Posted by Todd Rhoades in Controversy
on Nov 26th, 2012 | 6 comments
Blogger David Murray writes:
Christian bloggers, writers, editors, teachers, and preachers, can I appeal to you? Please give us a break from mentioning homosexuality. Even for a month. Give us something positive and wholesome to think about. Give us Jesus.
Here are his reasons:
The devil is not stupid. He knows that the more people talk about homosexuality, the more it is normalized and becomes just another part of “ordinary” sinful society. The more we talk and write about it, the less shocking and the more “whatever” it becomes.
The Apostle Paul said of the unfruitful works of darkness, “For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret” (Eph. 5:12). If that verse doesn’t apply to some extent to this evil, I don’t know what it does cover.
He also writes: I imagine most homosexuals are delighted with the way Christians are helping to normalize conversations and discussions about this sin, especially without regard for the ages, innocence, and vulnerability of those who are present. I’ve lost count of the number of times Christian adults have talked about homosexuality in front of my little girls. It makes me so angry, because I want them to hear about healthy and beautiful sexual relations, long before being exposed to the most perverse and twisted – and I want them to hear it from me.
So… what do YOU think? Should every Christian blog, magazine, and in-person conversation take a little time off of the whole homosexuality thing? At least for a while?
Great idea or horrible one?
Todd
I am completely over it. Not only should there be a sabbatical, but there should be a permanent cease fire. We are not called to judge anyone as ministers. I am tired in so many situations turning toward the subject. Even to the point of being disgusted with my brothers and sisters in Christ.
I have said this before, and it is worth repeating. The job of the church is to Love God First and Best, Love EVERYONE no matter what, Preach the GOSPEL of Jesus Christ and make Disciples of all nations. Let the Holy Spirit work in the lives of people. God has written his law on the hearts of men, and no sin is greater than another. Just as God is a very present help in time of trouble, so should the church be working toward that end. Many pastors, preachers, teachers, evangelists and church members spend more time on this subject than they do in evangelizing and leading people to Christ. The church in large part has missed the boat on this one.
The church has stepped outside of the box in many areas, this is one area the church needs to examine themselves in and to quit elevating one sin over another. There are far better fish to fry.
I speak specifically to my own denomination on this one. The perception of the Southern Baptist Convention is not one of grace and mercy, but of judgmental-ism and hate. We don’t want to be that way. We want people to see Jesus in us, and that is not what they are seeing.
David Murray makes an interesting point then pulls Eph 5:12 completely of context.
11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
“Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Eph 5: 11-17 NIV
My research has shown that the average church has failed to teach, especially the youth, a clear, wisely presented understanding of what the Bible teaches on immorality and especially homosexuality.
Please read Eph 5 from verse 1 to get the full context of this great call to turn from immorality and become imitators of God.
God’s love and grace cannot be separated from God’s justice. Jesus began his preaching ministry with “Repent…” -Matt 4:17
God’s love demands that we call sin…SIN. Only guilty sinners realize their need for God’s mercy. God’s love and grace which sent Jesus to die on the cross only has meaning in the reality of my sin.
God’s word is light that exposes our sin. “through the law we become conscious of sin.” Rom 3:20 Until sin becomes sinful we don’t feel the Conviction needed for Repentance and Forgiveness which leads to Saving Faith.
God’s light of truth which exposes my sin also reveals the cross. When my sin becomes sinful then the Blood becomes the BlOOD, the Cross becomes the CROSS, and in that light I either choose to cling to my sin or repent and kneel at the Cross.
Here is my submission for a discussion topic:
“Has the church lost the ability to help people deal with their sin?”
Is Catholic theologian Ross Douthat accurately nailing us evangelicals as well as Catholics in his book, “Bad Religion – How we became a nation of heretics”?
