"Proclaiming Christ in a Secular Culture"

Former "Lutheran Hour" host Rev. Dr. Gregory Seltz joins me to talk about his work in DC with the Lutheran Center of Religious Liberties, and preview his presentation here in Omaha next weekend.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm Scott Vorhees. There's an eventcoming up a week from Saturday. That's
next Saturday, July twentie at theseminar from nine am to three pm at
King of King's Church called Rising tothe Challenge proclaiming Christ in a secular culture.
And longtime listeners at this radio stationwill hopefully recognize the person who is

(00:23):
leading this seminar. He is theformer longtime host of The Lutheran Hour,
which is still on Sunday mornings atsix point thirty here on eleven ten KFAB
has been hosted now for several yearsby doctor Michael Siegler. But right now
we welcome on here the former hostof the Lutheran Hower who is CEO of
the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberties.Reverend doctor Gregory Sels joins us here on

(00:45):
eleven ten KFAB. Doctor, Goodmorning, it's great to be here with
you, Scott. Thanks. First, big glaring question for you that I've
wanted to ask you for a longtime. The Lutheran Hour is thirty minutes
long. What are we supposed todo with the other half of that Lutheran
Hour? Well, like we alwayssay, we pack a whole hour's worth

(01:07):
of programming in thirty minutes. That'skind of I will accept that answer.
Now I could talk to you forhours about the topic of the seminar next
week. Now we want people togo to the seminar, and you have
to register in advance. I thinkit's only fifteen bucks to go register and
get more details at Kingofkings dot org. But let's start with why you felt

(01:32):
it was important to have a seminarlike this. Well, I'm going to
just use the Luthernaarer as an example. Back in the nineteen forties when it
was at the height of its influencein America, people try to politically kick
it off the air, and sothe work that I do is not evangelistic
in it. Today, it's moreabout protecting the church's evangelistic voice and the

(01:56):
culture so that people can hear aboutthe Gospel of Christ. There is a
movement in our culture to actually secularizenot only our schools, our churches,
I mean well our culture in away that would actually silence the gospel of
Jesus Christ and our culture. Andall we're doing is using our temporal liberties,

(02:17):
using the liberties God has given usFirst Amendment liberties, etc. To
push back on them and say no, we're going to keep preaching the gospel.
Walter Meyer actually fought back. Heused JEFFERSONI and freedom principles of the
First Amendment in the forties to keepthe Lutheranant Hour on the air. And
we're all we're doing today is teachingpeople how to use those temporal liberties so

(02:37):
that you can keep preaching the eternalliberties of Christ for all. That's what
the seminars about. It's interesting youbring that up because I think a lot
of young people, especially those whoare prone to protest, feel like these
things that we face in society,whatever you look at as an issue,
these are brand new issues that noone has ever faced before. That's not

(02:58):
exactly the case. It's really howwe deal with them that I think is
maybe a little bit new. Yeah, And I think what we've got to
make sure people understand is we're notthe ones trying to politicize things. A
lot of times people say, whywould you leave the luther Nawer and go
to Washington, DC. That's agood question. I said. It was
so that we could push back onsome of this what I call secular politicization

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of all things and say no,we still have a different viewpoint and we
just want to be free to proclaimit. Our kids don't understand that the
Gospel of Jesus Christ is this beautifulmessage, but it is a threat.
It is a threat to you know, Satan's got an agenda. There is
a people don't understand that freedom isnot something that is natural to human beings.

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Because that's simple. People. Wetend to create all kinds of bonds.
So again we're talking about getting inthe middle of this, being a
public voice of the gospel so thateverybody can hear about Christ. My work
is to block bad politics that getsin the way of that. What would
be an example of how you andyour organization, the Lutheran Center of Religious
Liberties has gone in there worked withelected representatives to try and ward off bad

(04:12):
policy or try and change things.Well, a lot of what's happening with
these agencies now, the EEOC andthe like. They've just transformed title nine
to being sex means sexual orientation.Well, what that can do is destroy
our parochial schools. We teach thatGod created us male and female, and
that boys wear storts the school andgirls wear dresses. Well, now they've

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got this title nine stuff that theycan come in and say, well,
you don't teach what the government saysyou're supposed to teach about that, and
so we're going to take away youraccreditation, or we're going to find your
schools or etc. Center, etcetera. So we pushed back on that
and say, okay, well weunderstand that you have this view of sex
equal sexual orientation. We do not, but allow us to live in peace.

