Thank you, Jordan, for highlighting the controversy surrounding Pastor Louie Giglio. He ran afoul of the first ethical principle of the sexual revolution: that no amount of virtue can overcome the vice of politically incorrect views about sex. Pastor Giglio’s has touched and transformed the lives of the poor and oppressed, but he holds to Christian orthodoxy regarding sex — that it should occur only within a marriage between a man and woman — and said so out loud, so he must be vilified.
Sadly, a similar mindset is found around other cultural and political issues. While bitter electoral experience has previously allowed quite a few “A rated” (by the NRA) Democrats to flourish, cultural arguments about guns are moving rapidly from law and logic to emotion and anger. Litmus tests will soon emerge. The list of of topics where shaming is now a public strategy (climate change also springs to mind) grows from year to year — and so does hostility and mistrust between and among our own citizens.
For Christians weary of the culture wars (and, believe it or not, there are many), the message is all too often quite grim: The price of reconciliation is your convictions.