The year 2020, with all its drama and turmoil, has given way to 2021, with its hopes (one of which is a vaccine for COVID-19) and challenges.
Jan. 17 is Sanctity of Human Life Day (some will celebrate it Jan. 24) and is a great opportunity to remember that all human life from conception to natural death is sacred. Large numbers of abortions are still performed each year in this country and around the world. In America, for example, the statistics for abortions take about two years to be released. In 2018, the CDC reported 619,591 abortions, while the Guttmacher Institute reported an estimated 876,000. While those numbers differ substantially, the magnitude of innocent life being legally eliminated is motivation for Christians to stand strong for the rights of the unborn.
Another challenge we face in 2021 is the rise of the radical LGBTQ movement with its insistence on acceptance. This movement is something we cannot support and remain loyal to Scripture. We can love all people, but at the heart of real love is the commitment to do what is right. A perverse lifestyle that insists on a man-made alternative to the marriage of one man to one woman must be opposed. God can redeem anybody from any sin, but it is important that we see this movement for what it is — not a civil rights movement, but a moral issue.
The challenge to religious liberty is another issue that we face in the new year. We must not grow weary but remain vigilant in our stance for the freedom to worship God and practice the teachings of the Christian faith without interference from the government. The First Amendment to our Constitution calls for the separation of the government from the church. Legally, we have the right to practice our faith. Scripturally, we must obey and serve God, and by doing so make the country a stronger and better place to live.
The consistent threat of creeping socialism with all of its anti-Christian bias poses a great danger to a way of life that respects the right to earn money through work and to be free from government’s intrusion and control. This type of socialism may have descriptors attached to it like “democratic socialism.” However, it’s the same communistic idea that would make most of us the working class and others the ruling class. Those who have lived through socialism in other countries know the hardship and pain it causes.
Religious liberty is a right Baptists have consistently supported. We have an SBC agency that is designed to support that right, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Freedom, in order to continue, must be maintained and defended when enemies attempt to destroy it. Alexis de Tocqueville observed early America and concluded, “Religion never intervenes directly in the government of American society but determines the habits of the heart and is the first of their political institutions.” The right to freely practice our faith is a constitutional right we cannot afford to relinquish.
Finally, the challenge of new anti-biblical theories is something we must be prepared to encounter. The Southern Baptist Convention passed a controversial resolution in its 2019 annual meeting. That resolution mentioned critical race theory as an analytical tool. It passed primarily because most of the messengers voting (many had already departed) did not really understand what they were voting on. Several state conventions later passed resolutions opposing critical race theory.
Recently, our six seminary presidents issued a statement condemning racism, reaffirming the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 and opposing critical race theory, saying it was incompatible with the BF&M. Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said, “Confusion abounds on critical race theory, but one thing is clear: The closer you look into the history, advocates and aims of CRT, the more troubling it becomes.”