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And so that's part of the workthat I do on the deal with
other organizations. We pushed back onthis egregious attempt to actually tell the church
what to teach and what to preach. Yeah, there are a lot of
people who listen to things like thatand say, well, what you guys
are espousing maybe in those religious schoolsand so forth, This is this is
an old way of thinking. Takea look at these public surveys we just

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you know, pulled out of ournether regions, and it shows that that
your way of thinking is old,it's archaic, it's not necessary in today's
modern world, which I think isalso rooted in this seminar that you're doing
next Saturday. So when someone tellsyou like you guys are running against the
current of what is popular and happeningnow in social society. How do you

(05:42):
push back on that? Well,to be honest with you, I think
the proof is in the proofs ofthe way we talk about things and what
we preach and what other people arepreaching. If you look at what's happening
in the secular world, I meana lot of kids believe that socialism and
you know the lot of the thingsthat were told today are going to make
our world a better place. Well, look at the tyranny, the bloodshed,

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and the nonsense of the last onehundred years. The foundational truths that
we proclaim in Christ are foundational toour freedoms to love, to actually good
relationships, to all the things thatmake life worth living now and forever.
And if those are past okay,I think I can have that conversation with

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anybody. All we're saying is allowus to be that voice. Because what
you think of as progressive, Isay, is regressive. And I think
the proof is in the data.Look at the places where all this,
where the Secondarism has taken hold.You tell me those are better places to
live and better places to raise familiesand better and do you have better relationships

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when God's not the center of it. I think we can have that conversation
if you'll just let us. Youknow, people say like, well,
you're in there talking to politicians asthis right this Lutherans and of religious liberties.
You're in Washington, d C.We need to have a separation.
No one from the church should betalking to anyone in Congress or in any

(07:10):
kind of elected position here. Peoplehave a lot of I think, very
wrong ideas about what the separation ofchurch and state is supposed to mean,
whether it's what you do or evensomething like a football team gathering in prayer
after a game or something like that. Can you give us the save the
world quick answer on what this separationof church and state is supposed to mean?

(07:34):
And how you you know, whenpeople tell you you shouldn't be doing
this, how you deal with that? Well, let me just say it
this way. You believe it,I call it a differentiation of church and
state, not separation. But ifyou actually believe in that, that's actually
a New Testament teaching. So yeah, I didn't know you were a Christian.
That's the first thing. Because basicallythe Bible, Jesus says, give

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the Caesar what the caesars give toGod? What is God? God differentiations
Caesar's work and his ultimate work inChrist. But what the founders did is
they put Caesar's work on the bottomand they said, you, as a
religiously motivated, morally directed, selfgoverning Christian, you're the one that's the

(08:16):
free citizen. You're the one incontrol of your life. So right off
the bat, the First Amendment isnot protecting the state from the Church.
It's protecting the Church from the state. And the state is a limited organization
in our life. The Church isnot. And so just if you can
understand, if you differentiate church andstate, please get it right, and
please understand that's a biblical worldview.And secondly, understand that the founders understood

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the threat was from the coercive powerof the state, not from the serving
power of the Church in your life. And once you start to understand that,
then we can start to talk aboutit, because the real issue today
is the state things that can solveevery aspect of your life. You do
not want to live in a culturewhere the state tells you what to drink,

(09:01):
what to wear, what's to driveand what's to believe? And there
are people in Washington who want todo that. Yes, yes, there
certainly are on all those issues andmore. This is going to be a
very interesting seminar here, and thankyou for coming to Omaha to do this.
It's next Saturday, July twentieth,starts at nine o'clock in the morning,
runs till three o'clock in the afternoon. You are asked to register for

(09:24):
this event called Rising to the ChallengeProclaiming Christ in a Secular Culture. King
of Kings is hosting it. Kingof Kings is right there close to one
hundred and twentieth and I Streets,and yeah, one hundred and seventeenth and
I somewhere in there. It's thewell, the giant church you see there
from the ILQ. It's a wonderfulplace. It's a Rising to the Challenge

(09:46):
proclaiming Christ in a secular culture.And he who's coming to town for this
former host of The Lutheran Hour hereon eleven ten kfab, current CEO of
the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberties,Reverend doctor Gregory Sells. Last question for
you, uh, doctor, Andthis comes from Pastor Mark Zender of King

(10:07):
of Kings. Is today your birthday? Thank you for spending part of your
birthday with us. It's really greatto talk to you. Thank you very
much for giving us a tidbit ofnext week's conference, and we'll look forward
to having you in Omaha next weekend. Pleasure,