LOUISVILLE, Ky. (KT)—The Colson Center for Christian Worldview has released a new resource called the Identity Project designed to help pastors, parents, educators, and policymakers address the cultural confusion surrounding gender and sexuality from a biblical perspective.
“We have undergone a deep moral shift in the Western world, where things that were once considered right are now considered wrong. Things that were once considered wrong are now considered right,” said Colson Center President John Stonestreet. “But that moral shift is not the root, it's the fruit of a deeper crisis, and it's a deeper crisis of identity. What does it mean to be human?”
The Identity Project, which was created some time ago but is now free, consists of more than 200 videos on topics such as identity, parenting, and sexuality.
“The Christian worldview offers the best understanding of the human person in the marketplace of ideas. In fact, it has had the most consequence, perhaps, of any idea in all of human history,” said Stonestreet.
“Chuck Colson used to say this all the time, that the greatest contribution that Christianity made to the wider world, other than the pure message of salvation in Jesus Christ, is its vision of what it means to be human—that every single person is made in the image and likeness of God, and that's why today we have categories that we wrestle with and talk about, like human dignity and human value, human work, human equality.”
The Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom contributed to the resource.
“Lawsuits and legislation can safeguard free speech and religious liberty, define marriage, expand parental rights and restrict abortion, but it is the church that is tasked with proclaiming the good news, making disciples, building Healthy Families, and making abortion unthinkable,” said ADF Assistant General Counsel Don Ziel.
“The Church is the pillar and foundation of the truth, and in this moment when the culture is questioning even what it means to be human, the church's voice is essential.”
Author and cultural analyst Katie McCoy said research has demonstrated that civilizations that fall into confusion about sexuality and family structure decline within two generations.
“If we're going to start the clock around the 1960s and the sexual revolution—that's now. The decline is happening all around us, individually and collectively,” said McCoy. “This is a five-alarm fire, and this is why we need the resource of the Identity Project.”
Stonestreet said the Identity Project is designed to help pastors and other Christian leaders more confidently speak to the issue of gender identity.
“When the church is quiet on these cultural issues that everybody else is talking about, two things happen,” he said. “Number one, people in the pew get their information from all the other voices—and in this case, all the other voices were not only wrong, they were dangerously wrong.”
“Secondly, it can give the people in the pews the impression that the church really doesn't have anything to say about this, and what we believe is that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all things. So obviously there's a Christian position on these things. That's not only a Christian position, but it's actually true.”
Lexington, Ky., pastor Brian Ebel said the materials can be used in a variety of settings.
“I think you can use them in a discipleship kind of format. Utilizing them as a small group study is a great way to go about it,” he said. “There are some helpful study guide materials which are on the website that small groups can use. I think you use them as a tool for parents.”
McCoy, who earned a PhD in Systematic Theology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the resource is solidly biblical.
“Part of why it is so excellent is that this is broadly Christian, broadly evangelical. These are the foundational main things about the doctrine of humanity that a Baptist, an Anglican, a Presbyterian could all agree upon,” McCoy told Kentucky Today.
The Colson Center held a news conference to promote the Identity Project during its national conference in Louisville.
“It's not a set of resources,” said Colson Center Education Specialist Billy Hutchison. “It's a call to a faithful presence by educators, administrators, parents, and pastors, so that we can engage in these challenging conversations without compromising biblical truths or losing the hearts of our students or our family members.”
