Public opinion sways like a tree in the wind. What was called “wrong” yesterday might be considered “right” tomorrow…and vice versa. While there are dozens of examples of this phenomenon, one of the biggest shifts in our culture has been over homosexuality.
But has our opinion about this topic shifted in the correct direction?
Approximately 50 years ago, our nation’s consensus was that homosexuality constituted an immoral lifestyle. Time Magazine addressed the buzzing issue in January, 1966, in an article entitled The Homosexual in America, and reached this conclusion:
Even in purely nonreligious terms, homosexuality represents a misuse of the sexual faculty and, in the words of one Catholic educator, of ‘human construction.’ It is a pathetic little second-rate substitute for reality, a pitiable flight from life. As such it deserves fairness, compassion, understanding and, when possible, treatment. But it deserves no encouragement, no glamorization, no rationalization, no fake status as minority martyrdom, no sophistry about simple differences in taste—and, above all, no pretense that it is anything but a pernicious sickness.
But half a century later, America’s views are very, very different. In a 2010 poll by Gallup, surveyors found that more than half of Americans (52%) now believe homosexuality is “morally acceptable.”
What a drastic change!
In the span of 50 years, our country has gone from describing homosexuality as a “second-rate substitute for reality” to “morally acceptable.” In other words, public opinion has shifted…and in a major way!
But according to the Bible, public opinion hasn’t shifted in the correct direction. In several places – for instance, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:25-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9, and 1 Timothy 1:9-11 – the acts of homosexuality are both mentioned and denounced in God’s Word.
The bottom line? Most of our country now calls “right” what God’s Word calls “wrong.” The prophet Isaiah issued a stern warning to those in this camp:
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. (Isaiah 5:20-12)
Resource’s Origin:
Time Magazine, January 21, 1966. “The Homosexual in America,” Page 41.
Topics Illustrated Include:
America
Attitude
Change
Culture
Homosexuality
Morality
Opinion
Right
Warning
Wrong
Values
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)