A Radical Generation (April Newsletter)

By Seth -

In a section of his great apologetic work The God Who is There, Francis Schaeffer establishes the duty of the Christian in battling against injustice. He writes,

The Christian is the real radical of our generation, for he stands against the monolithic, modern concept of truth as relative. But too often, instead of being the radical, standing against the shifting sands of relativism, he subsides into merely maintaining the status quo. If it is true that evil is evil, that God hates it to the point of the cross, and that there is a moral law fixed in what God is in Himself, then Christians should be the first into the field against what is wrong—including man’s inhumanity to man.

Schaeffer wrote these words decades ago, calling upon fellow Christians to be radical, to speak truth to a generation buying into the lie of relativism. Years later, we are still in need of that radical generation.

A new chapter is about to begin for the Drayers. Aubrie is set to graduate from Grace College of Winona Lake next month as a Registered Nurse. I am leaving my post as the Youth Minister of Trinity Evangelical Church to work for the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and Pro-Life Institute. We are beginning a new journey in our efforts both to be a part of and to welcome others to join that radical generation of which Schaeffer wrote. Just this week, I participated in the GAP at Ohio State University in the city that will soon be our home. The discussion was lively and encouraging, centering around the one essential question: what is the unborn? Intellectual barriers to the truth were dismantled, pro-choice objections were toppled. What continues to haunt me days later, though, is the face of one young man who completely understood and accepted my case for the unborn, but in the end said, “So what?”

He intellectually assented to the notion that over three thousand of his fellow humans are dying daily. But, he failed to see why this should concern him.

It is this apathy toward the hurting which shocks me. But, I am reminded of Schaeffer’s charge to the Christians. If Christians fail to be the radical voice our world needs, why should we be surprised to find disinterest from the nonbelievers?

They need someone to tell them that evil is evil, that God is good, and that we have an obligation to fight against injustice. They need to hear the truth.

What will it take to reach those lost in apathy? A radical generation.

Change is indeed on the horizon for Aubrie and me. But, one thing will not change, and that is our goal to see God glorified in every aspect of our lives as we seek to be radicals for truth. In whatever context we find ourselves, all Christians are blessed to be His soldiers in this endeavor.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meet a Baby Saved

By Seth -
Image
In the middle of high school, I began to spend Thursdays throughout summer on Webster Street in Fort Wayne, IN. Good friend and stalwart defender of life Pam Durdahl called Thursday “the best and worst day of the week.” It was the best because you were with like-minded people—indeed, this is where I met Aubrie! But, what brought us all together is why it was the worst: This was the day each week when Ulrich Klopfer would come to town to kill babies. Details continue to be released in the horrific discovery this month that Klopfer stored babies’ bodies in the garage at his Illinois residence. But one note which grabbed my attention is that these babies died in the years of 2000-2002, the latter half of my high school days. All of these babies came from Indiana. And now we know some of them died in Fort Wayne, meaning while I was on that sidewalk, Klopfer was killing babies and taking them home. It seems it was not enough for him to violate the victims once. I didn’t know the...
Read more

Deeper than Shared Conviction

By Seth -
Image
If you were to stumble into the Created Equal training center this summer, you would find an interesting sight: an Ivy League graduate seated next to a high school senior, a vegan student enjoying a salad next to another savoring a hamburger, and hands shooting into the air or sudden applause as all passionately defend their position on a range of philosophical matters. This eclectic scene is Created Equal’s internship. At the beginning of the summer, our latest band of interns arrived with the usual awkwardness felt at the beginning of a school term. But what has united them over the past couple of months is far greater than the happenstance of selecting the same college course. Indeed it is deeper than shared conviction. Over the past two months, they’ve celebrated victories both intimate and public—from hearing a mother outside Planned Parenthood say she has changed her mind to watching the Ohio Senate pass the Dismemberment Abortion Ban. They’ve grappled in our classroom...
Read more

Out of Focus?

By Seth -
The Columbus Dispatch today ran a story about the Personhood initiative's arrival in the land of the Buckeyes. The article also referenced other recent Ohio efforts against abortion, such as the Heartbeat Bill . What leaped off of my screen, though, was the first comment following the piece: It's unfortunate with 9% unemployment, children and adults starving in the street, people losing their homes, crime rates increasing, and corporations buying our politicians, these people are fighting to make abortion illegal. We have freedom of religion in this country, but they want to impose their religious ideology on us, in this secular nation. People can't find jobs, and children go without food. The most important thing on their mind is making abortion illegal. Jesus would be appalled at these people. Don't believe me? Read the Holy Bible. Jesus never spoke about abortion. But he did speak a lot about helping the poor and the homeless. - Toni Goodman Here's an experim...
Read more