Embracing Unpopular Truth in an Age of Political Correctness
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome back to the podcast and happy 2/22,
00:00:08.600 | today on this Wednesday.
00:00:10.200 | And that means that 2/22/22 is coming up later in the month
00:00:15.200 | and that date 2/22/22 happens to land
00:00:18.520 | on a Tuesday of all things.
00:00:21.320 | Speaking of dates, nearly 30 years ago,
00:00:24.320 | Pastor John delivered a lecture series
00:00:26.400 | on biblical manhood and womanhood.
00:00:28.960 | The relevance of the series
00:00:30.080 | you are about to hear for yourself.
00:00:32.240 | It was 1993, he was speaking to college students
00:00:34.720 | in Dayton, Tennessee.
00:00:36.280 | I only recently listened to the series
00:00:38.680 | and today we are gonna feature a clip from part four of it
00:00:41.480 | brought to our attention by a couple named David
00:00:43.320 | and Katerina who listened to APJ in Germany.
00:00:46.440 | Katerina wrote in to say this,
00:00:48.480 | "The other week, my husband and I celebrated
00:00:50.840 | our second wedding anniversary."
00:00:53.040 | Congratulations to you both.
00:00:54.920 | "And we went away for a weekend to refocus,
00:00:56.900 | reflecting on the year past and planning for the year ahead
00:00:59.360 | and we wanted to listen to a sermon series
00:01:01.160 | to give us something to think about and ponder.
00:01:03.560 | And this time we picked Pastor John's lecture series
00:01:06.020 | called Manhood, Womanhood and God,
00:01:08.920 | a series from 1993, almost three decades ago."
00:01:13.000 | Well, thank you.
00:01:14.760 | For the prompt, Katerina drew our attention to part four,
00:01:17.640 | especially which is titled,
00:01:19.360 | "Lovers of Truth in a Politically Correct
00:01:22.560 | and Gender Leveling World."
00:01:25.860 | She sent this clip on political correctness
00:01:28.600 | where Pastor John gives examples of slogans in his day
00:01:32.880 | back in '93, Orwellian slogans
00:01:35.000 | used to sort of bias interpretation.
00:01:37.860 | The following audio is, it's not perfect.
00:01:40.640 | We worked with it a little bit,
00:01:41.800 | but the point is very relevant.
00:01:43.400 | It's worth a listen.
00:01:44.640 | Here's Pastor John in 1993.
00:01:48.020 | - Let me read you a text from the teachings of Jesus
00:01:52.080 | that is a clarion call to you this morning
00:01:56.260 | to be courageous in speaking unpopular things.
00:01:59.700 | This comes from Matthew 10, starting in verse 24.
00:02:03.060 | "A disciple is not above his teacher,
00:02:05.740 | nor a servant above his master.
00:02:08.160 | It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher
00:02:12.420 | and the servant like his master.
00:02:14.700 | If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,
00:02:19.660 | how much more will they malign those
00:02:22.720 | who are of his household?"
00:02:24.760 | In other words, expect to be maligned in the world.
00:02:30.060 | Don't assume that when you are called a name,
00:02:33.240 | you've suddenly made a big mistake
00:02:35.000 | and have said something inappropriate.
00:02:36.560 | Oh, I must go back and find another way to say it
00:02:38.840 | so they won't malign me.
00:02:40.480 | It says you're gonna be maligned.
00:02:42.500 | They spit on him.
00:02:44.280 | They crowned him with thorns.
00:02:46.280 | They called him names.
00:02:47.880 | They laughed him to scorn.
00:02:50.440 | Shall we be above our teacher?
00:02:53.040 | That's the point here.
00:02:55.840 | So have no fear of them,
00:02:57.760 | for nothing is covered that will not be revealed
00:03:01.440 | or hidden that will not be known.
00:03:04.080 | What I tell you in the dark, utter in the light.
00:03:07.360 | What you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
00:03:10.880 | Do not fear those who kill the body,
00:03:15.460 | but cannot kill the soul.
00:03:17.800 | Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
00:03:22.800 | Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
00:03:26.060 | Not one of them will fall to the ground
00:03:28.280 | without your father's will,
00:03:30.400 | but even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
00:03:32.920 | Fear not, therefore, you are of more value
00:03:36.880 | than many sparrows.
