I’m a minority—the majority of the time!

by Lucien Tuinstra

First published in CMI Prayer News (UK) April 2022

dreamstime.com | ID 5826112 © Leigh Prather

I’m a ‘white’ heterosexual male and therefore I am a supremacist—according to some. On the other hand, I am in a minority, the majority of the time, and so I am suppressed. This is the world we live in, a confused mess! Let me explain.

My identity, who I am, is not primarily defined by the tone of my skin, my birth gender, my occupation or salary, my social standing, or how I feel. No, my identity is in Christ; I am a follower of Jesus and a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). I am also a biblical creationist to boot because Jesus is the Creator (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16), and He has revealed His Word to us (John 1:1) so we can understand what God did and when. However, all of this puts Christians like me on a collision course with an increasingly godless society.

Not easy being the minority

Now, if being a biblically minded Christian puts me in the minority,¹ how much more so being a creationist? I believe the heavens and the earth were created just over 6,000 years ago, with the entire planet being inundated over 16 centuries later. After this, I believe there was a dispersion of the people by language at the Tower of Babel. Over the years, I have grown quite used to raised eye-brows and surprised smiles when I share my beliefs.

For instance, consider the issue of climate change. These days, we are bombarded with news that, not only is the Earth’s temperature rising, but allegedly it is humankind that is the major cause of it (Anthropogenic Global Warming—AGW), leading to all sorts of alarmist headlines. It is interesting to note that people who believe in the Earth being billions of years old, often admit that radical temperature swings occurred in the distant past, long before any people were around!

With climate change and all the other debates and controversies we face in our world today, it is pertinent for people to put their critical thinking hats on. This does not mean to be negative and to reject something outright; rather, it should encourage civilised dialogue with the aim of arriving at the truth. People are still free to choose to believe otherwise, but how much better for that choice to be an informed one. Shutting out other opinions is not conducive to good science, and neither does it make a great society; instead, it divides people and even communities.

pexels.com | Pok Rie

So, being in a minority can be challenging. It’s not easy going against the tide. But I would rather believe God’s Word than merely go with the flow.

Speaking the truth sometimes means people suffer the consequences

Notice that being in the majority does not mean life is a walk in the park either. People who may be in the majority most of the time can still find themselves uncomfortably in the minority on a specific issue. For example, most people—irrespective of their faith—still believe there are two genders: male and female (Genesis 1:27). Yet, it seems that if you have the audacity to voice that ‘binary’ view these days, there may be trouble. Examples abound where people have been reprimanded or have even lost their job for expressing what, not that long ago, used to be a standard, near universal, belief;² and a belief that manifestly accords with biological facts.

pixels.com | Brett Jordan

Another instance of saying what seems an obvious truth to many, cost the late Richard Page his position.³ In a private conversation, he stated what research clearly shows: that a child generally fares best within a stable marriage between a man and a woman—as opposed to a single parent or a couple of the same sex.⁴ But many want to deprive us of the right to say that anymore, even privately. It’s political correctness gone mad, but again we observe that the minority who would dare to voice that opinion would be criticised for doing so.

Another example of a very contentious issue is the state-sanctioned massacre of literally hundreds of millions of people over the years, in countries across the world. I am, of course, referring to abortion which, in England and Wales, broke previous records in 2020: over 800 abortions every week-day!⁵ People who are ‘pro-life’, who oppose abortion (especially on religious grounds), are certainly a minority group. Still, a significant percentage of people do not support abortion.⁶ Yet, the ‘pro-choice’ lobby,⁷ continues to increase its efforts to stifle any dissent over the murder of innocent babies, for instance with DIY abortions. The lobbyists are demanding ‘buffer zones’ around abortion clinics, where people are banned from expressing an alternative view;⁸ even praying in these areas is off-limits.⁹ The pro-life minority view is hated by the majority.

Facing the challenge

The world is a challenging place for those who would stand for truth and for Christian morality. Our freedoms, not only of speech, but other freedoms too, are quickly eroding away beneath our feet. Believing and proclaiming the foundational message of biblical creation puts us in the minority, and it is this view which is actively and passively being silenced. Even holding to a self-evident truth, such as there being only two genders (male and female), is being quenched by the mainstream media and pictured as a ‘hurtful position’.

It is foolish to think that as long as you and I agree with (or actually, obey) the non-biblical narrative, then we have nothing to fear. Many people, thinking these issues do not affect them too greatly at the present time, naively comply, not realising that their freedoms are being eroded. However, sooner or later, it may be they who will find themselves in the minority.

To fellow Christians, I say, ‘stand strong on the truth of Scripture’. “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16). As John Knox said (in the sixteenth century), “One man plus God is a majority.”