Albert Mohler Tackles the Issues: Truth, Homosexuality and Manhood

Mohler Albert Mohler Tackles the Issues: Truth, Homosexuality and Manhood

With all of the tricky issues facing American Christians today, it's good to know that we can turn to people like Albert Mohler to articulate what we believe in a clear manner. Mohler is president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a regular columnist/commentator on religious issues for the press, appearing in everything from the New York Times to Fox News. He also writes a popular blog (which I highly recommend) and hosts a daily national radio program. Mohler talked last week with New Man about his new book, The Disappearance of God, which deals with many of the big cultural issues facing the American church.

New Man: Why did you want to write this book?

Mohler: There are several issues that seem to be pressing themselves on the church, and we really want to answer those questions. The reality is that often the questions get thrown at us with such velocity that it's hard to separate the important ones from the unimportant ones. The ones I address in this book are the ones that I feel are of real importance.

New Man: Your book looks a lot at the issue of truth in our culture. How do we find a balance between expressing biblical truth and love at the same time, especially in public settings?

Mohler: I think that's a key issue. The first thing is that we have to recognize that truth and love are the same thing. Both are a part of God himself and both are demonstrations of God's character to us. We worship and serve a God of truth, who is also described as the very definition of love. Only in a fallen world do we have to separate these two things. If we understand the biblical worldview, then we know that what is most loving is also most true, and what is most true is also most loving. The difficulty comes in when we—as frail, fragile human beings—try to speak truth and grace at the same time and fail to express it.

Let's take one issue. The issue that gets thrown at us most is homosexuality—and we have to deal with it. There's no way to avoid it. As Christians, we have stewardship of the truth when it comes to homosexuality. We believe our Creator has given us a clear declaration about human sexuality, that it was created as a gift for us, and that He has ordered it in a way that precludes homosexuality. And that's not just by inference, but by His Word's condemnation of homosexuality in every context and form. We also have stewardship of love. Our responsibility is to share the compassion of Christ with the world around us.

The difficulty comes when someone tries to share the truth by hurling it at people. That truth that they are speaking is still true. When someone speaks that way about homosexuality and the Bible's condemnation of it, they are speaking truth, but they are falling far short of why that truth is true.

Let me say that the Christian way to look at the equation is that the gift of sexuality can be understood rightly or wrongly, and it can be used rightly or wrongly. Our greatest joy is found when we practice sexuality the way our Creator designed it. One of great tragedies of the fall is that all of us are too easily bought off by what we believe is joy and contentment. We fail to see the greater joy that God promises. Our responsibility is to share with the world that the Creator has given us a gift, and our greatest joy is to be found where He directs us to use that gift. There is great pain and tragedy with the misuse of that gift. And we need to be clear not to speak to sexual sinners as though we are not also sexual sinners ourselves.

New Man: How has this issue of truth affected Christian men in particular?

Mohler: We face a generation of Christians who are unsure about the role of men and how men should speak to these issues. In this case, we are really falling short of where the Bible points us. The church needs men that are full of boldness—and not a boldness fueled by testosterone-laced images of false manhood. We need a boldness that is found in God and His Word, informed by wisdom and willing to take on responsibility. In the Old Testament, the Bible says that the sons of Issachar were men who understood the times and had knowledge of what Israel should do (see 1 Chr. 12:32). That' s a fantastic way of describing biblical manhood. To know what the people of God should do—how to order marriages, how to raise children, how to be salt and light in a world that needs the gospel.

I think we've learned a lot about men over the last few generations in the church. Men will quite readily go quiet when they are unsure of their role and place. That's got to be recovered. In the Bible, the man who is honored is the one who shows up and does and says the right thing.

New Man: You touch on some of the issues brought up by the emergent church in The Disappearance of God. How would you like to see this next generation, who have grown up in a somewhat post-Christian society, take on these challenges?

Mohler: I think there's a gain in this generation. Nearly every criticism made by the emerging church about the mainstream church is legitimate. The encouragement I would want to give the next generation of Christians, particularly those in the emergent camp, is to love the church like your family. You know, you've got a family full of weird uncles and aunts who aren't perfect, but they are also a loving community. I would encourage them to love the church, in spite of the problems, and to lead the church.

This is a generation that is not going to be tempted by the cultural Christianity of the last 100 years or more that has promoted a false gospel. Of course, there will be other temptations. But this generation will never say they are Christians just because it's the popular thing to do. In the collapse of cultural Christianity, there is great opportunity for authentic Christianity. All of these studies showing smaller numbers of Christians—what they're showing is not the decline of Christianity, but the decline of cultural Christianity.

New Man: The book also deals with the idea that Americans no longer view God as God. What do you mean by that?

Mohler: Well that gets into whole title of book. God has obviously not disappeared. The intent of the title is to express that God is no longer the central category in the lives of most Americans. Whether it's a therapeutic or entertainment-based worldview or the rise of economic, political and consumerist urgencies, most Americans don't rise in the morning or go to bed in the evening wondering what God thinks of them, their actions and their heart. That's a big shift in human consciousness. Even among the church, what we are finding is that most Americans are to "me-centric." You just don't see Jesus suggesting that the gospel is attractive to those who say, "What's in it for me?" New Testament Christianity seems to have an amazingly disconnected concern to a lot of my wants and perceived needs.

New Man: Why do you feel that a biblical understanding of beauty is important for men to understand?

Mohler: In the book, I really deal with the Christian understanding of beauty. In my last book, Desire and Deceit, I dealt a lot with the issue of pornography. In this book, I want men to understand the positive truth that Christians have the only worldview that gives a full understanding of beauty. The good and the beautiful and the truth are all one and the same. The Christian worldview warns us that we are too easily misled by our eyes. When it comes to men and the fact that we are so visually stimulated, it becomes easy for us to become attracted to the pretty and miss the beautiful. The Bible would have us see beauty in the face of a child with Down syndrome and not in the airbrushed, Botox-injected, silicone-enhanced model on the cover of a magazine at the checkout stand. The difference between a wife who is a loving, devoted, faithful partner and pornography is the difference between seeing beauty and mere prettiness. I want to encourage Christian men to learn with their eyes and hearts to discover real beauty.

We do so much damage to women when we make prettiness the standard and not true beauty. We've got 16-year-olds getting breast implants for birthday presents. We've got commercials saying that women should have "handlifts." Not just facelifts, but handlifts. Show me the hands of a woman who has changed hundreds of diapers, who has comforted her children and taken care of her husband, and I'll show you the image of true beauty.

Check out AlbertMohler.com to read Mohler's blog and listen to his radio program.