This Sunday

Introduction

If you attend a non denominational, reformed-ish, suburban/urban church. Something is going to play out in your church this coming Lords Day (4-2-23) and how it goes will be a very good indicator of where your church/pastor is. And you might need to consider your response.

Earlier this week a young woman, deluded in thinking she was a man, shot her way into a presbyterian school, murdered six of our brothers and sisters in Christ (ages ranging from nine years old to sixty-two) in cold blood before being dispatched to Hell via the just use of the sword by the state. The story has made national news, and most Americans have been touched by it in some way. 

The question is, how will your pastor address the issue? I can see four responses, only one of them correct, but all telling.

1. Ignore it
2. Identify the assailant as “He”
3. Identify the assailant as “she”
4. Identify the assailant as “The shooter” or some such euphemism avoiding all gender specific pronouns

What is all Means

The only way a church can justifiably ignore what happened in Nashville is if they have ignored every other newsworthy story and rigorously kept current events out of the service. But if there was any acknowledgement or lamenting around Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, Tyre Nichols, the election of Donald Trump/Joe Biden or any such thing involving the secular world; then the merciless, evil, vile, and demonic slaughter of fellow members of the Body of Christ at the hands of a member from the transgender cult MUST be addressed. To do anything else is overtly political or cowardly.

The worst option would be for the pastor capitulate to dictates of the sexual perverts and say, he when identifying the murderess. It is the sin of lying. A pastor who does this, lies to his congregation, and to the world looking in. He may be lying out of cowardess, but that is only doubling up sins.

The only correct option is honesty, and saying She when referring to the woman who carried out the work of Satan. It would be best if he took some swipes at the lie that is transgenderism that poisoned the mind of the she killer. 

I would consider the second worst route to be remaining ambiguous about the gender of this persecutor of the church. It is mere cowardice. There has already plenty of fancy talk meant to distract from the fact that Christians were targeted by our enemy and martyred for their faith which is in direct opposition to their sexual jihad. The evil of of transgenderism is pervasive and pastors must speak with clarity and courage. To put off talking about such things in open terms until a later time, when people are calmer, is cowardice. And if that time comes the waters will be so muddied by the cowardice that the message might just as well never have been presented. The opportunity here, is to galvanize the church in what we believe on these things as they have been brought into sharp focus. As I have said before those who will take umbrage and leave, should be shown the door. If they haven’t repented by now, with all of our flattering words and euphemisms, they never will. It is time to stop paving the road to hell with niceness.

Conclusion

If I had to guess I would say that options one and four will be the most prevalent across America Sunday. Already we are seeing the winds blow in a certain direction. It took The Gospel Coalition two days to respond and even then the gender of the shooter was not mentioned until the second paragraph, and the rest of Joe Carters FAQ was on how this should be used to push gun control legislation. The things out there pastors are reading to help them form their words are all pushing in the usual direction of “this is sad but if those christians weren’t such bigots for not accepting trans people then this wouldn’t have happened.” And as expected most Christian publications are taking their usual groveling stance, shuffling their feet, looking at the ground, and mumbling something about being loving and doing better.

 It might be time for some of us to pull up stakes and fine more faithful churches. This is a consideration I myself am having to make, it is not academic for me. We’ll see how it goes Sunday, hope springs eternal. In the meantime pray. Pray for pastors to be bold, play for congregations to be open to the truth. Pray.