All the participants of the panel on homosexuality at The Gospel
Coalition Council meetings agreed that we have entered one of the most
difficult challenges to a gospel-centered approach to evangelism. The
reason is not that the center of the Christian gospel has changed, but
the center of the cultural gospel has changed. That center for many is
the freedom to be GLBT and to be approved.
Which means that whether we want to make this a frontline issue or
not, increasingly it is. As one of the panelists said, “There is no
demilitarized zone in the homosexual debate.” Pastors must address it.
In fact, virtually everyone who communicates with mainstream cultural
folk must address it.
The argument against Christianity today is not epistemological but
moral. Christianity is rejected not because it is badly argued, or
untrue, but because it is evil. And it is evil because it opposes
homosexual practice. The panelists agreed that, at least in major
metropolitan areas, the issue of homosexuality ranks near the top of the
reasons people reject Christianity, along with the problem of suffering
and the exclusive claim that Jesus is the only way of salvation.
It is almost impossible to express a compassionate disapproval of
homosexual practice without being demonized. But this is not an entirely
new situation for the church. On the one hand the state of our culture
seems to have changed with lightening speed. On the other hand it may
not be as new as it seems. Continue at John Piper
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