Climate change and LGBT issues. What’s the Creation connection?
Originally published in a CMI newsletter, February 2020
While out on ministry CMI’s speakers are regularly approached by parents, teens or young people in the church on gay marriage and climate change. These are massive cultural topics in the media today and there is pressure to conform, lest we be labelled as climate change deniers or ‘homophobes’. There is no question that the pressure is mounting on the church, and especially on our young people at school or university.
Our youth today are influenced by public opinion much more than previous generations, and no one wants to be a pariah in a peer group! I’ve often said there is a tendency with youth today, even Christians, to think with their heart, rather than their mind. Feelings are now all-important. And so we see emotional blackmail with such things as ‘flight shaming’ people for daring to fly on a plane due to its alleged contribution to greenhouse gasses, or scaring our young ones by claiming this is an ‘extinction-level event’. The latter is reckless scaremongering. Consider headlines like “New Report Warns ‘High Likelihood of Human Civilization Coming to an End’ Within 30 Years.’”1 And it is especially shameful for adults to exploit a teenage girl to promote their agendas.2 Increasingly, we are confronted with the following types of questions and comments:
‘Is climate change really happening? What do you think?’
‘As Christians, should we be burning fossil fuels? Are we destroying God’s planet?’
‘My son went to college and became friends with some gay people. Now he thinks that possibly one can be homosexual and a practicing Christian.’
‘My daughter went to Bible college and graduated as a professing gay.’
(Yes, this was a comment I received from a mom in a very conservative church!).
The list could go on but hopefully you get the idea that people in churches are confused, and this is a scary proposition for parents.
Do our youth think the way we do?
A few years ago, my youngest daughter was attending university in Atlanta, and over dinner she shared that the subject of gay marriage came up in one of her classes. She was shocked that professing Christians said they were ok with such things, and that they raised the stereotypical arguments such as “Well, it’s ok if people love each other.” Or “Some people are born that way.”
At CMI, for over 40 years we’ve been supplying Christian families with information on how to deal with the huge cultural icon of cosmic evolution. We have been encouraging families to get equipped with answers to what the world is teaching that undermines our Christian faith. But do parents raise the subject of gay marriage with our children, and what they can expect? Or is it ‘taboo’? In my experience, the answer is ‘very rarely’, and it’s the reason that so many confused teens approach us. My daughter’s comments caused a light to go on for me.
As parents we probably see homosexuality as a black and white issue. The Scriptures are very clear, and many of our pastors preach against such practices from the pulpit. After all, there are some very strong condemning passages in Scripture when it talks about “dishonorable passions”, for example. But how do our young ones in the church perceive this? I’m sure that due to their lack of real-world experience, they are hearing that homosexuals are evil and therefore, especially bad people. But when they leave home, they can meet very nice, loving, friendly people who are ‘gay’, and may even profess to be Christian. Their experience contrasts with what they think they heard in the church. If we had forewarned that they will meet such people, then possibly the experience would not have been counter to their expectations.
I saw a need for a family apologetics resource in this area, so my colleague Lita Sanders and I wrote a booklet called Gay Marriage: Right or wrong and who decides? We are aware that some churches have purchased hundreds to equip their families and youth. Penny M.C. wrote:
“I just wanted to say I think the booklet on ‘Gay Marriage’ (I shudder even when I have to write those words down!) it is absolutely first class—outstanding.”
Dr Carl Wieland also wrote:
“It is becoming ever more difficult, even for Christians, to think clearly about this emotion-charged issue. … The authors have in my view set the content, tone and balance ‘just right’. This is one of the very few publications that deals head-on with the iconic statements and sound bites that have come to dominate the debate. Both scientifically and biblically sound, it displays genuine compassion while at the same time not shirking the truth. In short, a really great little booklet that clears up much confusion on a vital topic.”
Dr Wieland (a former medical doctor) noted that our tone was balanced. This was intentional so that emotive perceptions of ‘hateful’ language would not get in the way of logical reasoning.
The creation/evolution connection
While this subject has always been around (just read the book of Genesis!), we are seeing a massive spike of hype in recent years. And is it coincidental that the issues of climate change and human sexuality are spiking at the same time?
Romans 1:20 is a favorite passage of creationists. The Apostle Paul writes:
“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
But in the following verses he talks about the shocking consequences of failing to acknowledge that it is God’s Creation. In verses 24–27 he writes:
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
Worshiping the creation!
The modern and often rabid environmental movement, is, in a sense, worshiping the creation. It believes that mankind is just another animal on an ancient, billions-of-years-old earth. Contrast this with Genesis 1:28 which is God’s command to humans to take charge over His Creation. This is the balanced view. It recognizes that it belongs to God and we should be good stewards of it. But that it was also given to mankind for our benefit, and we are not subservient to it. And the greatest climate change event ever occurred around 4,500 years ago when God destroyed the earth because of sin. It was His right to do so because it belongs to Him. And that’s where most of the fossil fuels we are burning today came from. I think God knew that would be the case … don’t you?
Our FALLOUT campaign a couple of years ago demonstrated first-hand the reasons why large numbers of youth are leaving the church; that evolution and the errant conclusion that ‘science’ does not support the biblical Creation account. If they are being taught the opposite of Romans 1, then Scripture says what will happen next! If there is no God to be accountable to then anyone can follow their own desires because they are not made in God’s image and we are just evolved animals.
The Good News
In Mark 10:6 our Lord Jesus says:
“But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.’”
Jesus was referencing Genesis 1. He believed in a literal creation with a real Adam and Eve, made as male and female. There was no gender confusion here. They were not some mythological creatures or evolved from apes—as even some Christian ministries are teaching today. With apologetics teaching and training at home on the foundational issue of biblical creation, we can not only let our young ones know what to expect, but also how to deal with it, and also to be salt and light to the lost. Creation information not only changes minds, it changes hearts towards Christ. Roseanne A. emailed:
“Thank u CMI… U all don’t know how your ministry was the one that kept me from believing in evolution and all its frauds. I had lost hope. I read some Christian websites to keep me from this, but it never answered my questions …I’m a young girl and…the real challenge and frustration of my Christian journey in Christ is evolution which u have answered. I will always support you all and encourage you. And as a youth I will certainly plan to have the privilege of working with u guys. Love you all in Christ.”
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Note before you submit a comment
[Please note that we are only dealing with one of these topics in this article to demonstrate a biblical connection between the two. The article is not about climate change or arguing or providing any details on same. For CMI’s stance on ‘climate change’ please refer to the linked articles below. Comments specifically on alleged climate change issues will not be published. In the coming months CMI will be producing articles specifically dealing with this issue.]
References and notes
- vice.com/en_us/article/597kpd/new-report-suggests-high-likelihood-of-human-civilization-coming-to-an-end-in-2050, 27 November 2019. Return to text.
- This is a reference to Greta Thunberg. Return to text.
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