You might think that “Queerly Beloved” and “Quirky, Queer and Wonderful” are the titles of Pride month TV shows. They’re actually two of the hymns in Songs for the Holy Other: Hymns Affirming the LGBTQIA2S+ Community.

Alongside a “queer hymnal,” we now have the “Queering the Bible” project. A ministry tied to the Presbyterian Church (USA) has launched a sixteen-part study which looks at the gospel of Mark as a way of “learning about how we experience God as queer folk, and how we experience Scripture as queer people.”

If you believe that God creates us in his image as male and female (Genesis 1:27) and defines marriage as the covenant of one man and one woman (Genesis 2:21–24; Matthew 19:4–6), how would you respond to Christians who endorse and celebrate LGBTQ ideology?

As I reported yesterday, at least thirteen companies have announced plans to help employees travel across state lines to obtain abortions if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Companies across the country are celebrating Pride Month by participating in parades, affixing rainbow logos to email and other correspondence, and contributing to LGBTQ causes.

If you work for a company that has chosen to help fund abortions or celebrates unbiblical sexual morality, how should you respond?

These are not speculative questions. As our culture moves further and further from biblical morality, Christians are coming under increasing attack for our biblical beliefs. And believers who work in the secular marketplace are facing increasing pressure to capitulate or resign.

Let’s consider three biblical responses.

One: Know what you believe

Scripture calls us to “honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Whether the issue is abortion, sexual morality, or another ethical challenge, it is vital that we know what we believe and why we believe it.

For example, if you believe abortion is morally wrong, how would you defend your position? If you believe marriage is between a man and a woman, how would you respond to those who disagree? If they are unwilling to consider biblical truth, how else would you persuade them?

It is incumbent on all American Christians these days to know and be able to defend basic biblical truth claims. Apologist William Lane Craig: “Many Christians do not share their faith with unbelievers simply out of fear. They’re afraid that the non-Christian will ask them a question or raise an objection that they can’t answer. And so they choose to remain silent and thus hide their light under a bushel in disobedience to Christ’s command.

“Apologetics training is a tremendous boost to evangelism, for nothing inspires confidence and boldness more than knowing that one has good reasons for what one believes and good answers to the typical questions and objections that the unbeliever may raise. Sound training in apologetics is one of the keys to fearless evangelism.”

(Three of my articles on defending life are here, here, and here. For help defending biblical marriage, go here. For ways to explain and defend the essential facts of the Christian faith, go here.)

Two: Know your “red lines”

In Jeremiah 29, the Lord calls his people to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile” (v. 7). In Romans 13, we are told to “be subject to the governing authorities” (v. 1). However, when the apostles were commanded by the authorities to stop preaching the gospel, they responded, “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

Some issues are “hills to die on,” but others are not. If you work in a secular environment, you will undoubtedly face challenges to your faith that are not worth resigning and thus ending your influence with your colleagues. You may, however, face other issues that are so grave they demand that you take a stand even at the risk of your employment.

It is best to decide such “red lines” ahead of time.

For example, I spoke recently with an executive at a secular hospital system. His hospital does not do elective abortions at this point, but he has decided that if their policy changes, he will resign. By contrast, he has decided to stay even though the hospital celebrates Pride Month in ways that make him uncomfortable, choosing to remain where his faith can prayerfully impact those he influences.

Pray for the guidance of the Spirit as you “discern what is the will of God” in this respect (Romans 12:2).

Three: Speak and act redemptively

Earlier we noted Peter’s call for us to be ready always to “make a defense” of our faith. The apostle continued: “yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame” (1 Peter 3:15b–16).

As I say so often, we are not called to be culture warriors but cultural missionaries. The other side is not the enemy. We are called to speak and act redemptively, reflecting the light of Christ in the darkness of our day (Matthew 5:14–16) so that others are drawn to our Lord and find in him the joy and peace their souls long to know.

St. Chromatius (died about AD 407) was one of the most celebrated theologians of his day and a ministry partner with St. Ambrose and St. Jerome. Responding to Jesus’ call for us to be the “light of the world,” he wrote: “Since he is the Sun of Justice, he fittingly calls his disciples the light of the world. The reason for this is that through them, as through shining rays, he has poured out the light of the knowledge of himself upon the entire world. For by manifesting the light of truth, they have dispelled the darkness of error from the hearts of men.”

