When standing for the truth hurts

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.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA, an evangelical ministry serving more than 41,000 U.S. college students, received criticism this past week for reaffirming its biblical stance on human sexuality. First, Time magazine published a story incorrectly characterizing InterVarsity’s policy as targeting LGBT employees and students. Then, more than 50 authors with InterVarsity’s publishing house signed a letter disagreeing with the organization’s stance.

John Stonestreet said all evangelical organizations should prepare eventually to face similar public outcry when they stand for biblical truths. He noted InterVarsity spent four years crafting its statement on human sexuality and 18 months discussing it with staff members.

“You can do everything right in dealing with your theological positions, and it’s still going to hurt,” Stonestreet said. “It’s something that a lot of groups are going to have to take seriously.”

The backlash to biblical sexuality standards comes not just from non-Christians in the culture, but also from young, progressive churchgoers who call themselves evangelical but don’t adopt traditional evangelical beliefs.

“Just because someone claims the name doesn’t mean they actually fit into the historical line. They certainly don’t fit into the historical line of orthodoxy of the church,” Stonestreet said. “Just because someone comes up with a new Christian position yesterday doesn’t mean it’s a Christian position because they claim to be a Christian. We have a tradition. Christianity is a revealed religion.”

Listen to “Culture Friday” on the Oct. 14, 2016, episode of The World and Everything in It.