Dear Friends,
It has been a crazy week for beer drinkers! What brand is socially acceptable to drink now?
It has been a crazy week for the Bible Society! Any publicity is good publicity… sort of!
It has been a crazy week for Christians! Should we still speak biblical views into the world?
The short story: A video was produced by the Bible Society in which two politicians with different views on same-sex marriage had a conversation about their beliefs. The homosexual agnostic Tim Wilson argued strongly for the need for good conversation and debate. The conservative Christian Andrew Hastie agreed. Coopers Beer was on the table during the good humoured 7 minute conversation.
Unfortunately, the message of the video became “Coopers is a homophobic supporter of outdated Christian views on same-sex marriage”.
Pubs began to boycott their beer and a public firestorm erupted. The reason it became such an enormous issue so quickly is perhaps captured in one Newtown publican’s comment: “The idea that we need to have a discussion about basic human rights is probably why people are so upset!”
Coopers capitulated, severed their relationship with the Bible Society and have become actively involved in promoting the cause of same-sex marriage in Australia.
Tim Wilson, the homosexual agnostic, expressed his outrage at Coopers bowing to the shouting voices, describing the response to the video as “bizarre” and saying the “over-the-top response” had “only proven the need for more civil disagreement”.
“The objective of the Bible Society was to bring together two people who disagree on an issue they both feel passionately about and demonstrate they can disagree without being disagreeable.”
The real issue here is sociological. There has been a shift from “I don’t believe what you say, but I will defend your right to say it!” to “I don’t believe what you say and I will silence you.” It has become increasingly difficult to express publicly a moral position contrary to that of the progressive crusaders. For Christians like you and me, this means that much of what we say will be shouted down because it is counter-cultural – God has created us to live according to his Word, the very Word the world has rejected. Our liberal democratic society has an agenda and it doesn’t involve healthy free speech and debate any more.
Being a Christian in the world has always been hard, right now it feels a little harder. This is no surprise to God. In Revelation 11 he says that our expectation ought to be that the world will almost completely crush the people of God and gloat over our demise. But we do not fear because God will call all his people to dwell with him in heaven for every saying, “Come Up Here!” (Rev 11:12)
The irony in all this came at the end of the week when national campaigner for just.equal, Ivan Hinton-Teoh reflected on corporate Australia’s push for same-sex marriage this week. He said, “It’s not appropriate for a government minister to attempt to shut down views he doesn’t agree with.” And, “The freedom to discuss issues of public concern is a freedom we all hold dear.”
Perhaps the meaning of “discuss” has changed.
In Christ
Nigel