Dr. Rosaria Butterfield is an author and professor, and former lesbian, who also came to faith in Jesus Christ. She shared an experienced she had one time in a class she was teaching.

She says, A few years ago, during an open question and answer session on a college campus, a student accused me of hate speech. She referred to something I described in my lecture, when in 1988 I was in my kitchen confessing to my transgender friend, Jill, that I was starting to believe the Gospel was true – that Jesus was alive – and that we were all in trouble. This student approached the microphone and blurted, “That’s hate speech! When you described your transgender friend putting her hand over yours as you shared your new faith in your kitchen, you mocked her! You actually said that your transgender friend had large hands!” I paused, perplexed, and asked, “So, it is hate speech to say Jill’s hands are large? The student practically exploded off the floor, “Of course it is!”

“Jill stands six foot two without heels,” I explained. “I’m five two. My hands barely cover an octave on the piano. Compared to mine, Jill’s hands are large. Large is a descriptive adjective.” The student tossed her own hands in the air in exasperation and declared, “Transgendered women are hurt by such insensitive observations. It’s hateful.” I asked, “Why is it hateful to say Jill’s hands are large?” She replied, “This is what leads LGBTQ+ people to suicide.” I responded, “But the size of Jill’s hands is a measurable, objective truth.” And her last words back to me were, “Who cares about truth?”

And that’s just the problem! People don’t care about the truth anymore, especially if it is inconvenient. And so, the mindset is that facts are irrelevant, faith is nonsensical, and the only thing that matters are feelings. And if you fail to adjust your thinking, get on board, and trumpet their cause, you will be ostracized, branded, dismissed and cancelled. Well, I wonder what Jesus would say, because there were plenty of people who wanted to cancel him. And yet, he kept right on living, loving, and serving his heavenly Father to the very end, and he calls us to do no less the same.

This Sunday, August 13, I will continue my summer sermon series, “Red Hot Topics,” with the seventh of these highly emotional and controversial topics, -- the issue of “wokeness” that seems to be running rampant in our culture. Please come and join us in the sanctuary for our one and only worship service at 10:00 am. The 10:00 am service will also broadcast on Zoom, Facebook Live, and YouTube.

Pastor John

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