00:03:39.000 | Now, the point of that text is unmistakably clear
00:03:41.920 | because of the threefold repetition of the command.
00:03:45.400 | Verse 26, have no fear of them.
00:03:49.240 | Verse 28, do not fear those who kill the body.
00:03:53.720 | Verse 31, do not fear, therefore,
00:03:56.860 | you are of more value than many sparrows.
00:03:59.640 | Jesus does not want any of you to be afraid.
00:04:03.200 | And the issue about fear here
00:04:05.620 | is what comes out of your mouth.
00:04:08.240 | He is asking you to speak clearly, that is in the light,
00:04:12.360 | and forthrightly and publicly,
00:04:14.460 | that is on the housetops,
00:04:16.120 | things that will get you killed.
00:04:18.920 | Before your life is over,
00:04:22.680 | it is in all likelihood that you will be in jail
00:04:26.220 | for saying some of the things that I've said in this room
00:04:28.880 | in these past two days.
00:04:30.400 | Or if not in jail,
00:04:33.840 | you will be the victim of random violence
00:04:38.840 | from certain communities in society.
00:04:43.480 | One of our pastors was shot at
00:04:45.160 | on the way home from church last Sunday night.
00:04:47.860 | Just random, out of the towers
00:04:50.940 | across the street from the church,
00:04:52.140 | I heard the bullet go zing
00:04:53.260 | and hit the ground beside him.
00:04:56.060 | Now, we have no idea what was this.
00:04:57.780 | Why is this person doing this?
00:04:58.880 | Was it intentional?
00:05:00.080 | At least don't have anything to say about it.
00:05:04.380 | But I don't, that doesn't surprise me at all.
00:05:07.380 | Our church is known for a few controversial things.
00:05:10.580 | There are people who live in those towers
00:05:12.940 | who don't like what we say.
00:05:14.720 | Guns are easily available.
00:05:16.200 | Some of them are not mentally stable.
00:05:18.560 | Now, if you decide,
00:05:19.640 | oh, I'm not gonna live in a place like that.
00:05:21.400 | No way, whoa.
00:05:22.740 | What are you?
00:05:23.580 | Who's your master?
00:05:25.880 | What is this?
00:05:27.280 | Are you American or are you Christian?
00:05:29.300 | Do you choose your house for safety
00:05:32.860 | or do you choose your house for ministry?
00:05:34.860 | Jesus is real clear here.
00:05:37.900 | Be courageous, be fearless.
00:05:42.860 | So I want you to be unafraid this morning
00:05:45.420 | in spite of what it's gonna cost you
00:05:48.260 | to say things that are unpopular or dangerous.
00:05:51.460 | Now, in order to do that,
00:05:54.020 | you need to really exploit your time here at Bryan
00:05:58.360 | to become strong in the truth and strong in the word.
00:06:02.860 | Don't be children in your thinking.
00:06:06.260 | Be babes in evil in your thinking.
00:06:08.700 | Be mature, Paul says elsewhere.
00:06:11.980 | He wants you to use this time here at Bryan
00:06:14.900 | to grow more and more mature in your thinking,
00:06:19.140 | to send your roots deeper and deeper
00:06:21.500 | into the objective evidences of God's truth
00:06:24.620 | so that when you walk out of this place
00:06:26.200 | and scatter all over the nation and around the world,
00:06:29.060 | you go with a profound conviction
00:06:31.380 | about a few things in the world.
00:06:32.980 | You will always see through a glass darkly.
00:06:35.880 | You will never be totally comprehensive
00:06:37.940 | and have all the knowledge that God has,
00:06:40.020 | but there are a few things
00:06:41.480 | that you will know.
00:06:42.940 | Let me give you some examples now
00:06:46.060 | of the kind of thing I think you need
00:06:47.760 | to be really shrewd about.
00:06:50.400 | I call this talk "Lovers of Truth
00:06:53.820 | in a Politically Correct World
00:06:55.780 | and a Gender-Leveling World"
00:06:57.900 | because as I've lived now in Minneapolis
00:06:59.780 | in these past couple of years,
00:07:00.940 | watching the way language is so manipulated
00:07:05.340 | by politically correct people
00:07:07.220 | to get their ideas into students' minds
00:07:10.820 | by circumventing reasoned argument
00:07:13.460 | and using clever language.
