Everybody Approves, So It Must Be Good
Recently, a local organization in Greensboro that exists to nurture the minds of the children in our community, proudly published its support for so-called “Pride Month”. Far from taking a neutral position on these variant lifestyles, they have developed an entire programming intended to both promote them as beautiful and normalize them as ideal in the eyes of our children. Yes, you read that correctly. A local organization that exists to serve our elementary-aged children believes it is serving them best by teaching their young and impressionable minds to explore the concepts of homosexuality, lesbianism, transgenderism and the numerous other disordered sexual desires and lifestyles which accompany such things. According to a representative in a recent news interview, the aim of the organization’s multifaceted LGBTQ+ programming is to introduce our children to these concepts so that they can go and spread them throughout their neighborhoods and schools.
As a (former) membership-holder of this organization, a parent, a local community member, and a Christian, I decided that I needed to reach out to the director(s) to address my concerns. Having sent an initial email, I later received a respectfully written response which defended and validated the practices by seeking to bring them under two primary headings:
First, it was suggested that this programming was morally good because, contrary to my complaint, many other members had voiced their ardent appreciation and support. I was also told that many new members had joined the organization precisely because of their endorsement of LGBTQ+ lifestyles.
Second, I was told that this effort was being done in the name of love. It was about loving those on the margins and on the outside. It was about being inclusive and giving representation to those who face great challenges in our society.
For many people, these arguments are enough for them to smile and nod along in approval. However, further inspection reveals that not one, but both of these arguments are desperately flawed. While wearing a culturally-approved mask of so-called wisdom, such arguments are, in reality, illogical, unhelpful, and ultimately destructive to the very people they are supposedly aiming to serve.
The first argument says that morals are formed by majority opinion. In effect it says, “The people love it; the community approves; what could be wrong with it?”
The second argument says that the best way to show love is to support whatever lifestyle decisions others most prefer. In effect it says, “Living this way makes them happy. Who are we to stand in the way?”
Volumes could be written on the errors that stand behind such ways of thinking—yet this is the kind of faulty logic that currently has both hands on the steering wheel of our nation. Did majority approval make the oppression of women’s right’s morally right? How about the majority approval of Hitler’s Third Reich? And does love really offer unconditional affirmation and support for every preferred lifestyle? Is the best way to love an alcoholic to buy him a drink?
Such is the shallowness of the so-called morality of our present “woke” age. The virtue-signaling is stronger than ever, and what stands behind all the language of “love” and “inclusion” is actually the bullying threat of being targeted and cancelled if you fail to comply. It is difficult to imagine something more intolerant, unloving, and ultimately contrary to human flourishing than the present “social justice” agenda which is leading the blind by the hand.
As Christians, we have been given the unpopular task of engaging the hearts and minds of our fellow men on these thorny issues. This will not be easy to do, and we should not expect it to be. But even with the challenges we will face, it is work which is of the utmost importance when it is approached with the gospel of grace at the center. Our engagement is not for the sake of judgment, or politics, or some kind of fundamentalist agenda. Our engagement is for the sake of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the good of our fellow man—both temporally and eternally.
I do not think of myself as any kind of noteworthy spokesman or great example in this calling. Like you, I often feel dreadfully inadequate and afraid. But in the hope of doing what little I can to help encourage and empower others to be faithful witnesses for Christ in this world, I want to simply share the response I wrote back to the organization. My hope is that by gently pointing out the unsound thinking they are relying on, a seed may be planted that will help open their eyes to the truth and draw their hearts to repentance. If no one speaks out, what will become of the children they are indoctrinating with LGBTQ+ propaganda? What will become of their souls? What will become of the future generations of our nation and world?
Mr. ______________
Thank you for hearing my complaint and taking time out of your day to respond to my email.
As you said, we are unable to see eye to eye on this issue. The logic which you employed in your response is unsound. By citing the approval of some ___________ members and the addition of new members in relation to your LGBTQ+ programming, you suggested that such approval is validating for your decisions. However, a decision being considered morally right based on present human approval, is a poor measure for such important decisions as the formation of children’s hearts and minds. There were times when the majority of the world approved slavery (and other great evils). Did that wide-spread approval of the majority make the practice of slavery right? Of course not. And neither does the present fad of our culture to celebrate sexual disorder change the unchanging truth of universal morality. Sin is always sin, whether it is in vogue or vehemently opposed.
I accept your decision, and respect that it is entirely your decision to make as a trusted director of ___________. I do ask, however, that you take time to consider more carefully the things I have shared. With all my heart, for the sake of the children as well as yourselves, I believe the things I have shared are true and what is best for all people.
Like you, I also have a great deal of love for those in our community who are facing difficulties of various kinds. I want what is absolutely best for my neighbors of every walk of life. The difference is, I want to help them move away from their destructive lifestyles, addictions, and influences—not celebrate the very things that are bringing them (and others) great harm.
Disorder will never lead to flourishing for any people, no matter how passionately it is celebrated.
I wish you the best. Thank you again for taking time to respond.Respectfully,
Rev. Tom Brown
Teaching Pastor
Covenant Grace Church