The public showdown between religion and sex

Each week, The World and Everything in It features a “Culture Friday” segment, in which Executive Producer Nick Eicher discusses the latest cultural news with John Stonestreet, president of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Here is a summary of this week’s conversation.

A public opinion survey out this week from Pew Research Center shows Americans are closely divided on questions of religious liberty and sexuality. Pew reports 48 percent of Americans support a business owner’s right to refuse to provide wedding services if she objects on religious grounds to same-sex wedding ceremonies. But 49 percent think government should force objectors to participate.

On the transgender bathroom issue, 51 percent think biological males should be allowed to use women’s restrooms if they claim a female identity.

Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, noted the divide is “more basically theological than anything else.” Mohler said the findings on religious liberty “have almost everything to do” with whether a respondent is a regular attender of church services.

John Stonestreet said the public divide on religious liberty stems from two cultural attitudes: first, that religion is a personal and private matter, and second, that the human identity is found in sexuality.

“Biblically, Christian faith is personal, but it’s not private,” Stonestreet said. “The claims of Christianity are public claims.” The church needs to publicly proclaim a more holistic view of what it means to be human, he added.

“It’s not legislative work; it’s cultural work,” Stonestreet said, noting that the church must do a better job communicating its value to the culture. Another recent study found religion contributes more than $1 trillion to the U.S. economy.

“If American religion were an economy, it would be the 14th largest country in the world,” Stonestreet said. “It’s amazing what American religion brings to American culture. But that’s not the story that’s being told. What’s being told is that who we are is our sexual inclinations, that religion is personal and private, and that if religion went away, the government could just take that role.”

Listen to “Culture Friday” on the Sept. 30, 2016, episode of The World and Everything in It.