00:07:15.540 | Just a few examples.
00:07:17.540 | My son goes to high school in Minneapolis
00:07:21.220 | and I go down there sometimes to see him
00:07:23.800 | or to do whatever,
00:07:25.380 | and I went down a year ago
00:07:27.500 | and saw two posters.
00:07:29.620 | They were over every doorway
00:07:33.740 | that were leading to the stairwells.
00:07:36.400 | So every student had to pass under these posters.
00:07:38.820 | They were school-sanctioned posters
00:07:41.100 | and they were politically correct
00:07:43.500 | and they were gender-leveling
00:07:45.260 | and homosexuality-endorsing.
00:07:48.380 | But the way they did it
00:07:50.940 | were oblique and remarkably shrewd
00:07:55.800 | and clever,
00:07:56.960 | the kind of thing that students by and large
00:08:00.460 | in the ninth through the twelfth grade
00:08:02.020 | have not been trained to discern
00:08:04.140 | and spot and unpack and make distinctions.
00:08:08.040 | That's why you're here,
00:08:09.700 | to learn to do that.
00:08:11.700 | Here was one of them.
00:08:13.100 | Big, beautiful poster,
00:08:14.460 | color rainbow kind of decoration.
00:08:17.140 | Quote, "One in 10 people are gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
00:08:22.140 | "They could be your brother, sister, parent, or friend."
00:08:29.540 | That's all the poster said.
00:08:31.340 | Sad.
00:08:33.780 | What's that message?
00:08:37.040 | It's crafted in such a way
00:08:38.640 | so that if a parent went into a principal
00:08:40.720 | and said, "I don't like that,"
00:08:41.560 | he'd say, "Well, what don't you like about it?
00:08:44.200 | "It doesn't teach anything."
00:08:45.680 | Well, there's several problems
00:08:49.720 | with that simple little quote.
00:08:52.680 | Number one, the statistic is inflated.
00:08:55.600 | 10%.
00:08:57.840 | What's the point of that?
00:08:58.680 | The point is to create a feeling in these students,
00:09:01.280 | my God, every 10th person in the hall is gay.
00:09:06.360 | And that is the feeling they wanna create.
00:09:09.840 | Because once you feel that,
00:09:11.840 | you have to say,
00:09:12.680 | "It just can't be as bad as I feel it is.
00:09:16.160 | "Something must be wrong with me."
00:09:18.020 | That's the thought.
00:09:22.120 | Now, it's inflated.
00:09:23.080 | The numbers aren't 10%.
00:09:25.840 | No?
00:09:26.660 | The National Center for Health Statistics say three.
00:09:28.840 | William Simon and the Kinsey Institute say two to three.
00:09:31.360 | The Chicago study recently says 1%, maybe.
00:09:36.020 | Nobody knows for sure.
00:09:37.820 | 10% was one of those inflated figures.
00:09:40.740 | Then here's the second thing wrong with it.
00:09:42.980 | There was no moral assessment of the behavior.
00:09:46.780 | It's an emotional appeal.
00:09:48.620 | Your parent might be gay or bisexual.
00:09:53.620 | Now, when that thought enters a ninth grader's mind,
00:09:57.220 | my daddy might be a bisexual.
00:10:01.140 | What's he supposed to do with that?
00:10:03.360 | No teaching, no standards,
00:10:06.040 | just the thought sewn in the kid's brain.
00:10:08.740 | I'll tell you what happens is that he might say,
00:10:14.100 | "Oh, it just can't be."
00:10:15.680 | But if it keeps coming back,
00:10:17.320 | he'll say, "Well, if it were, he's okay,
00:10:20.720 | "and it must be okay."
00:10:23.280 | And so you reduce the whole moral dimension
00:10:28.400 | of something being right or wrong.
00:10:33.400 | This is politically correct manipulation of language
00:10:38.360 | to put ideas into minds
00:10:40.800 | by short-circuiting clear, critical thinking.
00:10:44.440 | And it happens in every newspaper almost every day
00:10:47.820 | and on almost every television advertisement
00:10:50.580 | and virtually all kinds of media efforts.
00:10:54.520 | Here's the other poster.
00:10:57.080 | It was even more tricky, shorter.
00:10:59.640 | The poster said, "Respect sees no color,
00:11:05.720 | "gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability."
00:11:11.340 | That's all it said.
