Jodie Foster asked interviewer Dan McLeod, “How could you ask me to believe in God when there’s absolutely no evidence that I can see?”
She also told an Esquire interviewer, “People are always surprised when I say that I’m an atheist.”
I am surprised that anyone can profess to be an atheist. Perhaps her phrase, “that I can see,” is telling. Even Helen Keller, who was born blind and deaf, could “see” God. No doubt, in her silent darkness, every fragrant flower, every ray of the warm sun, every taste that touched her tongue told her that there was a God who created all things. Jodie Foster shouldn’t therefore be surprised that people are surprised that she’s an atheist.
Despite her atheism, Foster and her family do celebrate both Christmas and Hanukah. She has also stated that she has “great respect for all religions” and spends “a lot of time studying divine texts, whether it’s Eastern religion or Western religion.”
In early 2013, when Jodie Foster took the stage to accept her Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Globes, “Without explicitly stating that she was gay, the message was evident: ‘I’m just going to put it out there, loud and proud … I am, uh, single,’ she said.”
I believe that those of us who are Christians have hesitated to clearly state where the Bible stands when it comes to homosexuality, perhaps for fear of being considered hateful. Allow me to try and explain why I think we have failed to communicate the hope of Christianity, particularly to the homosexual community.
Think for a moment of the many police officers that have a steady job because of thieves. If there were no thieves – no purse snatchers, pick-pockets, bank robbers, burglars, cybercrime, identity theft, Ponzi schemes, insider trading, bribery, money laundering, credit card theft, muggings, fraud, white collar crime, etc., millions of law officers around the world would be out of a job. Even though theft is clearly bad for any society, there could be an argument put forward by some that it is beneficial.
So it may not be wise, if I wanted to speak against theft, to say that theft is bad for society. Instead, as a Christian, I would simply say that theft is morally wrong because God says it’s wrong. Case closed.
This is what God’s Word says about the subject: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
Similarly, I would be unwise to say that homosexuality is bad for society. This is because if it can be shown that homosexuals make good pilots, good movie producers, doctors, dentists and good parents, they win the argument. Case closed.
But the real tragedy is that the dispute about the detrimental effects of homosexuality makes the cross of Jesus Christ irrelevant. If homosexuality isn’t seen to be a sin as the Bible clearly states that it is, then homosexuals won’t see their need of a Savior. On top of that, the argument makes Christians seem like a hate-group, because they don’t want homosexuals to have equal rights. If we say that homosexuality is wrong, we should do so because we want homosexuals to enter the kingdom of God. We should speak out loud and clear because we care about Jodie Foster and others, and where they spend eternity. We should also care about fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, thieves, the covetous, drunkards, revilers and extortioners.
Each of these groups is in terrible danger, and they are not aware of it because they are not hearing the truth in love, from the church. But if we don’t warn them, (as prominent atheist, Penn Jillette, once said) we are truly being hateful. And if we are hated for the truth, our consolation is that we are not giving an opinion. We are simply stating what the Scriptures say, and therefore anyone who disagrees has a disagreement with the Word of God, and not with the church. We stand behind the biggest coattails in the universe.
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