Being a Disciple in a Secular Culture Pt. 4

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We are continuing our study of Being a Disciple in a secular culture. We have tried to answer questions like what is happening in the culture, why is it happening, is the culture affecting Christians and The Church, and how can we prevent The culture from negatively affecting The Church? Last week we ended the class last week talking about a street preacher who frequently visited the IU and Purdue Campus’ during the 1980’s. The IU students referred to him as Mad Max and The Purdue students called him Brother Max. His main message over his megaphone while standing in the busiest areas of campus was “Repent and believe or go to hell.” We decided that he was speaking truth but there was no love in his words or attitude. We also concluded that he was probably not very effective with that approach on a college campus. He did draw a big crowd but it was only to mock, argue, and curse him. So the question was, why did the students react so aggressively against this message do you think7 Obviously he wasn't showing any love with the message. Right at the end of class, the words guilt and shame came up. So I wanted to take a minute and talk about the difference between the two.

Does anyone want to take a shot? These are often confused. What is guilt? It's defined as a feeling of responsibility for doing something wrong or for causing a negative outcome. So it's caused by what? Something you do or cause. So there is a distinction between the person and the act correct? It's an action a person does to cause the effect of guilt. Can guilt be turned into a positive? How? Yes, feeling guilty for something you do, can help you to change for the better or to seek forgiveness or make it right. Shame is a little different. It's a feeling of being unworthy. With guilt there is more of a separation between the person and the act that caused the guilt, whereas shame is more about who you are, it can eat away at your soul because one associates the feeling of who you are instead of what you did. Shame involves how one is perceived by others instead of what one has done. If you are the only one that knows that you have done ” something wrong you can still feel guilt. But there can be no shame unless others know the truth and ridicule or disapprove of you. I don't know but that could have been going on here in this example with Mad Max. If he wasn't clear about man's sinful acts being the cause of the ultimate separation from God, when the students might have taken it as he was shaming them because of who they are.

Just a thought.

 

Anyway, the gospel message can rectify both Guilt and Shame. You receive forgiveness for the guilt and a new identity in Christ for the shame.

Speaking of identity that's a word we hear a lot these days. Why is there a lot of talk about identity today do you think? Why are people so caught up in being identified in a particular way? And it's not just in social media. Let's remember back to the days before social media.                          How do we identify ourselves when we meet someone? What are the first things out of mouth's when we make small talk with a new aquaintance? How do we identify ourselves in those conversations? Think about the Family Ancestry business. Is it thriving? Why7 Identity. We are obsessed with knowing ourselves and being known by others. This seems to be a characteristic of man from the beginning.

Think about the Big 3 philosophical questions each person has to answer at some point in their life that really describes their Worldview. Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Jay Warner Wallace has an interesting chapter in his book called The Truth in True Crime, What Investigating Death Tells Us about the Meaning of Life. As a detective, he says there are a couple of different ways to identify someone. One is to take a blood sample and identify DNA, your unique characteristics of your sex, race, blood type, etc. This could identify who someone is, or if they were present at a crime scene. But it doesn't show how they want to be known for things like their values, beliefs, priorities, and interests. This second way, this sense of self is what people seem to be very interested in today. We may not think so, but identity plays an important role in our overall health, including mental health. When our identity is stable, and continuous over time we experience less depression, anxiety, and trauma. If you were to chart the times over your life when you struggled with anxiety or depression, it's usually when you were struggling with your identity. In adolescence, a career change, or a divorce, these things alone can cause an identity crisis. I remember when I was about to graduate college and had no idea what I was going to do. I was not dealing with it very well. I remember Deborah who had another year of college left, asking me what was wrong with me and I didn't know. But looking back it was my identity. I had been a college student for 4 years, that's who I was. Very little stress and responsibility. Now I was about to go out into the world. I started to understand why some people want to spend 6 or 7 years in school.

 

Before that, I never could understand it before. But at that point in my life another year or two didn't sound that bad. Can anyone else relate to that? Anxiety with a life change that affects your identity?

