“The basic Christian duty is to be pro-God and align everything else in accordance with this. When we absolutize things like ‘life,’ ‘marriage,’ or ‘family,’ we routinely get into trouble. When John the Baptist confronted Herod, he was not being pro-marriage, but rather anti-marriage (Mt. 14:4)” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 139).
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Life, marriage, or family…or education, or liturgy, or small-government politics, or polemics, etc. — we all need to be careful of the “gateway drug” that got us into these theological circles. They are wonderful things, but only when submitted to Christ. They are tremendous gifts, but we’re stupid if we go after them rather than after the Giver.
C. S. Lewis identifies the “Jesus and…” problem – it’s in Screwtape or Mere Christianity somewhere. Whenever we combine our faith with some other cause (Jesus and social justice, Jesus and liberty, Jesus and pro-life), we often find that the demands of the cause push hard against the demands of Christ, and making common cause with those outside the faith can make it difficult or impossible to keep Christian distinctives and still be a part of the “movement”.