Worldview – Gregory Scott Blog

What Christians and LGBTQers Must Agree On

It is becoming clear the defining moral issue of the younger generation is sexual identity. It is also clear that Evangelicals are finding themselves increasingly marginalized on this issue. Their resistance is equated with intolerance, and their opinions are increasingly reserved for hushed conversations with other Evangelicals.

The reality is there is common ground for conversation, though I doubt either side recognizes it. That common ground is found when one recognizes that even most in the LGBTQ community believe pederasty, pedophilia, and bestiality are wrong. In other words, like Evangelicals, the LGBTQ community believes there should be limits on sexuality.

The difference between the two is a disagreement over where to draw the line. Thus, for the LGBTQ community to insist that only they could be right about where to draw that line makes them as intolerant as they accuse Evangelicals of being.

On the Trump Assassination Attempt

When I first read about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, I knew three things would happen.

I knew Evangelical pastors would tell their congregations Trump’s narrow escape was proof of God’s support of Trump and that they would be mistaken.

I knew prominent Democrats would go on television and say they were glad Trump was okay and that they would be lying.

And I knew non-Christians would say Trump was just lucky in avoiding the bullet and that they would be wrong.

On the Evils of the Echo Chamber

When I was a teenager, we were at the end of the period of domination of television in the US by the three major news networks. While they all leaned left of center, they ostensibly strove for the standard of accuracy, independence, and impartiality. That standard was exemplified by the likes of Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and David Brinkley.

Those days are gone now, buried under the buffet of cable and streaming news channels, many of which are committed to delivering an unapologetic ideologically or politically driven view of the world. Do you want a liberal view of the day’s events? MSNBC is at your service. Do you want a conservative view? Try Fox News. Do you have a taste for hard right conspiracy theories? Try Infowars or Breitbart News.

As a result, now you can choose to hear only what you already believe. You do not have to suffer the angst of having your beliefs questioned or hearing those who disagree with you.

This ability to listen only to those with whom we agree, provided to a people who have seemingly choose not to exercise that choice irresponsibly, has resulted in the unprecedented political polarization we are now experiencing. The plurality of opinion in the marketplace of ideas has become merely hypothetical if we choose to hear only the opinions with which we agree.

The Bible warns of the danger of hearing only one side of any argument:

If Christians Did These 4 Things They Would Rule the World

If you haven’t picked up on it from this blog yet, I have an optimistic view of the future because I am a Kingdom man. I believe Isaiah when he said the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and that the people will stream to the mountain of God. See Isaiah 2:2, 11:9.

I believe Daniel when he said the kingdom of God will crush and put an end to all these other kingdoms but that the kingdom of God will endure forever. Daniel 2:44.

I believe Jesus when He said the kingdom of God will leaven the entire world and become like a tree so that the even non-Christians will seek to nest under the shade of its branches. Matthew 13:31-33.

I read with interest the efforts to theologify (I made that word up) these beliefs into a system of strategies and tactics whether it be Christian Reconstruction, the Seven Mountain Mandate, or any of the efforts to express the idea that the world should run best when it is run by those who are obedient to King Jesus.

But while tactics and strategies are important, they are really useless if the people who are given the responsibility of carrying them out have not been trained to do the fundamentals first. Christians don’t need to understand the Seven Mountains or Christian Reconstruction to advance the kingdom of God.

If Christians only consistently did the following four things they would see the greatest advance of the kingdom of God since the first century:

A Kingdom View of Memorial Day

As I’ve gotten older and deeper into the kingdom of God, I’ve become more conflicted about Memorial Day.

It is not the acceptance or sometimes glorification of war we see on Memorial Day; In a fallen world war is sometimes necessary, and once one accepts that boundaries will be crossed. That is to be expected.

What has bothered me more is the hyper nationalism Memorial Day seems to inspire, particularly in Evangelical Christians. I wonder what my foreign brothers and sisters living here think when they witness it? I wonder what the Lord thinks.

Anytime we are tempted to elevate cause or country over the Kingdom we should be concerned. The savior of the world is not the United States of America but King Jesus, and the answer to the world’s problems is not democracy or a republican form of government but the Gospel.

Instead we should consider the Lord’s instructions to those living in exile in Jerusalem: