Bethany Christian Services is the largest Christian adoption agency in the United States. This week, the organization announced that it would begin providing its services to LGBTQ parents nationwide. Their decision is in response to requirements from various states that agencies serve such couples to maintain their governmental contracts.

In 2007, the organization specified that “God’s design for the family is a covenant and lifelong marriage of one man and one woman.” However, two years ago, the Michigan chapter changed its policy to begin placing foster children with same-sex couples.

At the time, the CEO wrote: “At Bethany, we believe the Bible is the living Word of God, and we still believe in God’s plan for marriage and family as it is outlined in the Scriptures. At the same time, it is clear to us that Bethany cannot cede the foster care space completely to the secular world and leave children without the opportunity to experience Jesus through our loving care.” (As we will note below, numerous Christian ministries do not believe this to be a binary choice and are continuing to be faithful to their biblical mission in the face of governmental pressure.)

The organization added: “The mission and beliefs of Bethany Christian Services have not changed. We are focused on demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ by serving children in need, and we intend to continue doing so in Michigan.”

On Monday, Bethany announced that it would make this change nationwide. Bethany’s vice president stated, “Faith in Jesus is at the core of our mission. But we are not claiming a position on the various doctrinal issues about which Christians of mutual good faith may disagree. We acknowledge that discussions about doctrine are important, but our sole job is to determine if a family can provide a safe, stable environment for children.”

Beware of “redefining civilization” 

This tragic announcement proves at least three points.

One: Government intrusion on religious liberty is escalating. 

Jim Daly, head of Focus on the Family, is right: “Bethany Christian Services should not have to choose between holding to their deeply held religious convictions and serving children and families. No government should tell any ministry how to run their ministry, let alone violate deeply held biblical principles.”

Two: Our culture and civilization are at stake. 

Al Mohler responded to the announcement: “The moral revolutionaries are now demanding that every single individual in this society, every single institution, every single school, every single religious denomination, every single adoption and foster care agency must pivot.” He added that “Christians have to understand: If you’re redefining marriage, if you’re redefining parent and family, you are redefining civilization.”

Three: We need to support ministries who stay faithful to their mission. 

Ethicist Russell Moore responded: “The need is great for distinctively Christian adoption and foster care services” who believe that “children need both mothers and fathers.” He added that “many evangelical orphan care ministries are working, and will continue to work, for vulnerable children in need of families, while still holding to the faith.” I am grateful for Buckner International and other Christian agencies who refuse to mortgage their mission in the face of social and governmental pressure.

“The most potent way Christianity is marginalized” 

This story also highlights a critical principle for all Christians seeking to navigate our anti-Christian culture.

Bethany claims to “believe in God’s plan for marriage and family as it is outlined in the Scriptures,” but it will now adopt children to families who reject that plan. The organization claims that their “mission and beliefs . . . have not changed,” but they have adopted policies that clearly violate them. How are we to understand these contradictions?

One of the most tempting ways for Christians to deal with the opposition we face today is to separate our private beliefs from our public actions.

In Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity, apologist Nancy Pearcey states: “The most potent way Christianity is marginalized in modern society is through the division of life into two separate spheres: a sacred realm of prayer, worship, and personal morality against a secular realm of politics, business, academia, and so on.” According to this division, our personal values regarding same-sex marriage or any other biblical moral issue should be kept separate from our public actions in secular society.

This juxtaposition allows us to tell churches, donors, and other supporters that our biblical values remain intact while bowing to cultural pressure to conform to unbiblical requirements. Bethany is not the first ministry to strike such a Faustian bargain; I fear that they will not be the last.

“May we be so bold as to set our eyes on heaven” 

Let’s close by making today’s article personal: Are you being tempted to separate your personal beliefs from your public life?

For example, are your thoughts about others different from your actions toward them? Jesus correlated anger with murder (Matthew 5:22) and defined lust as adultery (v. 28). Paul exhorted us: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).

Are you willing to pay any price to share your faith with others? Craig Denison asks, “Are the opinions of others really so important to me that I would withhold from them eternal, abundant life with a God who loves them relentlessly and perfectly?”

He adds: “May we be those who set aside our pride, seek humility, and love others whatever the cost. May we be so bold as to set our eyes on heaven and sacrifice this life for the sake of eternity.”