 

Outside-in Approach to Identity

Back in ancient times people generally found their identity in family, their profession, ethnic group, and culture. People thrived while Seeking sameness and continuity with these external sources of identity. Rather than looking inwardly for meaning and purpose they adopted their identity by the world around them. Doesn't sound that different from how a lot of people find their identity through family or profession. And this can satisfy most people unless the external world around them changes in some way. Or born into a family who is involved is involved in organized crime or human trafficking or some other moral dilemma.

Groups or even families can then have a subjective sense of morality if there is a

conflict that challenges their identity.

Well we have always counterfeited money in the past and it has worked for us so far. This view can lack an objective moral code that could cause problems while living it out. If a moral objective code doesn't aligned with the group that you have identified with, then there is pressure to compromise out of a sense of family, politics, or ideology. If someone has publicly declared their identity say on social media then it makes if difficult to go against the “group” they have identified with. Public shame and ridicule are a big deterrent. Any comments about how the outside world around us affects our identity.

 

Inside-Out Approach

Remember when all of the social media started online and what did these companies say that this new way of communication would promote? New relational opportunities, and increased connectivity. And those opportunities are there for sure but what else has happened? I'm not on social media per se but I do use my phone for news and information. Is that considered social media?

How is our phones set up in order to get news and information for example? So how do you do it? Tell me How many sources? Do these sources align with our beliefs, values, politics, biases, etc? Probably. This is how we get our information. We all have some form of morality and The culture believes that knowing right and wrong is a matter of personal experience.

 

We have all noticed the algorithms which then direct similar information and moral opinions to us individually based on our searches and time spent online.

What is happening when we are only exposed to information and morality that is similar to what we believe and why? It's all about what our personal experience is, what we believe is true, and exposing ourselves to others who agree with us) By getting our information this way, we are not considering any other information outside of ourselves to form our worldview and our identity. Now that could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what your standard of morality is? But as a culture, we define ourselves through me. Not through us or others but me.

What do I think? What do I believe? What is my personal experience? How do I feel? With this way of thinking identity is shaped from the inside out using the individual desires of our heart. Back to the great philosophy of our culture that we have already talked about. “Be yourself” “Live your truth” “Just be you” So what kinds of things affect an inside-out approach with regard to personal characteristics or experiences? What do you think? Physical appearance, abilities, disabilities, gender, sexual preference. Then there is the side of personal experiences, things like relationships, interests, hobbies, success, failures, and hurts.

This is consistent with the tenets of the current culture we talked about before. If we rely on ourselves, our emotions, and our experiences do these things stay constant? No ,they change. So what happens to a person's identity when things change? It doesn't go well. Anxiety, stress, depression.

Both of these approaches Outside-in and inside-out to are striving to the same goal. Our identity seeks Consistency, familiarity, common beliefs, and values. That's what people feel most comfortable with and why they choose to identify in these ways. But both approaches have big flaws.

But there is a third approach. Where should we be looking instead of inward and outward? Upward. The Topside Down approach is where we receive our identity. Our relationship with God gives us meaning, purpose, direction, and consistency as we relate to others that will never change. Our worldview matters. We were not the result of random chance and products of evolution. We were created in the image of God for a purpose. Our identities are to be discovered based on what God has revealed, not what we have created on the inside based on our personal feelings or experiences. It isn't achieved through our family, profession or community, it's received from our creator.

 

But What makes this Topside-down identity so valuable is it doesn't suffer when our circumstances or desires change. When we go through an identity crisis because of a big change in our life, God doesn't see us any differently even if we do think of ourselves differently. We have a story in our heads that we write for ourselves, and we might think the story of our life gives us identity and value, But God already values us regardless of our story. He has a story planned for the rest of our lives. It's our job to discover what it is. It reminds me of Happiness and Joy. The emotion of happiness is dependent on circumstances, to have Joy is not.

Comments?

Followers of Christ are called to be Humble. Not self-focused but rather put others before ourselves and serve them with nothing expected in return. This humility keeps us from being self-focused or self-loathing based on circumstance.

Christians can get caught up in this when we don't submit to our identity in God. We want to define our own identity because of how special and unique we think we are. This Top-Down identity still allows me to be me and recognize that God created our uniqueness, but it that uniqueness shouldn't separate us from others.

