You may have seen the latest Gallup poll. The Gallup data are based on telephone surveys encompassing surveys around LGBT identification with over 10,000 US adults. One of the survey questions was worded this way, “Do you, personally, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender?” The results revealed 7.2% affirming, an increase of double than that of a decade ago.
The responses were then analyzed by generation based on birth year. For instance,
- Gen Z (1997-2004)
- Millennials (1981-1996)
- Generation X (1965-1980)
- Baby Boomers (1946-1964)
- Silent Generation (1945 and earlier)
The results are as follows:
A clear conclusion emerges. LGBT identification is higher among younger generations. Gen Z, for example, aged 18 to 25 in 2022, are the most likely subgroup to identify as LGBT, with 19.7% doing so.
A rise in global unhappiness
At the same time, there has been a global rise in unhappiness. According to a Gallup poll, which includes over 5 million interviews around anger, stress, sadness, physical pain, and worry, a new global high was reached in 2021. This is a tremendously tragic reality: One in three people is unhappy.
These results are eye-popping considering what society has undertaken precisely to see opposite outcomes: the sexual revolution accompanied by no-fault divorce, 60 million children murdered by abortion in the US alone, the adoption of gay “marriage,” and the embracing of reassignment surgery. Why is it that the more we are at sexual liberty to do what we want, the unhappier we become?
A social issue
As Christians, what are we to make of these results? Despite what might appear evident at first, we should not wrongly assume that the rise in LGBT-affirming adults is the root cause of global unhappiness. At the same time, we must not dismiss the fact that a surge in despair accompanies the increase of LGBT-affirming adults. For instance, in a 2021 study, 19% of LGBT youth between the ages of 13-18 reported attempting suicide. These findings do not even consider that many LGBT youth report multiple suicide attempts per year.
We must also acknowledge the reality: an increase in LGBT affirmation has more to do with the influence exerted by social pressure than a genetic and biological predisposition. Do you remember when the media and celebrities blasted the propaganda “Born this way” as one of the justifications for embracing LGBT ideology? The increase in LGBT-affirming adults and young adults is directly impacted by sexual and gender identity indoctrination and education, not biological predispositions. Society is not born this way. Society gets this way when it indulges in deviant sexual desires which run contrary to nature.
Is this a new problem? Hardly. Deviant sexual desires go as far back as the ancient cities of long ago, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire (Jude 1:7).
A deeper, theological issue
So how might we begin to address what seems to be a complex social issue? How do we, as Christians, approach the rise in LGBT-affirming adults combined with the increase in sexual deviancy and the trending rise in global unhappiness? The answer, of course, begins with ensuring that the ultimate issue is correctly diagnosed.
The cause of the rising unhappiness in the face of increased sexual liberty is not merely sociological. The root cause is theological. We suffer from idolatry.
Although idolatry is commonly perceived as the worship of a carved visible image, making any representation of a false god by any form of communication, visible or invisible, is idolatry. Devotion to the expression of any moral, religious, and ethical ideologies that do not conform to the true God is idolatry. And the exponential embracing of idolatry has driven us away from God, increasing unhappiness.
Every person is created with a sense of the Divine in their soul. John Calvin called this the sensus divinitatis. Calvin understood that by being made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), there exists in the human soul and, by instinct, some sense of Deity. In other words, God has placed mankind amid this world and has set in man’s soul a sense of Deity so that in the inmost recesses of the human heart, humans cannot be satisfied with what the temporal world alone has to offer.
This sensus divinitatis is one of the features which separates humans from animals. Humans possess an innate vertical awareness. That is, humans are innately aware of things that are invisible and eternal. We have a hidden longing deep within our souls. No animal ponders the deep questions of life.
We are always attracted to something beyond here; indeed, we are destined for it. And the need to address this innate sense is the singular goal of life. We cannot enjoy life until this restless sense in us is quieted. It is a constant signal reminding us of our emptiness and our need to satisfy it. And failure to satisfy its true desire to rest in God is a harrowing earthly experience as we aimlessly roam about life, trying to feel our way but never finding our way.
As Augustine declared, all men are really seeking after God, but they do not all seek God in the right way or at the right place. They seek God down below, and He is up above. They seek God on the earth, and He is in heaven. They seek Him in sexual identity, gender identity, sexual liberty, passion, money, temporal comforts, power, etc., yet, God is in the high and holy places. And He is only to be found by the one who is humble in spirit (Isa. 57:15).
This means that although we possess an innate sense of our Creator, our sinful nature has clouded our ability to seek God humbly and truly. Sin has deformed our inner sense. But don’t misunderstand what this means. Our deformity does not mean that our sense has diminished in strength, but its signal is distorted. A deformed sense is a distorted sense, and its signal strength is at full capacity.
By nature, we seek God, and at the same time, we run away from Him. In fleeing our Creator, we pursue created things, wrong ideals, and so on. And in our turning away from God, we do not merely deny God; we redefine Him and give ourselves to a lesser created god, replacing Him with whatever gratifies us, however temporary its effects.
