Social Issues – Megaphones

Welcome to The Big Picture Podcast. I am Joel Fieri, and this podcast seeks to begin and hopefully sustain a conversation about current trends, ideas, and issues in the church and greater society.

On today’s podcast, I want to focus on social issues, issues that challenge our faith and our God in some very different ways. Now actually, I’m going to do three separate podcasts on social issues in which I’ll divide the issues into two separate categories. One category I’ll call megaphone issues. Now these are issues that face us full volume, politically and culturally, and challenge our faith more as the larger church and body of Christ. The second category I’ll call earbud issues, and those issues we face on a much more subtle level, challenging us more as individuals, families, and local churches. And finally, I’ll be wrapping up my trilogy with what I feel is the ultimate social issue we all face as a society, and it’s in a category of its own.

So here goes with social issues podcast, part one, megaphones. Now the loudest and most obvious social issue we face in and from society today is homosexuality. But I want to expand the issue to include other facets of homosexual culture, and that would include lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, the LGBT acronym that, if you’ve been paying attention at all, is the full expression of this movement and subculture. And believe it or not, there are letters being added to this acronym on college campuses today, which I’ll be talking about in a future podcast. But for now, what the LGBT movement presents as a challenge to the church is not just on the issue of sexual sin. It is very much sexual sin, but even more than that, it’s a challenge to God as creator.

In Genesis, the Bible says that God created us in his image, male and female he created us. As men and women, we are the distinct expressions of God’s nature. Men are the masculine or male expressions of God’s nature, and women are the female or feminine expressions of his nature. Now in attempting to blur that distinction, the LGBT movement challenges the truth of God creating human beings as distinctly male and female.

And the second megaphone issue is closely related to this. And that is, again, obviously gay marriage. Now what gay marriage does is challenge God’s plan and command for us to continue his creation through procreation. God’s design is for men and women to come together in love within marriage as one flesh in sexual union to continue his work of creation and populating the earth. Now gay marriage by definition makes this impossible. A man married to a man or a woman to a woman can’t come together as God intended and produce children.

And finally, our third megaphone issue is abortion. And what abortion challenges for us as a church and as people of faith is both God’s creation and our procreation. The advocates of abortion maintain that the fetus inside a woman’s womb is, at best, merely an inviable tissue mass that is only part of the woman’s body and that it has no humanity and can be terminated at the will of someone else.

Now, this directly challenges what the Bible tells us, that we are created in God’s image, knit together in our mother’s womb, and that he knew us even before our creation. It also challenges God’s plan for procreation. God’s design for sex is twofold. Not only the physical expression of love between a husband and wife, but again, fulfilling his command to reproduce his creation and populate the earth. If sex can be separated from that design and those responsibilities, then God’s design is corrupted, and his very identity of God is directly challenged.

So when we hear these issues blaring in our political and cultural arenas, I hope that as Christians we can resist the temptations of sticking our fingers in our ears, or blaring back with our own megaphones, or worse, letting ourselves be intimidated into silence and even appeasement. Instead, let’s carefully consider the deeper challenges these issues bring to us as a body of believers and to the identity and will of the God we serve, as his children put here on earth to fulfill his plan and to be salt and light in a very dark and tasteless world.

Stay tuned for our next podcast, where we’ll take a look at earbud social issues, issues that are less obvious yet every bit is challenging to our faith and obedient service to God, our creator.

In closing, it’s time for the great cloud of witnesses, the segment of our podcasts, where we meet and hear the stories of those who have given and some who are still giving their lives by faith in the promises of God and of whom the world was and is not worthy. And again, if you don’t know that reference, please check out Hebrews chapter 11 in your Bible.

Today’s witness is Tom White, and the story goes like this. When the black hood was placed over Tom White’s head, he didn’t know if he would see light again. “Where are you taking me?” he asked the Cuban guards. The guards said nothing. Tom had been secretly delivering Christian literature to Cuba for seven years. He and others had dropped gospel tracts out of planes into the ocean around the communist island, but he had never heard from a single Christian in Cuba that the materials had arrived.

“Please, God,” Tom had prayed, “give us some confirmation that our work is helping.” Now, six weeks later, he was taken to meet a Cuban intelligence officer, Captain Santos. Their plane had crashed in Cuba, and Tom and the pilot, Mel Bailey, had been captured and charged with compromising the stability of the nation. “Our people have found thousands of these on the beaches and in the fields,” Captain Santos shouted, holding one of the sea packages that had been dropped years before. Tom tried not to smile. “Thank you, Lord,” he prayed, “for answering my prayer. Thank you that our work has not been in vain.”

The answer to Tom’s prayer was costly. He spent 21 months in Cuban prisons, but in Castro’s prison, he met many members of the church and learned that even under Castro, Christ’s body was prospering. God answered his prayer. And so, Tom White, I nominate you for the great cloud of witnesses, and thank you for your faithful service to the Lord.

Thanks for listening to The Big Picture Podcast. I’m Joel Fieri. Please go to my website at gobigpicture.net, or go to the E-squared Podcast Network at e2network.net and leave a comment. Thanks for listening. Until next time, be blessed.