Despite our foolish belief otherwise, there is no bright and shining line that separates the church and the state, at least as we commonly conceive them. One could argue that many of our culture war flash points exist precisely where that line seems less clear. Battles over school curriculum go back at least as far as the Scopes Monkey Trial, and continue to this day. The Christian faith has, over that time period, moved from being the underpinning of the schools to unofficially favored and privileged in the schools to tolerated in the schools and is swiftly moving to absolutely unwelcome in the schools. A few weeks ago a school board in Arizona ended its contract with Arizona Christian University, no longer accepting its students as student teachers. The reason was direct and overt- they didn’t want student teachers who had been taught a biblical sexual ethic. A government school system determined they could not use students from an evangelical college as student teachers.
So far the school has stood its ground. Bethany Christian Services did not do so well. What was once the largest Christian adoption agency in the nation faced the difficult choice between accepting government money or refusing to participate in adoptions for homosexuals. They chose the money and betrayed the Bible. They took the position that they were doing so for the sake of the children. Arizona Christian University may one day do the same, caving on biblical sexual ethics so that Christian teachers might be an influence in government schools. You know, for the children. Trouble is, once you cave you’ve lost any influence. Pray ACU continues to remain strong.
There have always been strings attached to government “favors.” There have always been prophets warning against signing up for those favors. There have always been fools who wouldn’t listen, who end up getting hung by those strings. The great bulk of the church has already whored after the favor of the world. It will continue to do so as the world’s demands will grow increasingly humiliating. Some will however, by the grace of God, accept the scorn of the world, despising not the shame, and rejoicing in being persecuted for His name’s sake.
Many have argued that the church needs to be preparing for coming persecution. What, though, does preparation look like? It looks like standing strong in the face of relatively mild persecution that isn’t merely coming but that is here already. A believer not ready today to be thought outdated, homophobic, hateful, backward and unsophisticated will likely not be ready to face martyrdom when that time comes again. A believer not willing to lose a job opportunity over biblical ethics is not practicing biblical ethics. A believer seeking a strategy, a “third way,” by which they can maintain friendship with the world must heed the Word that tells us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (I John 2:15).
The testing is here. It will likely get harder before it gets easier. God give us strength, courage and humility.