Will you be so bold today?

Denison Forum

Let’s start with some good news: the late Alex Trebek’s TV wardrobe was donated to men who are homeless or leaving jail. When an H-E-B grocery store near Austin, Texas, lost power in the recent winter storm and was unable to check out customers, employees let them take their goods home for free. A delivery driver’s vehicle got stuck in a client’s driveway when the storm began, so the couple took her into their home for five days.

Have you seen any of these stories headlined in recent days?

Riots in Portland and “negativity bias” 

In other news, cancel culture has come for a Hyatt Regency hotel in Orlando, Florida. The hotel hosted the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last weekend. Former President Donald Trump spoke, as did a number of other Republican and conservative figures. As a result, critics called online for the hotel to be boycotted.

Cancel culture is also coming for Dr. Seuss on claims of racist stereotypes in his books. A school district in Virginia is just one example. And rioters vandalized several buildings in downtown Portland, Oregon, over the weekend, protesting the Biden administration’s immigration policy and the federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Unfortunately, such bad news is much easier to find in the news than good news.

“Negativity bias” is the psychological term for our collective hunger to hear and remember bad news. Part of this is schadenfreude, the pleasure we derive from another person’s misfortune. However, studies indicate that we are also conditioned to avoid danger and thus respond more quickly to bad news that threatens us.

This means that we often look for the negative and overlook the positive. As a result, we can make things worse than they are. Our fears become self-fulfilling prophecies and we miss much of the good that surrounds us each day.

Hiding from a king in a cave 

Let’s relate this fact to yesterday’s Daily Article, which focused on the importance of supporting religious freedom while speaking the truth in love with LGBTQ persons and their advocates. Toward the close of the article, I stated my plan to suggest specific ways we can do both.

For foundational guidance, we turn to Psalm 57, David’s prayer when he was hiding from King Saul in a wilderness cave (probably 1 Samuel 22:1, but possibly 1 Samuel 24:3). Here we find four principles that apply when we face opposition to our faith. Each of them calls us to focus on the good in the midst of the bad.

One: Trust God’s presence. 

David begins his prayer: “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by” (v. 1). He knows that the Lord is sheltering him in the face of mortal peril, even though he cannot see his “wings” at the time.

Two: Trust God’s purpose. 

David continues: “I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me” (v. 2). Note that it is God, not David, who “fulfills” this purpose. The darkness of the tunnel does not contradict the sovereignty of the engineer driving the train.

Three: Trust God’s power. 

David testifies: “He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me” (v. 3, my emphasis). He knows that the King of the universe is more powerful than the king of Israel.

Four: Trust God’s providence. 

David admits: “My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts” (v. 4). Yet he can pray, “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!” (v. 5). He knows that God knows his challenges and will bring his glory “over all the earth,” including the threat he faces.

Four steps to the spring of the Spirit 

With this backdrop, how can we respond redemptively to those who advocate for causes that threaten our religious freedom and attack our beliefs?

In Crisis in America: A Christian Response, Pastor Garland Hunt offers practical wisdom for this moment in our nation’s history. I would summarize his suggestions for facing opposition in four steps:

• Perception: What is God saying to us through this event?
• Personal accountability: Is there wrongdoing I must admit and change?
• Prayer: How can I intercede for those affected and for God to act for their best?
• Persuasion: What changes are needed? How can I help people make them?

Because God is sovereign in every “cave” of life, we can trust his presence, purpose, power, and providence. We can therefore look for his hand in the challenges we face.

Before we can ask others to change, however, we must ask God what changes we need to make (1 Peter 4:17). Then we can pray for God to work in the minds and hearts of our opponents (Matthew 5:44). Only then can we be effective catalysts for change in our broken culture.

I’ll close with a lesson from the winter storm we recently suffered in Texas. My home in Dallas was blanketed with more snow than I have ever seen in our city. However, when the temperature finally climbed above freezing and the sun came out, the snow began to melt. Not so quickly that you could watch it happen, but slowly over time.

In a day or two, the snow had melted in the sunlight. However, it persisted far longer in the shade.

If we do our job as the “light of the world” (Matthew 5:14), we will make an eternal difference in our winter-gripped world. We may not see the spiritual snow melt today, but the spring of the Spirit is coming.

This is the promise and the invitation of God.

Denison Forum