Last week was a crazy week for the state of North Carolina. The hoopla around HB2 (House Bill 2), which overturned Charlotte's radical bathroom bill, indicates just how demanding and pervasive the roots of the sexual revolution are in our country. And it reveals the direction in which we are headed as a nation.
The fight all started with policy – where Charlotte City Council (fueled by the Human Rights Campaign) tried to quickly push forward a nonsense bathroom bill, despite significant push back from the community. Although it won at the city level, it lost overwhelmingly at the state via HB2.
So proponents took the fight to culture, beginning with big business. From the NBA and Apple to American Airlines and PayPal – they all jumped on board to do the sexual revolution's bidding. Threats and taunts filled our local media as each day new corporate giants came forward. (Yes, Apple quietly makes millions in Iran while publicly scorning Carolina.)
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Next came travel bans from the mayor of San Francisco and the governor of New York, both desperately attempting to shift the cultural tide against North Carolina's common-sense law. (Yes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York boarded a plane to Cuba as he banned travel to North Carolina.)
And it didn't stop there. What the revolution couldn't get through policy and culture it took to the courts. Today, the fight has landed in federal court as the ACLU filed suit against the governor and our state.
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This is the pattern of the sexual revolution's mob, surrounding its prey, forcing its will on all who stand in the way.
Yet this is nothing new. As Scripture says, "There's nothing new under the sun." Today's sexual revolution is simply new fruit coming from the same vine – the vine of Sodom.
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In Genesis 19, we see how Sodom reacted to the men of God who came to Lot's house:
"Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called out to Lot and said to him, 'Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them'" (19:4-5).
Today, the sexual revolution of Sodom has pervaded every sphere of society, capturing both young and old. And anyone standing in the way will be surrounded by an angry mob demanding participation.
As the men of Sodom surrounded the house, Lot offered them his daughters, which reveals how pathetic he had become as a father. Yet they refused his accommodation – and it got even nastier:
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"So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door" (19:9b).
The "vine" of Sodom in a nation forces participation against the will of the people. It refuses to be told, "No."
The story continues as the mob pressed against Lot and was struck with blindness, yet the rage continued:
"They struck the men with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway" (19:11).
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Wouldn't getting struck with blindness not sober you up a bit? Yet they "wearied themselves to get to the door!" The sexual revolution is "blind" to its own rage and hate. It has no capacity for reason. It has no ability to see its own hypocrisy or discern its hopeless future. It just forces itself on others regardless of cost or consequence.
Although Lot escaped the city of Sodom, the "vine of Sodom" left with him and eventually took root in the nation of Israel many years later. And it's still alive today.
"For they are a nation lacking in counsel, and there is no understanding in them. Would that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would discern their future. … For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters, bitter. Their wine is the venom of serpents, and the deadly poison of cobras" (Deuteronomy 32:28-30, 32-33).
What we are witnessing today in America is the vine of Sodom, which is a deadly poison that erodes the moral fabric of a nation. It's demanding and pervasive, and it refuses to be told, "No." All across Europe and now throughout America the vine has taken root and is surrounding its prey, and nothing short of a miracle will stop its deadly poison.
Yet it wasn't the city of Sodom or the people that were the problem; it was the spiritual "vine" of sin that had taken root and perverted the nation. Interestingly, rampant homosexuality was not the "root" of sin in Sodom, but rather the effects of the real root. The prophet Ezekiel said, "'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy" (Ezekiel 16:49).
The fertile soil that makes the "vine of Sodom" grow in a nation is when the people are arrogant, overfed and unconcerned. In their pride, they reject God and indulge themselves endlessly, and they are concerned about nobody but themselves. To be honest, this sounds more like professing "Christians" today than anyone.
So today, the newest fruit of the vine of Sodom is the sexual revolution – and it's poisoning our land. It has nearly taken over everything and is forcing itself on everyone.
Yet it cannot ultimately be removed by "fire and brimstone" from heaven or "common sense laws" from earth. Its ultimate defeat will come when we humble ourselves in repentance and seek God's face once again. Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to defeat the real root of the "vine of Sodom."
Media wishing to interview Jason & David Benham, please contact [email protected].
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