{"id":37442,"date":"2024-04-12T07:31:35","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T14:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=37442"},"modified":"2024-04-12T07:35:03","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T14:35:03","slug":"the-global-lgbtq-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-global-lgbtq-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"The global LGBTQ+ challenges."},"content":{"rendered":"

Carl Trueman\u2019s book Strange New World & The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self<\/em>, must be one of those books that I will love to read and spend much time on in the future. After Dominion with Tom Holland last week, one will agree that these books are excellent and have the potential to stimulate anyone\u2019s intellectual capabilities. I will not dive deep into the book as I would do a disservice because I haven\u2019t enough time to read it thoroughly. I am attempting to share some essential aspects of this book that I find very relevant and transformational.<\/p>\n

Human Selfhood<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the heart of this book lies a basic conviction: the so-called sexual revolution of the last sixty years, culminating in its latest triumph\u2014the normalization of transgenderism\u2014cannot be properly understood until it is set within the context of a much broader transformation in how society understands the nature of human selfhood. [1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Trueman does a great job by starting with the very cause of all the madness. When people decide to remove God from the picture as invisible or dead, what else can we expect but find a way to self-govern by making up stories that are opposite to the Truth? \u201cThe sexual revolution is as much a symptom as it is a cause of the culture that now surrounds us everywhere we look, from sitcoms to Congress.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Condemn or condone?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the African governments have been very strict and don\u2019t want to hear or see anything from the Americans teaching them to condone anything relating to the West\u2019s values relating to LGBTQ+. Recently, the President of Burundi said they should bring \u201cthose people\u201d and stone them to death in an open field. In Uganda, the government has established laws that punish and criminalize LGBTQ+ with some harsh prison terms. To some governments, it has cost them financial support from their Western allies, but they are not giving in.<\/p>\n

In the late nineties, as I struggled to find a path to education and development, I met a Canadian Missionary helping out serving the poor. I explained to him how I wished to come to the West for education and ministry training, and I will never forget what he told me. He explained that the people in North America, especially immigrants, find it very hard to continue serving God because they are so busy looking for money; now that I have been here for many years, I can better understand what he meant: It is not easy to find the community and rich fellowship that I enjoyed in Rwanda and Uganda, people have minimal time as they go from one job to another, some struggling to make ends meet and others racing to build wealth due to opportunities they had never dreamed possible. The question remains whether there is any reason to engage or even seek an understanding of what has led to this falling away since the powers and authorities have crafted laws that incriminate anyone expressing decent.<\/p>\n

So How did we get here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“At the turn of the twentieth century, people across Europe and America seemed ready to reject religion. World War I \u2013 the most horrific war in living memory \u2013 could well become the final straw. In its killing fields, many veterans turned to the writings of eccentric German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. \u201cGod is dead,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnd we have killed him.\u201d [3]<\/a> I understand when combat trauma turns people to this kind of mentality and illusions. I have heard songs in other settings where people will question God\u2019s presence when things go south, thank God for his remnamant, he must have kept more than seven thousand who have not bowed to and kissed the idols of this age.<\/p>\n

Like other brilliant professors and leadership experts who wrote the endorsements at the beginning of the book, Butterfield says it best: \u201cIndeed, Trueman shows how the story we tell ourselves about normalized LGBTQ+ values is false and foolish. With wisdom and clarity, Trueman guides readers through the work of Charles Taylor, Philip Rieff, British Romantic poets, and Continental philosophers to trace the history of expressive individualism from the eighteenth century to the present.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

There is Hope <\/strong><\/p>\n

As I conclude, 2 Timothy 2:19 is on my mind. \u201cNevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: \u201cThe Lord knows those who are His,\u201d \u201cLet everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.\u201d<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Carl R. Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution<\/em> (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2020).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Trueman.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Tom Holland, \u201cDominion,\u201d accessed April 7, 2024, https:\/\/www.blinkist.com\/en\/nc\/reader\/dominion-en.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carl Trueman\u2019s book Strange New World & The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, must be one of those books that I will love to read and spend much time on in the future. After Dominion with Tom Holland last week, one will agree that these books are excellent and have the potential to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2454],"class_list":["post-37442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-carl-trueman","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37442"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37445,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37442\/revisions\/37445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}