. We become more ready when we see the fragmenting culture before us. Let us hear the words of the Lord to Joshua: “Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9) This is not a time for us to hide behind our church walls, but rather to prepare ourselves and our families to stand against the times that are already upon us. We cannot afford to stay apart but act together with groups and individuals giving a reason “for the hope” that is within us, and doing it with gentleness and respect but also the courage to speak truth.
We have seen one local church protest the “Rainbow Squad” meetings sponsored by the local libraries. These are, in the words of the library, “we don’t hold a stance on how people live their lives but instead provides information and space for people to find that out themselves.” In other words those “people” are children aged 11-18 who need to decide if they are ready for puberty blockers or surgery! This is LGBTQ+, “T” stands for transgender. This past week we had some women who showed up at the meeting of the Coeur d’Alene library trustees to object to a number of books in the library and one in particular was “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish” (highlighted on PBS and approved for 3 year olds!) and another was a book highlighting homosexuality entitled “Prince and Knight”. After some clear and pointed objections to these books in the children’s section, the board unanimously rejected the request to remove these books.
We had Pastor Steven Hemming of Family Worship Center and some from his congregation picket the “Rainbow Squad” meeting in November. There have been no allies or support since then. I doubt if there will be any voices coming supporting the women who spoke up at the recent trustee meeting. Here are my questions: Where are the churches? More specifically, where are the men in our community? Where is the outcry? Is decadence replacing decency? If we don’t confront evil is that in itself evil? Where are the men? Where is the church?
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” – Isaiah 5:20