00:11:14.160 | How could you complain about that?
00:11:16.800 | What do you got against respect?
00:11:18.640 | What are you, homophobic?
00:11:19.720 | What are you, against disabled people?
00:11:22.280 | There are several problems with it.
00:11:25.880 | One is it puts homosexuality
00:11:28.520 | in the same category with sexuality.
00:11:30.600 | Gender and sexual orientation are side by side.
00:11:36.720 | Respect sees no sexual orientation
00:11:39.180 | and respect sees no gender and no color.
00:11:43.440 | So once you've got sexual orientation listed beside
00:11:48.640 | whether you're male or female
00:11:49.960 | and whether you're black or white,
00:11:52.160 | then you can't feel any more strongly
00:11:55.080 | about this distinction
00:11:56.320 | than you can about these distinctions.
00:11:58.440 | Nobody feels that it's right or wrong
00:12:02.240 | to act black or act white.
00:12:04.480 | Nobody feels that it's right or wrong
00:12:06.160 | for a woman to act like a woman
00:12:07.280 | and a man to act like a man.
00:12:08.360 | And therefore, obviously, nobody should feel
00:12:10.280 | that it's right or wrong for a person
00:12:12.120 | who has a homosexual orientation to act that way
00:12:14.640 | and a one who has a heterosexual orientation
00:12:16.800 | to act that way.
00:12:17.800 | That's the message of the poster.
00:12:20.320 | As soon as you line up those things
00:12:22.040 | without any distinction,
00:12:24.160 | gender, color, religion, sexual orientation,
00:12:28.360 | you've told the students,
00:12:29.800 | treat them on the same level.
00:12:31.600 | They're not on the same level.
00:12:34.400 | To be a male or a female is a holy and good thing
00:12:37.960 | created by God and endorsed by God in God's image.
00:12:41.960 | To act out a homosexual orientation
00:12:44.400 | and to act out a heterosexual orientation
00:12:46.640 | are profoundly different than that category.
00:12:50.200 | That's the first problem.
00:12:52.080 | The second problem is the statement,
00:12:54.120 | "Respect sees no."
00:12:58.240 | All that the public schools can do
00:13:00.280 | since they have forsaken almost all,
00:13:02.880 | where I live anyway, I don't know where it is,
00:13:04.600 | where you are down here.
00:13:05.600 | From what I hear, it's amazingly different.
00:13:08.160 | But it'll be here eventually in the public schools.
00:13:10.920 | The public schools have forsaken virtually all truth
00:13:13.360 | and all normative reality and behavior and God talk.
00:13:17.760 | And so they don't have any positive foundations
00:13:20.680 | for respect.
00:13:22.000 | They can't say to a student,
00:13:23.280 | "Respect somebody because you see in them this."
00:13:27.160 | They say, "Respect sees no."
00:13:30.000 | And then lifts off things that respect doesn't see.
00:13:32.400 | So it leaves a big void underneath.
00:13:34.840 | Well, why should we respect anybody?
00:13:36.440 | Which is one of the reasons why there is so little respect
00:13:40.720 | among students for anything.
00:13:43.720 | The schools can't provide them with a positive foundation,
00:13:47.200 | the foundation for respecting black and white and male
00:13:50.800 | and female and people of other religions
00:13:53.840 | is God has created all human beings in his image.
00:13:58.600 | There is a way to respect a murderer.
00:14:00.880 | There's a way to respect a rapist.
00:14:02.880 | There's a way to respect somebody
00:14:04.520 | no matter what they've done
00:14:05.440 | because they're created in God's image.
00:14:07.200 | They are not snakes.
00:14:08.880 | They're not frogs or horses.
00:14:10.840 | They are human beings no matter what they've done,
00:14:13.520 | no matter their sexual orientation,
00:14:16.000 | no matter their sex, no matter their religion.
00:14:18.560 | There is a respect that one can accord them
00:14:21.680 | even if it might mean putting them in jail.
00:14:23.880 | You don't put snakes in jail.
00:14:25.360 | But you can't say anything like that.
00:14:28.120 | You can't provide a foundation for respect
00:14:30.800 | in the image of God.
00:14:32.680 | And so students are left with a groundless call to respect
00:14:36.360 | and they say, "What's the deal?
00:14:38.960 | "Why shouldn't I shoot him?
