Protecting Our Kids and Proclaiming Our Faith

Like many Americans, I grew up eating Kellogg’s cereals. Apple Jacks, Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops, Raisin Bran, and Special K were regular parts of breakfast in my home. When our sons were children, they became as familiar with them as I was.

Their children, however, are growing up in a very different world.

Kellogg’s recently made this announcement: “Kellogg Company’s Latest Collaboration with GLAAD Unwraps Why ‘Boxes Are for Cereal, Not for People.'” Their statement includes the assertion: “No matter who you are, who you love, or what pronouns you use, you’re too awesome to fit into a box.”

Rugrats will feature a lesbian mom

Kellogg’s timed its announcement to celebrate Pride Month, which CNN defines as the month “when the world’s LGBT communities come together and celebrate the freedom to be themselves.”

Related to this theme, the children’s cartoon Rugrats is being relaunched. This time Betty, the mother of two of the main characters, will be portrayed as a lesbian single mom. Not to be outdone, Nickelodeon has released a video by its kids’ program Blue’s Clues & You! that takes place at a Pride parade. It is narrated by an animated version of drag performer and activist Nina West.

The video includes families with two moms, two dads, trans-identified members, and “ace, bi, and pan” parents. One of the characters displays scars from surgery used to change its gender from female to male. The narrator sings, “Love is love is love you see, and everyone should love proudly.” West adds, “Allies to the queer community can love their friends so proudly.”

One more story on our theme: the San Francisco Giants will become the first Major League Baseball team to play in Pride uniforms when they take the field tomorrow. Their on-field caps will feature the “SF” logo with colors depicting the Progress Pride Flag. In addition, each jersey will have a patch on the right sleeve featuring the design.

If I wanted to indoctrinate children with LGBTQ ideology, I can think of no more effective partners than Tony the Tiger and other cereal box icons, beloved children’s television shows, and sports teams.

Choosing between Christ and culture

Today, parents and grandparents are forced more than ever before in American history to make a choice between popular culture and biblical morality. We have three options:

One: The Bible is wrong when it forbids same-sex relationships and teaches that gender is binary and “assigned” by God at birth. For a discussion of this false claim, see my paper, “What does the Bible say about homosexuality?”

Two: We are wrong in interpreting the Bible as we do. God’s word does not speak to monogamous, loving same-sex relationships, gender dysphoria, or other issues addressed by LGBTQ activists today. For a response to this false claim, see my paper, “How to defend biblical marriage: What you need to know about homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and the Bible.”

Three: The culture is wrong when it celebrates sexual activity that the Bible forbids. This is the position taken by Christians across twenty centuries and the position taken by the vast majority of Christians outside the Western world today.

Why proclaiming "Jesus is Lord" is dangerous

If you take the third position, as I do, you have never been more castigated and condemned by your culture than you are today. If you teach your children and grandchildren to stand for biblical morality, you are raising them to be rejected by many at school and in society who will condemn them as hateful bigots.

It is far easier to go along to get along, to hold our beliefs in private without proclaiming and defending them in public, to teach our children and grandchildren that they should separate what their faith says from what the culture demands that they believe.

After all, we can say to ourselves, “We can’t legislate morality. The Bible teaches that adultery is wrong, but we don’t have laws forbidding it.” People should be free to do what they want to do, or so we’re told.

Here’s one problem among many with this response: Our culture does not restrict its rejection of biblical truth to sexual morality. It also insists that we abandon biblical truth regarding the sanctity of life by embracing abortion on demand. It wants us to condone euthanasia whenever and wherever people seek to end their lives. It views evangelism and missions as the hateful imposition of our beliefs on others.

The simple claim “Jesus is Lord” is rejected as exclusionary and condemnatory toward other religions. The bottom line: I cannot think of a single claim made uniquely by Christianity that is not under attack on some level by our anti-Christian culture.

"Teach them diligently to your children"

As a result, those of us who follow Jesus and want our children and grandchildren to follow Jesus will need to be more courageous and diligent than ever.

God tells us that his words “shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).

While it is true that Christians are under greater attack for our faith than ever, the greatest victims of our culture’s rejection of biblical morality are the millions of people who are being deceived. Let’s not let our families be among them.

As our culture uses Pride Month to proclaim that “love is love,” let’s use it to teach our children and grandchildren that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Let’s teach them to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) with courage and grace.

And let’s remember Charles Swindoll’s observation: “Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.”

What deposits will you make today?

Publication date: June 4, 2021

Photo courtesy: Sharon McCutcheon/Unsplash

Jim Denison, PhD, is a cultural theologian and the founder and CEO of Denison Ministries. Denison Ministries includes DenisonForum.org, First15.org, ChristianParenting.org, and FoundationsWithJanet.org. Jim speaks biblically into significant cultural issues at Denison Forum. He is the chief author of The Daily Article and has written more than 30 books, including The Coming Tsunami, the Biblical Insight to Tough Questions series, and The Fifth Great Awakening.