New Warhorn Media post by Tim Bayly:
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Quite right: this is not really much of a victory, because the real problem is that Christians give up right away without even much of a threat. The court got it right, but it’s an easy case even according to existing law; universities just count on scaring people and people not going to court. Even worse, most people are afraid to resist what they perceive as public opinion, which isn’t even genuine public opinion, just the loud talk of activists, celebrities, and the media.
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Well, maybe, but maybe not. My take on public opinion is that the vast majority of conservatives Christians never ever confess Biblical sexuality, at all; and if ever, it’s in a locker room setting of men only. Elders meetings, for instance. So no, I don’t believe it’s just the loudmouths who think people should accede to people’s preferences for pronouns. I think Bloom was right when he said the only moral commitment left in America is being nice and getting along with others, and that (I would argue) is most intensively so in the conservative Christian church. Emmanuel. Hope PCA. Sherwood Oaks. ECC… Other than copulation and sodomite marriage, Biblical sexuality is on life support even in the discipline of the church, let alone the public confession of it.
When was the last time any of us confessed anything even close to the Apostle Paul’s exegesis of the meaning and application of God’s order of creation of Adam first, then Eve, for instance? And every other aspect of Biblical sexuality comes AFTER THAT. And THAT is directly flowing from the Fatherhood of God. Love,
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The opinion of the broad public isn’t what’s running the show. And it’s not just loud talk by activists, celebrities, and the media – it’s legislative bodies, professional licensing boards, corporate headquarters, etc. enacting real laws and policies. I saw this on the horizon back in 2017 and taught a Sunday School series on transgender issues to prepare our members to navigate what was coming. If it were merely about resisting public opinion, then it would be easy, but I think jobs and careers are going be at stake. And some of our members saw it that way, and were wanting pastoral guidance. The situation of Prof. Meriwether is really a best-case scenario – he is a tenured professor at a public university, and the university administration was really sloppy in how they disciplined in him. People in other professions and in workplaces careful not to show religious animus will lack those advantages, and I don’t perceive at all that the courts will back them up.
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I cannot agree with this too much. I don’t know what would happen if my Sanityville posts were sent to my California-based client. My former client is infamous for deplatforming various right-wing figures from the financial system. I don’t think the long money is on me losing my gig over it, but how many of us would take a 1 in 20 shot of losing our livelihoods? How about 1 in 100?
Candidly, I don’t see that the church at large is at all ready for the post-Obergefell world from a practical standpoint. Christian laymen in the marketplace need some protection. We need some Church-wide guidance on where our boundaries are that gives us something we can point to when HR is demanding our “Kaisar kurios.” Beginning an exegesis of Genesis 1 with an HR rep is a non-starter. We need something we can point to to say, “this is against my religion.”
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