00:14:40.160 | "He mouthed off to me."
00:14:42.920 | And the third problem with that is in fact,
00:14:46.720 | respect does see gender and religion
00:14:51.720 | and it makes a difference.
00:14:54.480 | There are courtesies and forms of respect
00:15:01.680 | that men owe to women that they don't owe to men.
00:15:05.480 | The one I could get most agreement on is
00:15:09.920 | you don't go in her locker room, you go in his locker room.
00:15:13.720 | To tell these students that respect sees no gender
00:15:18.480 | is terribly destructive.
00:15:20.920 | It sees she's a woman and I will treat her differently
00:15:24.920 | than I treat these guys
00:15:26.840 | that I'm always treating in certain ways.
00:15:29.560 | I will offer certain courtesies,
00:15:32.040 | I will offer certain respect.
00:15:34.200 | I will acknowledge sexual differences
00:15:36.400 | that will mean I don't take liberties with her
00:15:39.480 | that I might take with him.
00:15:41.760 | To tell them you don't see it is wrong.
00:15:44.520 | Same thing with religion.
00:15:45.880 | Respect looks at a Satanist
00:15:48.800 | who's involved in ritual satanic abuse
00:15:52.000 | and he looks at a Jewish person
00:15:53.720 | who's trying to keep the 10 commandments,
00:15:55.880 | neither of whom know Jesus Christ
00:15:57.720 | and he will respect this Jewish person
00:16:00.160 | more than this satanic person.
00:16:02.880 | I'd stand up in any group and say that.
00:16:05.880 | Respect does have eyes for gender,
00:16:08.400 | it does have eyes for religion
00:16:11.240 | and they make a difference in the kind and form of respect
00:16:15.440 | that you give to a person.
00:16:17.920 | Well, I just plead with you,
00:16:20.800 | take advantage of these years here at Bryan
00:16:23.920 | to become discerning men and women
00:16:26.800 | so that when you read in the paper
00:16:29.200 | or when you see a poster
00:16:32.120 | or when you look at a billboard
00:16:33.800 | or you hear an advertisement,
00:16:35.800 | you are not blown about.
00:16:38.440 | They don't insinuate ideas in your mind
00:16:41.560 | that don't come through the critical filter
00:16:43.760 | of biblical thinking.
00:16:45.880 | Be the kind of people who can go to a principal
00:16:48.720 | and explain to a PTA group or a principal
00:16:52.240 | just what I've explained to you,
00:16:53.720 | why those posters are destructive,
00:16:57.040 | even if they don't agree with you.
00:16:59.000 | The world is dying for want of people
00:17:02.320 | to stand up and speak that kind of truth.
00:17:07.240 | Crazy relevant clip, 30 years later,
00:17:09.840 | that was from Pastor John's lecture series,
00:17:11.680 | "Manhood, Womanhood, and God."
00:17:14.880 | This here from part four, delivered September 22nd, 1993.
00:17:19.880 | You can listen to that message
00:17:21.880 | and the whole series at desiringgod.org.
00:17:24.920 | Thanks for listening to the clip.
00:17:27.360 | You all find some real gems in the Piper Archive.
00:17:30.160 | Man, that's incredible.
00:17:31.280 | And that's why most of our clips are crowdsourced now.
00:17:34.040 | You find them.
00:17:35.400 | You tell us what bits of Piper sermons impact you,
00:17:37.680 | stand out to you, and we share that clip
00:17:39.240 | with the APJ audience.
00:17:40.400 | If you've got one, email me.
00:17:41.720 | Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title,
00:17:43.560 | and the timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio,
00:17:45.880 | and tell me how it impacted you.
00:17:47.640 | Put the word clip in the subject line of an email
00:17:49.880 | and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:17:53.440 | That's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:17:56.960 | Well, is our experience of salvation an event
00:18:01.700 | or is it a process?
00:18:03.600 | Are we saved in a moment or are we saved
00:18:06.480 | in a series of unfolding events?
00:18:08.960 | It's a great and important question,
00:18:11.280 | and it's up next when we are rejoined in studio
00:18:13.160 | with Pastor John on Friday.
00:18:14.840 | We'll see you then.
00:18:15.680 | Thanks for listening.
00:18:16.640 | (upbeat music)
00:18:19.220 | (upbeat music)
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