We Cannot Be Silent: Speaking Truth to a Culture Redefining Sex, Marriage, and the Very Meaning of Right and Wrong, R. Albert Mohler Jr.

For about a year and half now, I have appreciate Dr. Albert Mohler’s daily podcast (Monday through Friday) “The Briefing.” I hear the sweet voice of Dr. Mohler as I do my morning routine nearly everyday and I’ve come to appreciate his contribution to Evangelicalism in the things that I’ve listened to and read by him. The Briefing is particularly helpful because Dr. Mohler looks at contemporary news issues (often within one or two days of an article breaking, Dr. Mohler will feature it on his show) through the lens of a Christian worldview. A coherent Christian worldview is hard to find these days; often times, many Evangelicals will look at news issues from a political perspective. Dr. Mohler does not take political sides necessarily, but does provide commentary to the moral insanity that our culture finds itself in through matching it up with how Christians should think about such issues by holding it up to the Bible and what it says about such issues.

That’s why this book is so important. I cannot in good conscience say that our culture is on the cusp of a turning point; it’s already cascaded off into the unknown. How Christians then should respond to the culture is of primary importance. I think Dr. Mohler does a fantastic job with looking at the whole of the issues presented in the book: how we got to where we are, where we are, and how we should respond.

As seen in the title, the book is about how the culture has “redefined” sex, marriage, and the ideas of right and wrong. He begins by showing how we got to where we are by a historical look at the events leading up to our current trajectory. This includes Roe vs. Wade and the pill. The reason these were so crucial in the sexual revolution is that it provided a way for people to have sex with zero consequences, i.e. children. Next, he looks at how the homosexual movement gained traction. This is one of the most interesting chapters in the book. Dr. Mohler speaks about how there was an agenda that was followed from a book in the early 1990’s. This book mentioned several things that must happen for homosexuality to become a reality. These include the popularizing of homosexual behavior on television that showed homosexuals as normal, loving, caring people; the AID’s epidemic helped codify the agenda of feeling sorry for a massive group of people; and the idea that in order for homosexuality to be accepted into society, there needs to be the legalization of homosexual marriage. All very interesting conjectures.

Dr. moves to transgender argument and the end of marriage before coming back to a more positive line of thinking in the chapter “What Does the Bible Really Have to Say About Sex ?” He ends with arguments on religious liberty and cites two very important examples (all from the last year): the Houston Mayor’s attempts to cease all pastors sermons on homosexuality and the firing of a Fire Chief working for the city of Atalanta who wrote a book (off duty) about homosexuality. He states that in the coming years, there may be a very grave threat to Churches and religious institutions a like. That’s the reason why this book is so important (in my mind).

He ends the book with a sort of Q&A which I thought was very interesting.

What I take away most from this book is that Christians need to engage with the culture without being transformed by it. We need to act in compassionate and loving ways to our neighbors, because they are sinners just like us. He says that you shouldn’t shy away from talking to homosexuals or ostracizing them. We cannot settle on anything less than the truth, and yet the truth does not always have to be boxed up in hate speech. Overall, this is a really interesting book and I’d recommend it.

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