Like the fleeing prodigal son (Luke 15:13), we run to find true happiness apart from God and His ways, but we do so to our miserable unhappiness. But we can never outrun the innate sense that God has placed in us. Try as we might; it will only lead to a definite increase in sadness and depression.
Seeking true happiness in all the wrong places
How does this play out practically, and what does this all have to do with the LGBT and the unhappiness statistics above? The way this works out is that to address the perennial nagging sense in our soul, we are seeking God in all the wrong places. We look for affirmation from relationships, sexual liberty, relief from drugs and alcohol, and fulfillment from friends. And when we discover that even after securing these things, our happiness doesn’t last, we might even try other extreme things: pornography, abortion, homosexuality, bisexuality, gender role revision, and gender identity revision. (Yes, there’s a difference between gender role revision and gender identity revision. The former has to do with men and women in their roles: men who are shamefully effeminate and women who defiantly usurp the role of men. In contrast, the latter has to do with the evils of hormone treatment and surgical mutilation). But even taking drastic measures to secure happiness will eventually leave us empty.
Our soul continually yearns and screams for something more.
The prodigal son and the Divine Son
Tragically, all of our so-called experts have exasperated our problem. Of course, this is what you would expect to happen when a solution is applied to a misdiagnosis. Just ask any physician. Giving someone Tylenol, for example, to treat the early onset of cancer may very well dull the pain but does nothing to cure the spreading cancer infecting the body. It is merely a matter of time before the tumor grows and intensifies, and the pain comes back with increased severity and terminal effects. No amount of pill-popping, pain-reducing medicine will treat the root cause. And it goes without saying that no amount of sexual liberty and surgical mutilation will address the deep spiritual cancer of idolatry.
Our state-run government schools, politicians, psychiatrists, social media influencers, legacy media, apostate churches and leaders, and well-intentioned but ill-informed friends and families all have woefully championed the wrong solution – expressive individualism at all costs, with a once-a-day bottle of anti-depressants. If we can just have whatever confused desire we seek, we’ll stop running, right? Yet, the more we make ourselves the idol to which we give ourselves, the angrier, sadder, and more depressed we become. This is why you can have a culture that is seemingly more embracing of LGBT while simultaneously experiencing a skyrocketing global high of unhappiness. It turns out that the more embracing we are of ourselves rather than embracing God, the more depressed we are. Idolatry of the self is never a cure for sin. It only exasperates and perpetuates our spiritual illness.
But the Christian hope is that God, who stamped us with the sense of the highest good, namely of Himself, sent His Divine Son to go after the self-destructive idolatrous ones. Jesus Christ seeks the disenchanted and dysphoric and has come to remove the dark cloud that shrouds and distorts the sense of the Divine. Jesus did this by providing His life as a sacrifice and payment for sinners to forgive them and restore our distorted sense of the Divine.
Are you restless and unhappy? You need to know that no one cares for the discouraged and confused more than Jesus. He does not refuse any who come to Him for forgiveness and hope. Not one person who sought God’s love and forgiveness of sins by coming to Jesus has been turned away. No, not one. Come to Him. Forsake your ways. Have your Divine sense restored. And with the help of the Christian community, obey Jesus’ teachings.
What do the trends mean long term?
It’s pure folly to suggest that our current trajectory is sustainable. It’s not. It’s self-inflicted and self-destructive. There are only two choices: (1) come to Jesus, who was raised to life from the dead and ascended to heaven and secured His crown rights as the King of kings and Lord of lords over the earth and those in it (1 Tim. 6:15, Rev. 17:14, 19:16). He not only secured His crown rights after His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, He will likewise secure your forgiveness and true gladness when you come to Him. Your temporal and eternal trajectory can change.
Or (2) continue down the miserable path in rebellion against our Creator, who made us in His image. The King of kings and Lord of lords is also the Judge over the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). He ensures that all will reap what is sown. If we continue sowing self-destructive idolatry, we will reap destruction. Operating in His office as King, Lord, and Judge, He presently conforms creation to His eternal kingdom. It might be playing out differently than we thought. Still, He is patient in conforming the world to His kingdom, receiving all who come to Him, while also executing condemnation upon those who refuse His grace in pursuing their idols. Embrace Christ or live and die condemned.
Conclusion
It might seem like a difficult task to conform this world to His kingdom, given all of the rebellion, but “[Jesus] will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth” (Isa 42:4). This world will look different 500 years from now. By then, Jesus would have won more souls and defeated more enemies without growing faint, and the internal sense of the Divine will persist. For the Christian, now is the time to cultivate and build a loving community that reflects the Divine. Be hospitable to one another and welcome the spiritually hungry and thirsty searching for true spiritual bread and water. Husbands, love your wives. Wives, submit to your husbands. Children, honor your parents. And let genuine love outwardly be expressed among all of you.
Remember that we, too, were once like those running from God. But by grace, we have been sought after, found, and placed in a heavenly community here on earth in preparation for the inheritance of the completed kingdom of Christ. He is patiently bringing about a heavenly home. In the meantime, He has given us the kind of love and gospel that, when shared with those who are wayward, can likewise bring them back to their senses to Jesus.
The trend toward our present and eternal unhappiness is only reversible when we embrace Jesus.