Culture Wars in Two Courts

“But Peter and John answered and said to them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, make your own judgment; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.’” - Acts 4:19-20

It has been a rather tumultuous week in the culture wars. The culture wars have been ongoing for a long, long time. Many would point to the White House being lit up in a rainbow flag during the 2010’s as the beginning stages of the war. Others may point us back to different events in our nation’s history, such as the AIDS pandemic of the 80’s, the civil rights era, women’s suffrage in the early 1900’s, or even the debate about the abolition of slavery. (It is also fair to point out that the church has, at various times, been on both the right side and the wrong side of some of these battles; but if we stick to God’s side as revealed in His Scriptures, we will be on the right side.) I would contend that “culture wars” have been ongoing ever since Cain got the bright idea to murder his brother Abel. The point here being that God has always told His people what is right and true, and the world has always stood against that which is right and true.

The culture wars picked up more steam this week. Allow me to take you to Colorado. In Colorado, a Christian therapist named Kaley Chiles took a battle to court for her practice of “conversion therapy.” Conversion therapy is a term coined by the far left to define therapy in which the patient admits to some leaning or tendency toward the LGBTQIA+ spectrum (I mean really, how many letters do we need?) and is loved with a biblical approach toward sexuality and gender that says the individual is confused, seeking acceptance or approval, or really anything that would pull him or her away from God’s good design. For Christians, we know that God has designed us to be male and female, and that we should pursue single-partnered relationships with someone of the opposite gender. “Conversion therapy” - which is really just Christian counseling - works through the many cultural confusions that might infect a young person’s mind and shows them that that is not who they really are. They are a young man or woman, made in God’s image, that need not be swept away by the howling winds of false teaching they are surrounded by.

Kaley Chiles’ case went all the way to the Supreme Court. In fact, in 2019 Colorado passed a law that said Chiles’ practice of “conversion therapy” was illegal to use on minors. Chiles fought, and her fight eventually took her to Washington, where in a landmark 8-1 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that Colorado’s law was unconstitutional. In a rare bipartisan ruling, common sense and religious freedom took home a victory!

The counterargument to Chiles’ would be that minors cannot legally consent to this kind of treatment and that it could be detrimental to their development. To that, the Christian - and the Bible - can enthusiastically say, “HOGWASH!” What is more detrimental to a child’s growth and development - affirming that he or she is fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of our holy God, or convincing him or her to destroy that image by mutilating the body and chasing after unnatural, fleshly affections? Biblical arguments aside, common sense says that Kaley Chiles has every right to counsel as she sees fit. In an even deeper sense, this also frees the church to actually teach children what Scripture says without the fear of Caesar breathing down their neck. We also should remember that, just because Chiles may be working with children, the guardians of those children are the ones who chose to employ her services. Nobody forced anybody’s hand. Here’s a crazy thought: if you don’t want your child to undergo “conversion therapy,” don’t contract a Christian counselor. Again, common sense.

But just as it appeared that we were gaining some ground, an unexpected event occurred in the world of sports. Chicago Bulls guard Jaden Ivey was released due to “conduct detrimental to the team.” At first glance, you might think that he missed practices, got caught with drugs, or spouted off at his coaches. None of that happened; Jaden Ivey was tagged with “conduct detrimental to the team” because he took to his personal social media page and shared God’s Word.

Hear it from Ivey himself: “My conduct was not detrimental to the team. That is a lie. I was a good teammate to those around me. I was a good teammate on the floor. I made the right plays. I did exactly what the coach asked me to do on a daily basis. Whatever was needed, whatever was required of me to do, I was willing. So, my conduct was not detrimental to the team. It is strictly because I spoke the truth of the word of God and was preaching the Gospel. That’s why it was detrimental to the team. I witnessed to many on my team the truth and those things. Everyone has their beliefs. Everyone believes in something. If someone can speak and curse and speak about unrighteousness about whatever it may be, then I can speak the truth and that’s because my God says to speak the truth to the lost, to those who don’t know Jesus, to those who are not born again.”

He was doing that on social media. It is important to note that he was not doing this on account of the Bulls franchise or in any team sanctioned event or space. This was his own personal page, on which he was sharing his own personal beliefs, often times about our culture’s golden calf, homosexuality and gender. That is every American’s first amendment right. And he was fired for exercising that right in a way that, apparently, was “detrimental to the team.”

To be clear, the Bulls have the right to fire their employees for this. They are a privately owned company and are not beholden to any particular moral code when it comes to who they choose to employ. That does not make this decision right - it merely makes it legal. The deeper concern is in the response from other Bulls employees, especially from head coach Billy Donovan. Donovan said, “Mental health is a real issue ... I’m not passing judgment on what Jaden is or is not going through, but I do know that I always worry about that, not only for Jaden but for all of our players.”

To paraphrase: “Jaden Ivey is a Christian who actually believes the Bible, and that makes him mentally deranged and unstable.”

Ivey has taken this well, to his credit. He has continued to share his faith and testimony. A testimony that, by the way, is powerful: “I’m not ashamed to say it. I’m not ashamed to say it because God was merciful to keep me here. I almost committed suicide. I had Oxy pills in my hands, and my wife was telling me, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do this. Don’t go down like this.’ And God was convicting me. And I didn’t know the truth. I didn’t do it by God’s grace. He kept me here.”

This is a man who is so far removed from “crazy” who is now being treated like an asylum patient. The NBA marches in pride parades and wears pro-LGBTQ patches on their jerseys. They bow to Marxist organizations and causes. They watch players commit serious crimes with drugs or gun violence, slap them on the wrist, and welcome them back with open arms.

But being a Christian? Now that’s a step too far. Still, Ivey shows how we combat these offenses of the devil in the culture wars. We pick ourselves up off the mat and march on. We march on with victory in hand because Jesus has already won. We march on because our children and our children’s children depend on it. I’ll leave you with one last quote from Ivey, a new hero in the faith:

“But I love God. I love my family, my children. I love them and will give my life for them and pour into them, and I’m going to do the will of God in Jesus’ name and do His will that He may be glorified. Not my will be done, but His will be done.”