How can you say, “We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD,” when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?
Jeremiah 8:8
Same sex marriage is currently before the Maryland House of Delegates, having already been passed by the Senate. It could be voted on this week.
I have communicated my beliefs and advice to my own State Senator and Delegate, specifically suggesting amendments in certain areas. I have prayed for a godly outcome. I never mix politics in my preaching, but being personally involved is my duty and privilege as a Christian citizen.
However, I have recently been convicted by Jeremiah that, while diligent in one area, I have been negligent in another.
Public policy will bless a people to the degree it is consistent with God’s revealed will. But in a pluralistic society, it is never surprising when others – perhaps a majority of others – prefer some other way to God’s way. I cannot expect those who are not committed to biblical revelation to act as if they were. The State and the nation will do what they will, and we must all deal with the results that God allows.
What is surprising – and spiritually deadly – is when people whom you expect to honor biblical religion handle it falsely. The Episcopal church is in turmoil, in part, because of its decision to bless same-sex unions. A local Lutheran church just lost its Senior Pastor because he could not support his denomination’s decision to allow committed homosexuals in its clergy. Presbyterians (not the PCA) are currently voting by Presbytery to affirm something similar in their fellowship, and it looks like the change will pass.
I have been praying that society in general resist a re-definition of marriage, but I have long since stopped regularly praying with regard to church leaders who prefer their culture’s preferences to the clear teaching of God’s Word.
I have been trying to struggle through the smoke of our government’s laws and decrees. But the real fire is in America’s churches.
Glenn, thank you for addressing the issue of same sex marriage from your role as Pastor. This issue is on the hearts and minds of so many, and it certainly would benefit all to hear again and consider what God says about marriage, and what He says about homosexuality. What an opportunity to speak the truth of God’s plan for marriage during an upcoming Sunday service.
Dave Zwald
Glenn, I also commend you on your willingness to engage the issue of same sex marriage. I realize you can not address the political aspects from the pulpit, but I do encourage you to address the whole issue of Biblical marriage and how it is rightly conducted. I am sure that can be a pulpit issue that does not have to cross the political line in the sand.
I agree on all points. But, as a general comment to the whole issue… not aimed at you or anyone else… I’m reminded of the words spoken by a dear friend on mine years ago whom I was pleading with not to abort her unborn child, “I feel like you care more about your cause that you do about me”. I pray this would never be the sentiment of homosexuals toward the church.
Good points to ponder —
Over twenty years ago, in the living room of mutual friends, the Gutsche’s, I heard Kay Author say that homosexuality will be a potentially overwhelming challenge to the church — I thought she was a bit overactive . . . =0(
and am also aware that our real work is through prayer and mercy, too. Thank you for writing this.
AMEN&AMEN My brother Keep standing for the truth.
God bless you.
Soli Deo Gloria
I don’t normally write responses to people’s blogs. For a long time, I was an outsider to the church – moving to the South, the people I met would often tell you the name of their church when you met. Knowing nothing of Jesus, I thought I would hate him. I figured he was the type of guy who would be out picketing against gay marriage, or wanting us to start a war with Iraq or any other country whose values seemed very different than ours. It was strange to actually read the Bible. Jesus wasn’t the person casting out those who were already outcast by society. He IS the one who was inviting the outcast to the table. He HAD surprisingly little to say about homosexuality – based on the Gospels.. compared to the epic and divisive issue many churches are making it out to be. Take another word, like poverty, the poor, leper, and compare how many times those words are used by Jesus in the gospels… to the word homosexual. Take his words to the young man to take all your money and give it to the poor literally, before you decide to preserve the sanctity of marriage by affirming that these gay people are outcasts. Better yet, just honor the sanctity of marriage by ensuring you honor your spouse – instead of casting judgements on others who want to honor their love by commiting to a lifelong partnership by using the word marriage.
Have some sense. The bible has been used to both affirm and condemn slavery. Today, it is used to condemn gay marriage.
It hurts me to A) see the bible used to hurt people B) Christians judging others before they judge themselves.
Obviously, we all make choices as to what we believe. But, with your blog there seemed to be very little depth of thought or discussion- and I don’t think that’s healthy.
Thanks, Courtney, for your thoughtful and well-written response. I know that the Bible can be used to hurt people by selectively appealing to it to back up preconceived prejudices. It’s wrong and it’s hurtful. I don’t want to do that.
But while it’s true that people constrain the Bible selectively to argue opposite sides, I do not believe that the Bible is a Hodge-podge of thoughts in which a person can responsibly find “guidance” to do anything he or she wants. For example, in my judgment, the biblical understanding of homosexuality is quite clear. It is a moral confusion, perhaps a confusion of identity, and a transgression – just as “baked in” to our homosexual friends as all manner of heterosexual sin is equally baked in to others.
Nevertheless, what you say about Jesus and outcasts is so true. He and his cousin John the Baptist dealt with many people whom they understood to have morally failed. Sexual failures, confusion of values, anti-social behavior, and, as you noted, the rank hypocrisy that is so easy to find among religious leaders. Regardless of what they had done, Jesus never turned away anyone in need, nor anyone seeking spiritual life who wanted to love God’s commandments from the heart, and rely on God’s forgiveness when they failed.
I have no doubt that Jesus would have welcomed homosexuals with open arms – repentant homosexuals – just as he has accepted repentant heterosexuals like myself. I see no difference. (I am not saying there is no difference in society’s treatment or even in the way many churches teat homosexuals and heterosexuals, just that I would expect no difference in Jesus.)
The point, of course, is that Jesus required a willingness to turn around, to sin no more, of those who followed him. Of course they would sin again, but he looked for a heart change that trusted God and wanted to obey him. I think it bears repeating is that there was absolutely no “tolerance” in Jesus, as we use that term today. None. Today’s tolerance implies guarding the freedom of each person to do what they want. Jesus came to deliver us from that “freedom,” which the Bible calls bondage of our self-made idolatries. For him, freedom was joyful submission and obedience to God – not obedience to one’s desires or obedience to the church – but to God. And he saw God’s commands as sufficiently revealed to guide us. Rejecting God’s commands in order to satisfy self – whether it involves how we use money or how we use the bodies God designed – was, for Jesus, a prison. Freedom means being willing to sacrifice our own desires and prejudices, confess where God’s design finds us twisted (and we are all twisted), and commit ourselves to God’s revealed truth and grace for forgiveness and change. The truth shall set us free.
I did not mean to insult homosexuals or imply that they are not welcome in the church or in my company. I was speaking about an institution (marriage) which, as a Christian, I believe God invented. And my intended point was that before fighting battles in a society which by and large values tolerance over God’s revealed will, Christians ought to look at our own willingness – or unwillingness – to submit ourselves to what we say we believe.
While we may disagree about homosexual marriage, I admire your respectful and rational tone. Thanks for your time and your thoughts. I appreciate this interchange.