He then warned, “If we fail to live in the light, we shall, to our condemnation and that of others, be veiling over and obscuring by our infidelity the light men so desperately need. . . . Therefore, we must not hide this lamp of law and faith. Rather, we must set it up in the Church, as on a lamp stand, for the salvation of many, so that we may enjoy the light of truth itself and all believers may be enlightened.”

How will you display the “light of truth” today?

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On this day in 1940, the first prisoners arrived at Auschwitz; more than one million Holocaust victims eventually died there. Every time I visit Israel, I grieve again for the six million Jews—a quarter of whom were children—murdered by the Nazis.

Closer to home, there were more mass shootings in the US last weekend, leaving at least ten people dead and forty-two injured in ten cities. Such tragedies are horrifically devastating; one is too many.

However, during that same three-day period, more than 5,400 babies were aborted in the US. (I calculated this number based on the CDC’s total of US abortions in 2019, the last year on record, divided by 365 days and multiplied by three.) Since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, more than sixty-three million babies have been aborted in the US, ten times the number of Jewish Holocaust victims.

Could the ruling that enabled these deaths be overturned today?

On May 1, a draft Supreme Court opinion was leaked that would overturn Roe v. Wade and return the question of abortion to the states. It was not final, so we will not know the Court’s actual ruling until it is released. The Court typically releases its opinions on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and on the third Monday of each sitting. Since the Court recesses this year on June 26, their ruling on Roe will be released within days, perhaps today.

What will happen if the Court overturns Roe? Let’s discuss three relevant questions and then turn to a holistic biblical response.

Where will abortion be legal?

According to the Guttmacher Institute (GI), twenty-six states have laws indicating that they intend to ban abortions. Thirteen have enacted “trigger laws” that would ban abortion altogether if Roe is reversed. Of these thirteen, four also have pre-Roe bans that could be enforced if the ruling is overturned. Five other states that have not enacted “trigger laws” also have such pre-Roe bans.

In addition, seventeen states have passed other bans or extreme limits on abortion that could be enforced without Roe; four of them are not included in the “trigger bans” and /or pre-Roe law groups. And GI classifies four additional states as “likely” to ban abortion based on the state’s history and political atmosphere.

On the other side, sixteen states plus the District of Columbia protect the right to abortion through state law. By my count, they total more than 118 million in population. Other states are likely to pass similar laws soon. Some states such as Maryland are increasing their capacity to conduct abortions.

What about “out of state” abortions?

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed into law a series of abortion bills yesterday that protect providers as well as patients coming from out of state seeking to access abortion. Connecticut and Washington have passed laws that would shield resident abortion providers from facing penalties under abortion laws in other states. Bills progressing through the Illinois and Connecticut legislatures would protect patients traveling from out of state and providers who care for them.

Meanwhile, a law proposed in Missouri would make it illegal to help someone get an abortion even in a different state.

After the Supreme Court draft leak, at least thirteen companies (Starbucks, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Citigroup, Yelp, Match, Bumble, Levi Strauss, Lyft, Uber, and Mastercard)  announced plans to pay for abortion travel across state lines.

What about pharmaceutical abortions?

The FDA announced last year that it would continue its pandemic-era policy to allow medication abortion, also known as the “abortion pill,” to be prescribed via telemedicine. Medication abortion now accounts for the majority of US abortion. In response, a Texas law bans abortion-inducing drugs seven weeks into pregnancy.

If the Court overturns Roe, it is plausible that states which ban abortion will seek to ban pharmaceutical abortions as well. However, there is no clear precedent for a state to ban a medication the FDA has approved.

Rejecting three lies that empower abortion

As you can see, if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade today or in the next two weeks, the battle over abortion will shift from the federal level to the states and even local communities. Those of us who believe life is sacred from conception to natural death will be on the front lines. We will need to do all we can for the sake of the unborn, their biological parents and families, and our larger culture.

Abortion has been legal in the US for nearly fifty years because our society has embraced three lies:

• Radical personal autonomy (“My body, my choice”) tempts us to “be like God” (Genesis 3:5).
• Utilitarian ethics values people based on what they do (the unborn and the infirm are thus especially at risk) rather than who they are as bearers of the image of God (Genesis 1:27).
• The privatization of religion separates biblical truth from daily life, rejecting the biblical call to holistic faith (Romans 12:1–2) and reducing God to a hobby.

To win the abortion battle, you and I must first reject these lies in our personal lives. We must refuse the temptation to make God a means to our ends, value every person as Jesus does, and make him our king and Lord every day.

Then we can pray for the unborn to be saved and cherished, use our influence wherever we can, and support ministries that serve the cause of life with truth and love (Ephesians 4:15).