P.S. The deeper agenda in the homosexual controversy is an attack on our 1st Amendment freedoms of religion…they are attacking us…so we cannot help but speak out. Where some have failed and hurt the cause of Christ is in how they speak out. We need to speak…full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Col 4:5
Ugh. You can hate gays if you like, but until you come up with a better hermeneutic as to why Paul condones slavery, and why you now consider it immoral, you’re simply picking and choosing. To suggest that there is only way to interpret the text in regards to homosexuality is about as ignorant a stance as a scholar can take. Such a hermeneutic would in fact suggest you’re not a scholar at all, and that you’re somehow under the delusion that there is only one correct method to interpreting Scripture. But like I said, feel free to hate gays. The same hermenteutic was used to protect slavery as an institution for 1700 years, and it was the same hermeneutic used to deny women equal rights during the suffrage movement. (And is still used today.) I’m sad for you all.
In response to Steve’s comment:
Drawing an analogy between slavery and homosexuality is poor exegesis. Slavery in the times of the NT was not racial or ethnic. Do a serious study of ancient slavery and you will see how very far removed the practice was in comparison to our experience of race-based slavery in America. Look carefully at church history and you will see that folks who adopted the hermeneutic you’re attacking can be found on both sides of the aisle with regard to the modern social issues of slavery and women’s rights. Many Christians in the last centuries who you’re dismissing so blithely are the very Christians who spearheaded these social movements. By comparing slavery & homosexuality, Steve you’re comparing apples and oranges. While the ancient economic institution of slavery is not explicitly condemned in the NT, homosexuality, drunkards, greed, theft, adultery are condemned. (1 Cor 6 & elsewhere).
Regarding Todd’s original suggestion to take a break from talking about homosexuality:
Genuine love is telling someone the truth – this is the gospel. Consider the example of John the Baptist. Luke 3:18 says “So with many other exhortations John preached the GOOD NEWS to the people.” John preached the gospel. Now consider the content of what he preached as recorded there in Luke 3. He proclaimed a baptism of repentance. (v3) His words to the crowds (seekers not Pharisees): “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.” John’s message wasn’t popular and certainly wasn’t “nice”.
As a pastor I personally wish the whole brouhaha around homosexuality would disappear. It is so very much tangential to the core issues of our day. However, I’m convicted by Martin Luther’s perspective on these issues:
“If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point.”
Therefore, though I am a weary of the homosexuality debate, I refuse to cede this ground in the spiritual battle for the hearts & minds of this generation.
You are correct in suggesting that ancient slavery practices were different than those of American colonialists, but it was still slavery, they still had few if any rights, and they were still considered legal property. Please don’t brushstroke that away simply because it didn’t reach the levels of barbarism that American colonial slavery reached.
And what I am suggesting is not poor exegesis, it is merely self-aware. You are correct in saying that the concept for emancipation was found on both sides of the evangelical aisle. (That did not happen iin the suffrage movement, however. You cannot lump those two together. American evangelicalism is one of the last frontiers for gender equality, and to suggest otherwise is to revise history.) My point is that sexual ethics, and ethics concerning sexuality, are not simply dictated within the folds of the 66 ancient books we call the Bible. A conservative can find verses to support an anti-gay stance. A progressive can find similar backing for a pro-gay stance. What is true of slavery is true of homosexuality. Both positions can be supported. The question then becomes, what is your ethic?
That is the un-self-aware nature of American evangelicalism’s hermeneutic. A form of pseudo-intellectualism that uses the word ‘exegesis’ and then speaks of spiritual battles. Not as a metaphor, but as an actual battle.
And it is fine to quote Luther, he was a remarkable man in many ways. the irony, of course, is that no one hated Jews more then he did. He was a vicious anti-Semite, and in his later years persecuted the ana-baptists with vitriol.
You think that you are fighting a battle, when perhaps you are merely fighting to preserve the current scapegoat of American evangelicalism. While my desire would be a love-first dynamic, i’ll settle for the admission that we choose our ethics, and that there is not one correct method in interpreting these ancient books. It is that singular (We’re right and you’re wrong!) aspect of your hermeneutic that finds in it reason to persecute the lepers and minorities and those society overlooks. And that, is a very sad thing, if only because it seems anti-thetical to the kingdom Jesus spoke of.