It is time to engage our culture. Despite all of the protests, complaints, petitions, political actions and the elections that go with them, our culture continues to slide.
The most recent evidence of this is this: The “Plan B,” or, “day after emergency contraceptive pill,” has just been approved and will soon be legaly available to women over the age of 18 without a prescription. You can read about it at webmd.com.
As always, our culture moves, step by step, further down the path of personal destruction in an effort to eradicate the consequences of a life lived outside of the leading of God. They know no better and we can expect nothing less. Without the leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit in their lives, it is impossible to expect that they would act in a way that is holy and, therefore, beneficial to them and the rest of us.
When are we going to engage our culture with the Gospel, and quit beating them up with it – saying that they should come to us. It’s time to go to them.
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CB Scott
on Aug 24th, 2006
@ 5:00 pm:
Well said. We must expect lost people to act lost. In that respect they never fail us. The problem arises when we fail them by not acting as the redeemed.
The culture awaits. Let us mount up and ride into it with the power of the Spirit and the armor of God and do battle for the King of Kings against the Keeper of Darkness who holds men’s souls captive.
cb
Bob Cleveland
on Aug 24th, 2006
@ 6:03 pm:
I agree. But it’s the same time it was yesterday.
It was always time to confront people (singular) with Jesus. Like Dr. Welch said, the gospel is the power of God, for salvation.
CB: Great point. For a lot of my adult life, I seem to remember pastors and church folks telling lost folks to stop acting like that. Nine years on the zoning board, you see a lot of preachers attending meetings only to speak against liquor licenses.
Thanks for reminding me of an important point I’d forgotten.
Big Daddy Weave
on Aug 24th, 2006
@ 7:09 pm:
What are your feelings in regards to married women using “The Pill”?
Are you opposed to Christian couples using this more potent form of birth control in cases of emergency?
art rogers
on Aug 24th, 2006
@ 9:10 pm:
C’mon, BDW. This post is about engaging lost culture.
I would answer you, but I don’t want to encourage you hijacking my blog. From your past behavior, I don’t think you are really interested in dialogue, anyway.
Big Daddy Weave
on Aug 24th, 2006
@ 10:21 pm:
Yea, engaging lost culture based on the example of Plan B.
It was a simple question. Many in the pews of SBC churches practice birth control. Some in the pews are opposed to “the pill” entirely. I expect many Southern Baptists disagree with Land and will privately make use of this more potent pill. Are they lost?
The morning after pill has been available for quite some time to those with a prescription – Plan B itself is not new.
It is healthy and encouraging to see Southern Baptists such as Land disagreeing with President Bush every now and again…
Tim Cook
on Aug 25th, 2006
@ 9:54 am:
No, Plan B does not necessarily mean someone is lost…misguided, and possibly sinful, but not lost. The problem comes when Christians behave in the same way as the lost. does it mean that that they are lost? certainly not. Does it possibly render them ineffective? Absolutely. One of the most often uttered criticisms of the Pro-life movement is inconsistency. In order to go out and impact lost culture we have to be concsistent in our moral stands; if we aren’t, they notice, and we lose our credibility. In many ways, there is room even for disagreements in morals from different parts of the Christian community, as long as individual Christians are consistent in that reasonable disagreement. To the world, what you stand for is sometimes less important than whether you stand for it all the time, or only when the right people are watching.
Grace and peace,
Tim
art rogers
on Aug 25th, 2006
@ 12:55 pm:
Aaron (BDW),
First, let me say that I went to your blog and found that you were in the hospital. I am sorry about your accident and I am praying for you. I am sure you are bored out of your mind and in pain as well.
We are off topic now, and that really frustrates me. I am not using the example of “Plan B,” but the example of escaping consequences. Plan B is just the flavor of the moment in relation to that.
What I really find compelling about your question is not whether or not married folks use this pill, but the presupposition that pregnancy within a Christian marriage can be deemed an “emergency.”
Let’s be real: this pill will not be the standard for married couples. This is, as you termed it, an “emergency” response – to something unplanned. Every married couple I know plans to have sex, and executes whatever plan they have as to whether or not they get pregnant as a result. People who don’t have a plan, typically aren’t married.
There are exceptions, but they are just that. Also, within a Christian marriage, a couple who is pregnant as a result of a spontaneous union, has to answer the question, “If I did not plan this, did God?” Every Christian I know acknowledges that God does intervene in our lives, and this situation would demand a decision as to “whether or not this pregnancy, while not planned by us, was planned by God.” Given the Christian world view, I find this a no brainer.
In that respect, this is a red herring. This pill is targeted toward people who have unplanned sex – outside of marriage – and want to escape the consequences.
Christians shouldn’t be doing that, so that leaves us with lost people.
Which brings us back to my original point. We can’t engage them by beating them up for not being like us. We can’t expect a sanctified mindset from people who are, as yet, unregenerate.
If we want to solve the ills of society, we must win the lost. The rest will settle out as the Holy Spirit disciples them within the body.
Big Daddy Weave
on Aug 25th, 2006
@ 3:11 pm:
I appreciate your response and do agree that we can’t engage culture by beating up on others.
I grew up in South Georgia with very-very conservative Christians who chose to shun culture rather than sincerely engage the lost. Whether I agree or disagree with the specifics of your posts – it is refreshing to see conservative Christians (like yourself) who are willing to sincerely engage the world and try to make a difference.
Thanks you for your prayers. T-boning a windstar mini-van at nearly 50 mph and only suffering a broken leg was indeed miraculous…