Take A Stand On Key Issues: Addiction, Abortion, & Marriage

The silence of the church on key issues of our day is deafening. By remaining silent on these issues, for fear of controversy, the church unilaterally makes itself irrelevant. When it's just a social club, or even a Christian fellowship of worship, well... something very important is missing. What's missing is true cultural engagement. The church has the power to be a voice on key issues like abortion, religious liberty, and human trafficking. Let's make sure we do so.

These are not easy topics to discuss. But when we do discuss them, ears perk up. The most valiant churches of the past took on cultural issues. Think of William and Catherine Booth of the Salvation Army. They challenged the depraved culture of "darkest England." They took the Christian message to the streets. This very much offended the high society churches of that time. In fact Salvation Army parades, open air meetings, and bands would be routinely attacked and pelted with rocks. Why? They were stepping out of the mold. I imagine to talk of the whoring, or the brothels, or the alcohol abuse of that society was quite taboo. Most churches I'm sure didn't discuss such things. They were afraid of losing money or becoming overly controversial. The Salvation Army protested, they went out into the streets, they went to the poor and wretched those who society carefully ignored. And they transformed the culture of England.

Think of William Wilberforce's stand against slavery in England. Think of the hundreds of thousands of Christian citizens who took a stand against slavery in America. It would've been much easier to carefully ignore the topic, for fear of losing church members who owned slaves. But instead they took a stand. They formed abolitionist societies.

Today there is a deafening silence, especially in the few dozen megachurches in our society that tend to stand in the limelight. Lord help us! They are so often silent on the following topics: abortion, homosexuality, religious liberty, human trafficking, drug addiction, pornography, and political corruption. Why? Why do these megachurches refuse to take on abortion or homosexuality? Because those issues are "controversial" and "divisive." They know they'd take a pounding from the mainstream media. They know they might lose donations. But these issues are at the core of our societal debate. To ignore them is to render ourselves irrelevant pukes whose religion is a farce. A religion to be practiced inside the walls of the building on Sunday, but impractical and inapplicable to life in the real world. Is that really what our faith is? Of course not.

We as the body of Christ must find our voice on these issues. We must find our solid rock positions, based on the scriptures, and stick to them. That's what it means to be a Christian. We're called to take a stand. We're called to know the truth, and put it into practice.

Let's make sure though, that we don't end up taking knee jerk positions on these topics. It's very easy to say to any one of these problems "government needs to fix it." That is the knee jerk response. We need to funnel tax payer dollars, or we need to enforce new laws. But that doesn't work. So let's think outside the box on solutions to these issues.

1. Drug Addiction - Why the silence on drug addiction? Who could say! Maybe the church just doesn't understand this issue. Drug addiction is becoming an epidemic. Personally in Wisconsin and Michigan we've seen communities where ten years ago the only problems were alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. Today those same communities have methamphetamine and heroin problems spiraling out of control. Drugs are becoming a cancer on the young people of today. The voice of the church must be heard in the realm of drug addiction.

2. Human Trafficking - We're starting to get our voice on human trafficking. It's easy now, because it's becoming a more known issue. There was the opportunity for the church to lead the way on this issue, but that didn't happen. Instead we followed the gang, leading from behind. The response of society as a whole has been slow on human trafficking. This is no less than modern day slavery. And in many ways much worse than ancient slavery. This form of slavery in repeated sexual abuse, gang rape, sexual violence, and truly a life of unspeakable abuse for those forced into this trade. It is pure evil. We must disturb the present, and call out the evil!

3. Abortion - Many have taken a stand on the issue of abortion. I think we need to get louder on this issue though. We need more churches taking a stand. We need to raise awareness like wildfire. And it's starting to work. In fact though millennials tend to be more pro-gay marriage, they also tend to be more anti-abortion. This is a good trend. Preach on abortion! Take a stand on social media! Get loud!