Written by Carl R. Trueman |
Monday, May 2, 2022
In the same month that Baylor announced the chartering of its LGBT group, Notre Dame announced the launch of a pro-LGBT alumni group. Anyone interested in how safe space thinking can develop, and how it can be used to disembowel an institution’s own religious commitments and marginalize those who actually adhere to those commitments, should consider this recent example: When a priest wore a rainbow pride stole to an event sponsored by a Notre Dame LGBT organization, one student expressed concerns, and was subject to all manner of unpleasantness for doing so.

The news that Baylor University has officially chartered Prism, an LGBT student organization on campus, marks an important moment in Christian higher education in the USA.
To be fair to Baylor, Christian colleges and universities have a very difficult task in the current climate. Institutions of higher education are meant to be places for free discussion and exchange of ideas. With sexual identity politics now a central component of wider public discourse, freedom of discussion inevitably means that sexual identity discourse will take place on campuses. But there is a difference between students discussing these issues in the context of, say, a debating society or a mainstream political club, and discussing these ideas in an official LGBT group. To receive an official charter is to receive a formal imprimatur.
The charter itself is interesting. It contains no reference to Christ or Christianity, an odd lacuna for a group at a Christian university. Especially for a group whose stated mission is to “help students gain deeper understanding of their own and others [sic] complex and intersectional identities, including gender and sexuality and faith and spirituality” and to “provide resources to navigate essential services including physical, mental, or spiritual well-being at Baylor and beyond.” We are all now familiar with spirituality Hollywood-style, which lacks objective content and represents little more than self-affirmation. It is unfortunate that a Christian school would endorse such language without requiring some explicit reference to the Christian faith.
Significant too is the group’s desire “to create a safe and respectful environment for LGBTQ+ community.” On one level, this is laudable: Campuses should be places where all students are safe from physical harm and from verbal abuse. The problem, of course, is that the language of safe environments is today remarkably flexible. It often means a place where ideas that a given group finds uncomfortable or offensive are not tolerated. The danger of this kind of charter is that it might easily come to be used as an instrument for the kind of conceptual and linguistic cleansing that now grips the culture of other universities. In effect, it begins to establish a rightward boundary on what is deemed acceptable to think and to say on campus—conservative views on sexuality start to be deemed offensive and intolerable, and outside the bounds of acceptability. Baylor is scarcely unique in this. Progressive pieties are disenfranchising conservative views and more throughout higher education. Examples abound, but the recent case of the radical feminist disinvited from Harvard for her rejection of transgender ideology is a case in point.
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He has come! Every moment of human history should overwhelm us with the love of Father, Son, and Spirit as He pursues us, desiring that we should know Him and be with Him. The greatest story in history is this pursuit, and the greatest tragedy is our rejection of His pursuing love.

And he was preaching and saying, “After me, One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. I baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:7-8)
The great theme of the whole Bible is God’s relentless pursuit of us. Since our creation, God has made it clear that He desires to be with us and that we were made to be with Him. Each stroke of the God-inspired biblical writers’ pens reveals this amazing truth.
He came to our First Parents in the Garden, and they enjoyed His presence until God’s great enemy tempted them, and they succumbed.
He surrounded us with His presence in nature. Every bird, flower, and star is a manifestation of His presence. He spoke throughout the Old Testament days so we could hear Him. He came and dwelt in power with those who feared and loved Him.
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He first delighted in us, and now we love to delight in him in return. This is our introduction into the blessed life, and this is the truth we need to press deep into our hearts to make it through our wintery seasons faithfully. Once we’ve first been properly introduced to the truth of Jesus Christ, we can delight in the honesty of the blessed relationship described throughout the Psalms. 

Most nonfiction books have an introduction. This is typically a brief but essential section at the beginning of the book. One of its purposes is to present the information necessary to comprehend what the book is about. The author answers the question, What does my reader need to know to understand the rest of this book? The book of Psalms is no different.
While the Psalms has been known as the prayer book of the Bible, it doesn’t open with a prayer but with an introduction. You could say Psalms details for us the blessing of direct and honest access to the Creator of the universe. Psalm 1 shows us where that access to God is found. 
The author gives a sweeping view of the blessed life through contrast. We either delight in the ways of the wicked or in the law of the Lord (vv. 1–2); we’re either blown like chaff or firmly rooted (vv. 3–4); we’ll either burn up in the judgment or stand confidently with the congregation (vv. 5–6). The psalmist details these contrasts to show us a progression. Your delight informs your roots, which inform your stability on the last day.  
What’s Your Delight?
If you were to set a marble down on the hardwood floor of my house, it would slowly begin to roll away. That’s because the foundation of my home has been settling and shifting for the last 82 years. Each time I begin a construction project, I must consider that nothing is square.
Psalm 1 tells us the wicked are building on uneven supports. They’re expecting steady results but working from a flawed foundation. 
But to delight in the law of the Lord is to build on a level rock. It provides stability, clarity, and accuracy that the shifting sands of the wicked, sinners, and scoffers cannot. The foundation on which you set your delight informs the direction of the structure it supports. Just as my uneven foundation makes nothing in my house square, the psalmist is saying the direction of your life will be misguided if your ultimate delight is placed anywhere but in God.  
Where Are Your Roots?
At the start of each spring, the fruit trees in my yard begin to blossom.
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