 

I wanted to talk a little about the Transgender Issue that we all hear about today. I didn't know much about it so I bought a book by Frank Turek called Correct not Politically Correct. A book on Same-Sex Marriage and Transgenderism. Frank does not use the bible to argue against this, he uses secular studies, statistics, logic, and reason. Were talking today specifically about children and how the culture, politicians, educators and doctors are trying to turn a known mental health condition into a normal part of a child's maturing process. This Trans ideology is being encouraged by these professional adults that is confusing children and their parents who are making decisions that are having devastating permanent health effects on the lives of kids all over the world.

Since we just spoke about identity I thought it was only logical to talk about this since that is what you hear now. I have decided to identity as------------ you fill in the blank. So how did we get to the point where children are now able to make decisions in some states to have body parts cut off and take drugs that will make them infertile for life without their parent's consent. The federal government has threatened to take children as young as 3 years old from parents who don't affirm

 

their transgenderism. This is happening.  Historically this mental health condition called Gender Dysphoria has been around a long time and was a rare condition that until recently, affected only 1 out of 10,000 people nearly always boys thinking they are girls. Prior to 2012 there was no scientific literature showing it affected girls at all. Over the past decade ,there has been a 4400% increase in girls claiming to be boys at Gender Clinics in the UK. Yes they are ahead of the US and actually have Gender Clinics. There is a study by Dr. Lisa Littman with Brown University has determined this dramatic increase is due to one common denominator. What do you think is influencing these kids to proclaim this identity? Kids increased time on social media use. Why do you think that is?

What do teenagers crave more than anything else in life? Want to fit in, be accepted, and be applauded by their peers. What do you think is applauded and promoted on social media these days? Trans, It gets likes, it's trendy, it's popular Liberal Comedian Bill Maher said “that if kids Lnew what they wanted to be at age 8 the world would be filled with cowboys and princesses. He said, I wanted to be a pirate, thankfully my parents did not agree to have my eye removed and pegleg surgery.”

5 Fatal Flaws of Transgenderism

1. The Design of the body proves there is only 2 Its Biology. There are only male and female. Only 2. You can feel or claim to be anything you want, but the reality doesn't change regardless of surgery or drugs. Some think they are in the wrong body. So either the design of their body or their mind is wrong.
2. Transgenderism must presuppose fixed genders There can only be two

genders if men want to become women and women want to become men. That's the point. You have to know what a man is to become a man. You have to know what a woman is to become a woman. We talked about this last week that if the T's get their way and your gender is fluid than that does away with the L G B's. Why because they rely on fixed genders. So there is conflict there.

3. You can change your mind but not your Biology and Psychology

are mismatched.  Why then with any other mental health condition do we change the mind and not the body? When an anorexic falsely claims they are overweight, do we schedule liposuction? Ok, if you think you're fat, then let's do it. There is a condition called trans-abled where people think they should have healthy limbs cut off. The point is We treat people with any other mental health condition with psychiatry, not surgery. The difference between the two sides in one thinks you can change your reality to fit your desires and the other side believes you should change your desires to fit reality.

4. They like to say that Sex is not assigned at birth: Not true. Sex is discovered at birth not assigned. And sometimes before birth. Dr. doesn't decide the sex.

 No Basis for Transgender Rights. Rights come from God as our founders said, not from a government. What evidence is there that God wants children to have body parts removed and be put on lifelong horrible drugs?

The health effects of these surgeries and drugs are not publicized by the media. I want to read an account by an adult named Scott Newgent who went through multiple surgeries to transition from female to male. The thought of people wanting to put children through this is unthinkable. All of these surgeries also require lifelong hormone therapy with terrible side effects and incredible costs. Gender Dysphoria ranks up there with the other mental health conditions for suicide:   Anorexia increases the rate by 18-31 factor, Depression by a multiple of 20, Autism by a factor of 8, trans by a factor of 13.

Dr. Littman research found that 63% of young people had pre-existing mental health conditions before announcing they were transgender. Half had self-harmed and 50% had gone through a traumatic event in their lives such as their parents divorcing, being bullied, or sexual abuse. There is almost always some form of childhood trauma prior to proclaiming of being Trans. The final statistic I have is this. Gender Dysphoria resolves on its own in 80% of children by age 18. Going through puberty is a transition in itself. I think everyone feels kind of odd during that time in life. It's normal to feel that way.