You'd Think a Baptist Minister Would Know!

On the O'Reilly Factor last night, Mike Huckabee, presidential hopeful and former Arkansas Governor, again refused to confirm beliefs held by the majority of conservative, born-again Christians.

When asked about his answer in the now famous debate from June of this year concerning evolution, he continued to be ambiguous, saying, "I represent 90% of the American people who believe God was 'involved' in the creation." Really? God was just 'involved' in the process? I thought for sure He was totally responsible for creation.

But it doesn't stop there. O'Reilly presses him further, saying, "But most of us--and I believe God was involved in creation too--believe that there was an evolutionary process." To this, Huckabee replied, "There well could have been." Unbelievable! So now the Baptist minster believes in evolution, after being one of three candidates (Tom Tancredo and Sam Brownback being the other two) who raised his hand at a previous debate when the question was asked, "Is there anyone on this stage who doesn't believe in evolution?" Huckabee went on to mention Dr. Frances Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, who he identified as an evolutionist and a "very devout evangelical Christian", in an attempt to try to justify his apparent position that evolution and Christianity are not incompatible.

Combine these with his repeated remarks about creation in regard to not knowing how God did it, or how long it took, and I think conservative Christians who support Huckabee would be wise to probe a little deeper. While I understand that there are different views among Christians concerning creation, you would think a Baptist minister would at least have a position.

O'Reilly continues pressing Huckabee on his faith, asking, "Do you believe that people who don't believe Jesus is God can get to Heaven?" Huckabee: "I believe Jesus is the way to Heaven. That's what the Scripture teaches. If someone else has a different belief and they figure out how to get there apart from that, that's the only way I know how to get there." That's the only way he knows how to get there? Does that mean he thinks there might be other ways? How about saying there is only one way to get to Heaven, period?

O'Reilly: "OK, so you say that you're secure in your own beliefs, but you're not telling anybody else that they are or are not going to Heaven?" Huckabee: "That's not my job. My job is to make sure I make it on my convictions." Again I ask, really? I thought it was our job as followers of Christ to preach the Gospel and make disciples, which would entail letting people know that Jesus is the only way, and without Him there is no hope for spending eternity in Heaven.

Toward the end of the interview, Huckabee criticizes people who say they're Christians, but then don't live like it. Maybe he should take the log out of his own eye before trying to find a speck in someone else's!

Legislators Won't Call Homosexuality Immoral

In today's Waterloo Courier, in a piece about the proposed addition of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the state's civil rights code titled "Civil rights bill shows shift in political winds", columnist Charlotte Eby observes that "one of the interesting shifts taking place is the refusal of opponents to publicly call homosexuality immoral or distasteful." Unfortunately, she is right.

There are at least four reasons for this:

1) Some people (Christians included) have actually been convinced that perhaps homosexuality is not sinful after all. Many of these people have bought into the argument of the homosexual movement that "God would not create people with same-sex attraction if homosexuality was a sin". They often buy into this argument after learning that a family member or close friend is attracted to same sex. However, knowing someone in this lifestyle--no matter how nice of a person they might be--does not alter the fact that homosexuality IS sinful, and God did NOT create man to lie with man.

2) Many well meaning Christians have come to believe that we cannot use God's word when making arguments in a secular world, instead arguing with statistics about the dangers of the homosexual lifestyle and trying to show that promoting homosexuality is bad for our culture. They think that Bible-based arguments will be rejected out of hand and they will be condemned for basing their arguments on something as archaic and irrelevant to today's society as the Bible. They have also cowed to the false assertion that religious beliefs have no place in the public square (I submit that ALL decisions are based on a person's religious beliefs, even if the person is an atheist). The trouble with this is two-fold: a) the pro-homosexual "rights" crowd will not accept any argument, no matter how many statistics you throw at them, and b) without a moral foundation like the Bible--if there is no objective truth and unchanging view of right and wrong--people who might be open to considering both sides of the argument will see no more validity in our view than in the view of the pro-homosexual crowd. We will be left to appeal on the basis of emotion and compassion, and we have seen that the pro-homosexual crowd has had much more success in that arena than we have.

There is spiritual power in God's word. There is no spiritual power in statistics. Most often, we will be rejected anyway, but it is better to be rejected for Christ, rather than for our secular arguments. All we can do is tell people what God says and leave the results up to Him. They may boo, hiss, and laugh when we try to use biblical arguments, but didn't Jesus tell us that's what we would face when we professed to be His followers? Why, then, should be be surprised, and why should we cringe from what we have been commanded to do?

3) The majority of people who think homosexuality is a sin are not willing to publicly state that view, because the homosexual movement has been very effective in portraying their members as helpless victims in need of protection, and portraying anyone who thinks homosexuality is wrong as "homophobic", "bigoted", "hateful", "fascist", and other nice names. No one wants to be called one of those nasty names, so most keep silent, which was the goal of the homosexual movement all along. They weren't able to win the debate on the basis of morality, or any other basis, so their strategy was to silence the opposition by making them appear hateful, intolerant, and even dangerous. In almost every case where people have been able to express their opinion privately, they say homosexuality is wrong. Witness the fact that out of 28 states that have voted for an amendment to define marriage as only between one man and one woman, 27 have approved it, by margins that are not even close.

4) Contributing to the previous three reasons, is the fact that few pastors teach that homosexuality is a sin anymore. Most churches either avoid the subject entirely or, in the case of liberal churches, they (wrongly) teach that same-sex attraction is a trait given us by God, and therefore just as normal as opposite-sex attraction. One could make that same argument about all kinds of sinful behavior that people are predisposed to. In fact, just that fact that we are all sinful could be used as an argument that God doesn't condemn sin. The truth is that we are born with a sinful nature because of the sin of the first man, Adam. We all sin; it is a choice we make. That does not mean that God created us to sin, nor that He condones sin of any kind.

There has been no credible scientific research showing that some people are born with same-sex attraction. And, even if a "gay gene" were to be found, that does not mean homosexuality is virtuous, or that God created us to be that way. People are born with birth defects and other genetic abnormalities, a predisposition toward alcoholism, etc., but that does not mean they are good. We live in a fallen world, and have imperfect bodies with imperfect genes.

I believe we are probably past the point of no return concerning our society's acceptance of homosexuality (Heaven help us all), but we must still be faithful and not be afraid to call homosexuality what it is--a sin--even if we are part a very small minority that is willing to do so. This applies to all sins, not just homosexuality. The reason homosexuality seems to have so much attention directed toward it is because no other sinful behavior has such a well-funded, well-organized, well-strategized, and successful movement behind it that is focused on getting the behavior not only legitimized and written into law, but also silencing any contrary views and indoctrinating our children a positive view of homosexuality, starting in Kindergarten.

When people in a supposedly free society are afraid to call something wrong that IS wrong, for fear of backlash from the politically-correct, elitist, thought police, that's scary! We are not moving toward enlightenment, but toward facism.