Luke 6:32-36 — For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

We are in the middle of a values war. I believe one of the core principles on which America was founded was that religious liberty is a right that must not be set aside in favor of any other right. It is clear that many of those who now control America’s executive, legislature and judiciary now believe that the right to protected sexual identity now trumps every other right, including the free exercise of religion.
It is not my task, today, to make the case that there is a values war. That case, and all the tragic examples to support it, can easily be found elsewhere. My task is to ask two questions — how did we come to this point and, having come to it, what should be the Christian response?
A simple response to the first question is to say “well of course we are here because enemies of Christ are having their day”. That’s too simple. We need to confess that we have presented an unwelcoming, even hostile, face to anyone with anything other than a heterosexual and monogamous view of marital relationships. It is that face which according to David Kinnaman’s book, “UnChristian”, has allowed more than 80% of those born since the mid-1970’s to see the church as somewhat or mostly homophobic, judgmental, hypocritical, over-involved in politics, old-fashioned and out of touch! We will not win the values war if we are not prepared to change that perception.
Myra and I attended an uplifting rally on Sunday. It was a call to church members to vote their values in the coming election. No doubt it was a good thing — but even a resounding election victory will fundamentally change nothing. How is the Church to win the hearts and minds of those who are so convinced that it is a negative force in today’s society?
I have no solid answer to my own questions. I do believe that if we are to win the values war we need to understand our enemies — those enemies whom we must love, and welcome, and win to our cause. We need to understand how, in the ten years from 1996-2006, the perception of the church shifted from largely positive to overwhelmingly negative. We cannot win our values war in congress, in courts, or even in the White House. We must win it in the hearts and minds of those who hate us now.