The Importance of Seeing the Big Picture, Part 1

Philosophical and Religious Underpinnings

The basic problem of the Christians in this country in the last eighty years or so, in regard to society and in regard to government, is that they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals.
—Francis Schaeffer, 1981¹—

In recent years we have seen an increasing intensity in the promotion of abortion, homosexual rights and same-sex marriage, and evolutionary philosophy cloaked in the jargon of science. All too often, we as Christians have treated these and other so-called “progressive” causes as separate issues. While we may have understood that all these movements are opposed to biblical values, many of us have largely addressed them individually, just as a teen playing Whac-A-Mole would go after the pop-up creatures in that game. The cultural and moral conflicts that confront us, however, are much more like chess than Whac-A-Mole.

A Whac-A-Mole Game Designed for Small Children in Hainan, China

To win at chess, a player mustn’t just be aware of how his opponent might use one piece here or another piece there; he instead must understand the ability of his opponent to strategically use all his pieces as an army, as a unified force, against him.

The point here is that issues like abortion, homosexuality, the redefinition of marriage, and sexual license are not separate issues, but expressions of a broader philosophical and religious belief system.

The visceral reactions of Planned Parenthood to the videos that have exposed its heinous practices offer us insight we dare not miss. Years ago, Charles Colson observed that

sexual liberation has become nothing less than a worldview—a vision of reforming human nature and creating a new society. It’s a worldview that begins with the assumption that humans are products of Darwinian evolution, and concludes that our identity is found by delving into the biological, the natural, the instinctual.

Especially the sexual instincts. Liberating our sexuality is thus seen as the high road to healing and wholeness.

If this sounds overblown, listen to the words of key founders of the sexual revolution. For Margaret Sanger, an early champion of birth control [and founder of Planned Parenthood], the drama of history consists in a struggle to free humanity from Biblical morality. “Through sex,” she wrote, “mankind may attain the great spiritual illumination which will transform the world, which will light up the only path to an earthly paradise.”

This is nothing less than a vision of salvation through sex.²

In other words, sexual liberation, something that cannot be attained without unrestricted abortion, is a religion with a corresponding worldview.³ No wonder Planned Parenthood defends its practices with religious fervor, despite undeniable evidence of wrongdoing, callousness, barbarism, and misuse of funds.⁴^,⁵^,⁶^,⁷^,⁸^,⁹

We must not miss these points, either: The religion of unrestrained sexual liberation can’t be experienced without embracing homosexuality as valid or without manipulating the meaning of marriage. Furthermore, this religion will uphold as normal many other deviant forms of sexuality as well. And while Christianity is theistic, the religion of sexual license is atheistic because it rests on a belief in humanity as a product of random, impersonal, amoral forces that require no accountability. The gay theology movement may don the cloak of Christianity, but in the end it denies what the Bible clearly says, and it thus denies the God of the Bible.¹⁰ We therefore can see why gay rights and religious liberty cannot coexist. Ultimately, compromise is not possible when you have two diametrically opposed religious perspectives.¹¹^,¹²^,¹³^,¹⁴^,¹⁵^,¹⁶

So please do not fall for the lie promoted on countless bumper stickers that say COEXIST using various religious and cultural symbols!¹⁷^,¹⁸ We see evidence even in the life of no less a figure than President Obama that conflicting religions can’t coexist, despite all the efforts to hide the president’s hostility toward Christianity.¹⁹

What, then, is the takeaway from this week’s discussion? Followers of Jesus Christ must understand what drives and fuels the passions of those who oppose biblical values. Whether our friends on the other side of God’s truth know it or not, their love of abortion, homosexuality, sexual license, and relativism (to name just a few of many items) are the natural results of a belief in Darwinian evolution—the belief that human beings have originated from impersonal, random forces rather than God.²⁰ Be aware of the complete failure of attempts to say that God used evolution to create the world and living beings. Evolutionary processes by definition are random means bringing about profound changes. If God directed them, they couldn’t have been random, could they?

Ken Ham, president, CEO, and founder of Answers in Genesis,²¹ has observed that Christians commit a strategic error in opposing evil by going after the “progressive” causes themselves rather than attacking the foundation upon which those causes rest. Here is a brilliant illustration from Answers in Genesis conveying this keen insight.

Click here to enlarge.

Christians must learn to effectively attack the foundation of humanism, sometimes called secularism. When we engage this way, the progressives’ castle will crumble, and the values our liberal friends seek to uphold will deflate. This is an oversimplification, of course; yet truth abounds herein. Other insights and implications arise as well. Next time we will discuss several of them.

Part 2 is available here.

For further reading:
What’s Your View of the World by Del Tackett
Is Evolution a Religion? by Dr. Tommy Mitchell and Monty White

Notes:

¹https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/78395-a-christian-manifesto

²http://www.colsoncenter.org/the-center/columns/colson-files/18136-sex-as-salvation

³http://www.renewamerica.com/analysis/hutchison/120607

⁴http://www.creators.com/opinion/david-limbaugh/planned-parenthood-cant-handle-the-truth.html

⁵https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htcqhdf4WBE

⁶http://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20150929/planned-parenthood-cecile

⁷http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/21/gop-rep-case-for-defunding-planned-parenthood-has-never-been-stronger/

⁸http://adflegal.org/detailspages/blog-details/allianceedge/2015/09/30/new-forensic-report-flushes-planned-parenthood-s-highly-edited-talking-point

⁹https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=25&v=NiqcEL3T6IU