The BBC and the Tower of Babel

(photograph: Pexels/Tim Mossholder) Genesis 11 tells us the captivating story of the tower of Babel. Humanity was setting itself up against God and as a part of that determined to construct a skyscraper. God's capacity of frustrating here is revealing – "Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not remember every other." The plan labored. Humanity become divided and scattered.

Melvin Tinker, an Anglican vicar, makes use of the imagery of the tower of Babel, together with that of CS Lewis's dazzling and prophetic That Hideous strength, to reveal the selected route our lifestyle is taking place. Tinker's booklet, The Hideous strength, How the West was lost, is a vital and fundamental work of for realizing our subculture. It is just being republished in an multiplied version.

He shows how the tower of Babel remains a sample for human revolt against God. Chronological snobbery (the latest is the most useful and many others) can blind us to insights from old generations. Tinker argues that communalism (where group rather than individual id reigns), constructionism (the usage of language to deconstruct God and create our personal gods) and connectivity (using one language to connect to one another and permit their insurrection in opposition t God) are average of that insurrection.

I believe this remark does want some qualification, besides the fact that children. there is a communalism (the church) this is respectable, a constructionism (building the kingdom of God and caring for the earth), which is effective, not harmful, and a connectivity (the tongues of Pentecost which proclaim the Gospel of Jesus in preference to the tongues of Babel) it's nice. however Tinker is appropriate to argue that Babylon tries to mimic Jerusalem.

"What we now have within the Tower of Babel episode is in effect a rival cosmology to that of God's; it's an unmaking and a remaking of the world, a blasphemous human 'let us' over and in opposition t the Holy 'allow us to' of the Triune God," he says.

i assumed of this when I noticed the BBC's latest propaganda for college infants. in one query-and-reply session a young boy asks: "What are the different gender identities?" he's then praised by a head instructor for asking a "definitely, in fact wonderful query". The film cuts to a PSHE trainer referred to as Kate Daniels, who explains to two different young little ones: "We understand that we now have bought male and feminine, however there are over one hundred, if now not more, gender identities now."

Why does this matter? The temptation is to shrug it off as more laptop insanity – no person actually believes that young boys in intercourse education classes have the diverse gender identities as their leading question. And no person in reality believes that that there are over a hundred genders....that is just a made up number and yet it's taught to babies as actuality. And therein lies the problem. The BBC are teaching queer idea as scientific truth when it isn't. they're dismantling the complete conception of fact. however is additionally inhumane and unsafe to children. Why?

when we lose belief in God we additionally lose any rationality for belief in humanity. we are created in the photograph of God. when we are trying to remove or replace that image we turn out to be creating a distorted humanity. yes there are people who endure from Gender identity Dysphoria and have a disconnect between body and mind. They should still be treated fairly and with compassion. however we may still no longer use them to are attempting and reconstruct both God and humanity in our own graphic. That means there is only confusion. My colleague Steve MacAlpine summarised it brilliantly: 

"perhaps there are eight billion genders and each of us is with no trouble an atomised, lonely individual, floating ever additional from other people, bring to a halt from the chance of ever figuring out what is strong and the place to stand on the rest. this is the style or not it's going at the least.

"and of course, it truly is the photo of hell that CS Lewis paints within the high-quality Divorce, a town during which the inhabitants circulation extra and additional away from every other, doomed to the fabulous isolation of their personal interiority for eternity.

"Lewis, that prophet whose work is even now coming into its personal, broadcast an introduction to The excellent Divorce on that self-identical (however absolutely diverse) BBC lower back in 1948. i wonder if he might even think about that the very institution that allowed such searing wisdom to move over the airwaves would in the reduction of itself to such pitiful foolishness some seven many years later?"

what's God doing during this? I believe he is letting us observe the way of Romans 1, the place humanity thinking it's wiser and greater than God, simply decides to go its personal way. God then lets us have it our approach. And the chaos, confusion and disorder are a catastrophe. The biggest threat dealing with humanity just now is the hubris and hypocrisy of those who are seeking to recreate humanity, the use of that hideous strength, with a purpose to have a courageous New World.

however Christians should now not despair. there is One who came all the way down to earth as a man or woman as a way to recreate humanity in his photo – in potential, righteousness and holiness. No count number how plenty humanity seeks to damage itself – God is here to redeem, fix and shop. we're being developed into the brand new Jerusalem and do not deserve to go the damaging way of Babylon.

David Robertson is Director of Third house on the city Bible discussion board in Sydney, Australia. He blogs at The Wee Flea