In the book of Luke, Luke records Jesus saying, “Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:47-49)

In a recent OpEd in the WSJ by Dr. Albert Mohler about homosexual marriage, Mohler starts by saying, “The Christian church has faced no shortage of challenges in its 2,000-year history. But now it’s facing a challenge that is shaking its foundations: homosexuality.”

So, I wonder, what is Mohler’s foundation? It doesn’t appear to be Jesus.

I know Mohler is a follower of Jesus… I am merely using him as an example of two things. 1) We ought to be careful of the words we use when we try to spark emotional reactions from people and 2) We ought to be able to discern hype when we read it. In fact, I seriously doubt Mohler actually believes that homosexuality is shaking the foundations of Christianity.

A couple of days ago one of my Facebook friends linked to an article by Adam Walker Cleaveland called, The Bible & Homosexuality: Enough with the Bible Already. I would like to respond to this article, both it’s heart and it’s content. Obviously the title is rather shocking to the more conservative folks out there. The author starts by saying, “Unfortunately, if you came to this post hoping to see a detailed exegesis of texts like Leviticus 20.13 and Romans 1.26-27, then you will be disappointed.” These text both speak about homosexuality in a negative sense.

If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them. – Leviticus 20:13

For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. – Romans 1:26-27

I think it would be erroneous to state that these texts support homosexual acts. The author links to two books, one who believes the Bible does not condemn homosexuality as sin, Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality and one who does, The Bible and Homosexual Practice. But neither seem to be the point of this article, what is this authors real point is if you dismiss one author because of their view of scripture, then “enough with the Bible already.”

Cleaveland goes on to support his position of “enough with the Bible already.” I believe his concern is that as Christians we are using the Bible to discriminate against a whole class of people. This has been and continues to be a concern of mine. It wasn’t too long ago in American history where conservative Christians used their Bibles to condemn and discriminate against black people and  all women (even to this day). However, I think Cleaveland goes a little too far. He admits that he will be acused of going down a slippery slope, but that is merely a logical fallacy anyway. Rather, I believe he is committing his own logical fallacy, the “fallacy of slanting” or deliberately omitting, deemphasizing, or overemphasizing certain points to the exclusion of others in order to hide evidence that is important and relevant to the conclusion of the argument and that should be taken into account of in an argument. The reason I say this is because of a few key statements that Cleaveland makes, such as,

There are certainly plenty of books written that go into great detail concerning the very few texts in Scripture that deal with same-sex relations…. (his emphasis, not mine)

…these beliefs come from a very selective reading of a very small amount of texts from the Bible….

…Christians need to get over their infatuation with a very select few verses…

It seems to me that Cleaveland is demphasising these verses in favor of homosexuality. I think this is where he crosses the perverbial line. He’s right in many cases, if the Bible is causing you to believe that homosexual people are sub-human, or do not deserve the same rights as non-homosexual people, then perhaps your misreading the message of Christ. However, to claim that we should put aside our bibles if we believe homosexuality is wrong, is completely ignoring the evidence. I truly believe Cleaveland is swinging the pendelum to far… he has noticed an ongoing trend towards people (Christians) who hate Homosexuals and use the Bible to bash and condem them. His answer is to throw away the Bible, instead, I believe our answer should be to pray, seek the Lord’s wisdom, and consider these verses.

Do I think it should be illegal for homosexuals to marry? No, that is up to the state and its government. However, I do believe that homosexuality is sin. To be perfectly honest, the bible doesn’t really talk about the same topics very often. If we were to take Cleavelands view, there are tons of topics we could ignore because they are barely mentioned. For instance, Leviticus 18:23 reads, “Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.” But there are so few verses in the Bible about having sex with animals, why can’t we safely ignore this one? Perhaps this is a better example, Exodus 22:22 reads, “You shall not afflict any widow or orphan.” Since this isn’t talked about very often, then we can do whatever we want to widows and orphans.

Do you understand my point? I would say the bible rarely speak about the same sins over and over again, their frequency shouldn’t determine how we interpret scripture. Gossip, slander, lying, etc. are all sins but how often do you see them mentioned in scripture? Probably as much as homosexuality is mentioned. The pure weight given to each of these, clearly mark them as “sinful” even homosexuality. Cleaveland ends by saying,

If it is the Bible that is causing us to delay accepting and celebrating LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual] persons as being fully human and fully created in the image of God, just as they are, then perhaps we need to say, “Enough with the Bible already…”

What are you thoughts on this subject?

I know I’ve complained about the AFA (American Family Association) before but I still get their emails and they still grate on my nerves. I like their emails because I get a sense of what is happening in the Christian world. You know, those things that I don’t care enough about to study all day long, but am interested in how Christians are reacting. Yesterday I received an email telling me that the “Employment Non-Discrimination Act” is about to be debated and voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives (as early as Wednesday October 24, 2007). The problem? Apparently this act will treat homosexuals as if they were real people. Currently we have laws in place that force employers to hire a certain percentages of ethnic groups and minorities. Well this act will force employers to hire a certain percentage of sexually oriented people. There is supposedly a religious clause in the act, but the AFA lawyers seem to think it is bogus.

Frankly I think it is a waste of time to have any equal opportunity clauses, sexual or ethnic or whatever. But if we’re going to live in this country, we’re going to have to deal with the rules. Is homosexuality a sin? Yes. Is a business equal to the church? I am not sure… I mean the church exists in business, but I still talk with all my co-workers, even the ones who claim to be non-Christian. Some of them are pretty decent people too.

When thinking about this Act, I just keep thinking that we should not be unequally yoked and I wonder… are “Christian” businesses unequally yoked with the government? I dunno.

Anyways, the other day I was annoyed with them because of their lame boycott against Ford. So I replied to one of their emails. This is what I wrote (by the way, no one has responded yet and it has been 3 weeks):

Hello,

I have been getting your emails for quite some time. Frankly, I have also been disappointed for quite some time. I do not quite understand this Christian Strong-Arm theme that most of your emails encourage. Why would we want a non-Christian organization to submit to Christian morals? What benefit is it to Ford to stop promoting the Homosexual agenda if they do not first believe the Gospel? Why would we be proud that we are harming lost people by reducing their sales? I just do not get it. This attitude is antithetical to the Gospel.

Christ did not come to condemn people, but to save people. How can we share the gospel with these people if we are boycotting them?

Titus 3:1-7 – “Remind them to be . . . ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

God’s Glory,
Lew A