Straightening the Bend: -- By: David Wegener

Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 04:1 (Spring 1999)
Article: Straightening the Bend:
Author: David Wegener


Straightening the Bend:

An Interview With Family Life’s Dennis Rainey

Interview By

David Wegener

JBMW: Dennis, can you give us some background on how Campus Crusade for Christ’s statement on marriage and the family came about?

DR: A year ago I watched as the media pounded the Southern Baptist Convention for taking a biblical stand on the family. So I decided to do what I could to support them in their courageous stand. I was able to secure more than 175 Christian leaders and their spouses and together we said to the Southern Baptists, “We agree with you.” To show our support we took out a full-page ad in USA Today. As I continued to reflect on the stance of the Southern Baptists, I became convinced that Campus Crusade for Christ needed to join them by making a similar statement. Now I want to emphasize that we did this for the health of our own marriages and families. Campus Crusade has never made a statement like this in its 48-year history. This shows the high degree of importance we place on the marriages and families of those in our movement. Bill and Vonette Bright have correctly seen that the health of our families will determine the strength of our organization. So we did it first and foremost for the future of our own movement. But we also made this statement to step up and join the Southern Baptists in affirming what is biblically accurate and true and right about marriage and the family in a time of unprecedented marital and family crisis.

JBMW: Some people have spoken of this as a kairos moment for the family in America. Why did Crusade decide to make this statement at this crucial moment in history?

DR: It’s clear we live in a time where a lot of Christians do not know what they believe about the very fundamentals of the family. We did this to state clearly for our present and future families what we believe are the basic tenets of Scripture concerning marriage and family. By doing so we have given this and future generations a compass to continue on the journey. The college campus has been the number one place where feminists have been teaching and brainwashing our students for the past two or three decades. And that’s where churches, seminaries and parachurch organizations like our own recruit their staff members and students. As a result the evangelical church has bent to the cultural winds and what Campus Crusade for Christ is doing is trying to straighten the bend. We are pulling truth out of the dust. Isaiah 59 says that truth has stumbled in the streets and the need today is for the church to hold up the truth without apology so that it stands tall and firm.

JBMW: Is it your hope that other evangelical organizations will follow your lead...

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