Pope Benedict XVI was right: “The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right—it is the very opposite. It is a deep wound in society.”

How will you help heal this wound today?

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Democratic and Republican senators announced an agreement yesterday on a legislative framework aimed at reducing mass shootings in America. The bipartisan group said they were working to write legislation that would give more funding to school security and mental-health programs. It would also provide incentives for states to implement and maintain red-flag laws and would include juvenile records in background checks for people buying guns who are under twenty-one years of age.

In a vital sign of support, ten Republicans have signed on to the agreement; if all fifty Democrats in the Senate support the legislation, it would then reach the sixty votes needed to advance. According to the Wall Street Journal, the framework puts lawmakers on course to advance the most expansive bipartisan gun violence measure since the assault weapons ban in 1994, which lapsed a decade later.

Their announcement comes a day after rallies and marches across the US advocated for gun reform in the wake of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. The nationwide event was organized by March for Our Lives, a group founded by student survivors of the Parkland, Florida, shooting that killed seventeen people in 2018.

China will “fight to the very end” for Taiwan

Violence and the threat of violence is dominating our news again this morning.

China’s defense minister stated yesterday that his country would “fight to the very end” to stop Taiwan’s independence. His speech came just weeks after President Joe Biden said the US would respond “militarily” if China attacked Taiwan.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that momentum in Ukraine is shifting in Russia’s favor, as Ukraine lacks the weaponry it needs and Western support for the war effort is fraying in the face of rising gas prices and escalating inflation. Russia’s immoral invasion is turning cities across the Donbas region into ghost towns. Residents are fleeing in droves, leaving behind empty streets. Many who remain have no money to live elsewhere and struggle to find water, food, gas, and power.

Even preparing for war can be deadly: five US Marines were killed during a training flight crash last week in the California desert. One of them was the son of former Los Angeles Dodgers player Steve Sax, who said of him, “He was my hero and the best man I know. There was no better person to defend our country.”

In an ironically tragic picture of our times, ministries devoted to saving the unborn are being firebombed, attacked, and vandalized. According to a US Conference of Bishops report, there have been at least 134 arson and vandalism attacks on churches in thirty-five states and the District of Columbia in the last two years.

The secret to changing the world

If the day’s news causes you to doubt whether there is anything you can do to make a difference, you’re right. You cannot convict Vladimir Putin, an arsonist, or anyone else of their sins or save their souls. Neither can I.

However, our Lord “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). Able translates the Greek dynamai, from which we get “dynamite.” Far more abundantly could be translated, “immeasurably more than.” The “power at work within us” is again dynamis.

A literal translation of Paul’s proclamation would therefore assure us that God “has the explosive power to do immeasurably more than anything we can ask and think according to the same explosive power that is already at work in us.” This “power at work within us” is the Holy Spirit.

When you trusted Christ as your Lord, his Spirit came to live in you as his temple (1 Corinthians 3:16) with the very power that created the world (Genesis 1:1), “convict[s] the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8), empowered Jesus’ ministry (Acts 10:38), “gives life” (John 6:63), and will “guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). He will empower us and use us in ways beyond anything “that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).

The secret to changing the world is admitting that we cannot change the world, then submitting to the only One who can.

Learning from the “Harp of the Holy Spirit”

St. Ephrem of Syria (AD 306–73) was a prolific poet, teacher, orator, and defender of the faith. He is especially known as one of the first to introduce song into the Church’s public worship as a means of instructing the faithful. He often took popular songs of heretical groups, used their melodies, and changed their words to embody orthodox doctrine. His many hymns earned him the title, “Harp of the Holy Spirit.”

What was the secret to such a remarkably effective ministry?

In Epistle to a Disciple, Ephrem wrote: “My beloved in the Lord, before every other thing set humility in thy mouth when thou art ready to make answer, for . . . thou knowest that by humility all the power of the Enemy is brought to naught. . . . My son, array thyself in humility, and thou shalt make the virtues of God be with thee. And if, my son, thou art in a state of humility, no passion whatsoever shall have power to draw nigh thee.”

Are you in “a state of humility” today?

NOTE: Long ago, Alfred North Whitehead asserted that great people plant trees they’ll never sit under. I use that quote often because it’s so true. Your ongoing support of our ministry sows seeds of biblical truth in the lives of believers across the globe. Please give today, knowing that your gift will be doubled by a generous matching grant of $35,000. Your giving makes a world of difference.

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