The Challenge We Face Now


Image credit

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,” so goes the opening line of Charles Dickens’ classic, “A Tale of Two Cities,” that was published in 1859. [1]

It appears Dickens’ words could have described the present. 

Our time.

Our young people who participated in the Ratio Christi 2015 conference. From my FB photo album

One of the breakout sessions that our young people attended when they joined the just recent Ratio Christi Philippines 2015 was, “Homosexuality: A Response from the Bible and from Science.” When I asked why, they answered something like, “We want to know how to handle it.” As parents, we need to know how to handle it, too. Some joke about it. Others just dismiss it as a non-issue. Like the proverbial wet soap, we are not quite sure how to handle it.

Image credit

Just more than a month ago, “actor, race-car enthusiast, and 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics decathlon gold medallist” Bruce Jenner declared in a “tell-all interview” with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer that, “For all intents and purposes, I am a woman.” [2]
People look at me differently. They see you as this “macho male.” But my heart and my soul and everything I do in life… it is part of me. That female side is part of me. That's who I am. [3]
Now, Bruce goes by the name “Caitlyn Jenner.” 

Image credit

Indeed, the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) challenge is one of the burning issues of the day. And, it’s not a fad that will fade. It’s as old as the events Genesis described. And it’s here to stay.

How do we as a church handle issues like the LGBT community, for example? We can no longer hide our heads under the sand. We cannot deny it. We cannot merely denounce it. We have to deal with it the way our Lord Jesus would. What would our Lord Jesus do? What would He say? 

Image credit

Is our time the worst of times? Isn’t it that the Bible predicted “that in the last days perilous times will come” (2 Timothy 3:1, NKJV)? But, it could also be the best of times. Colossians 4:5-6 command us
Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. 
Brothers and sisters, let us respond to this challenge wisely, not foolishly. 

NOTE: This is my letter to our church, Filinvest Community Christian Fellowship, in our devotional guide (Volume 1, Issue 15) for the message on “How to Treat People Right (Part 1)” last June 7.

[1] “A Tale of Two Cities,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities, accessed June 6, 2015.

[2] “Bruce Jenner: Yes, I am a woman,” Rappler, retrieved from http://www.rappler.com/.

[3] Ibid.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Ubus-ubos Biyaya, Bukas Nakatunganga”

Image
That’s what my mother always told us when we were still kids. (Translation: “You spend everything today, you will have nothing tomorrow.” ) Image source: So, What's New ? Dionie did just that. Last April 2008, he won PHP14,125,032 in the Lotto 6/42 draw. Excitedly, he “lived the life of a millionaire, something he had been longing to experience. He lived in a P4-million house in a posh subdivision, drove around in a sports utility vehicle [which he bought the very same day he claimed his prize] , and gave goodwill money, ranging P1,000 to P 850,000, to relatives and friends. He also gambled daily, womanized, and went on regular drinking sprees.” (Source: Manila Bulletin ) He estimated that he squandered a minimum of P100,000 almost every day. He also lent money even to people he did not really know. “I just gave them and told them not to pay me back.” (Ibid) His bank had to issue him a special card so he can withdraw huge amounts of money quickly from the automated teller m
Read more

God Knows Judas Not Pay

In the National Geographic Magazine (May 2006 issue), in its cover story, The Judas Gospel , Professor Eliane Pagels of Princeton University claimed that the so-called gospel of Judas “ changes the history of early Christianity. ” Even UP Professor Randy David took notice of the Judas Gospel: “Strictly from a sociological standpoint, I think the discovery of the Gospel of Judas makes Christianity a far more interesting religion than what centuries of metaphysical theology has made of it.” (A Gospel for the Postmodern, Phil. Daily Inquirer, April 16, 2006) That’s why I spoke in our Young Pro Fellowship a few days ago on God Knows Judas Not Pay (A Biblical Response on the Judas Gospel). I believe opportunities like this hype on the Judas Gospel or the Da Vinci Code opens a door for us to share the true Gospel. For those who did not attend last Thursday, let me share briefly why we reject the Judas gospel. I came up with the acronym J-U-D-A-S. J udas was portrayed as a traitor in the Bibl
Read more

“Don’t drink the Kool-Aid!”

Image
Forty years ago, this expression became known as a description of blind obedience.   Source: Los Angeles Times On November 18, 1978, members of Peoples Temple, a cult group in Guyana, drank Kool-Aid drink laced with cyanide to commit a mass suicide “at the behest of their charismatic but paranoid leader, Jim Jones”. [1] According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica , “The death toll exceeded 900, including some 300 age 17 and under, making the incident one of the largest mass deaths in American history. ”  [2]  What made those people submit to such atrocity? According to Stella Morabito, a senior contributor to The Federalist online magazine, Peoples Temple is “Exhibit A… [of]  the dangers of the cult mindset or how vulnerable all people are to cult tactics.”  [3] She pointed out that, Coercive persuasion has immense power to shape and twist the human mind.  …[Jones’] utopian preaching of a humane world in which all lived happily in harmony resonated with the
Read more