A reader left a comment on my post earlier today concerning the move by St. John's Lutheran Church in Roanoke, Virginia, to leave the ELCA over the national Church's vote in August to allow partnered gay clergy in monogamous relationships. The reader does a great job at honing in on the intellectual and scriptural dishonesty of the anti-gay Christians who close their eyes to divorce and remarriage - something is specifically condemned in the Gospels by statements attributable to Christ himself - but cite the Bible to condemn gays. Like the reader, it is my view that if anti-gay Bible passages are to be applied literally, then so must everything else. But, of course, instead our Christianist enemies selectively pick and choose what gets applied literally while inconvenient passages like those about divorce are totally ignored. Remember, the HIGHEST DIVORCE rates are in states in Bible Belt. The hypocrisy is staggering. Here are portions of the reader's comment: *
Scripture tells us that many things are sinful. Sexual relations outside of marriage are just ONE of these sins. I emphasize the phrase 'sexual relations outside of marriage' because it is the orthodox view that all sex must be within marriage, so premarital heterosexual relations are just as sinful as homosexual relations. Divorce, except possibly where there has been infidelity, is also prohibited according to scripture; divorce and remarriage are equated with adultery. From a conservative scriptural perspective, homosexuality has to be seen as a lesser sin than divorce or, worse, divorce and remarriage. The fact, though, is that there are probably a lot of divorced or divorced and remarried people in the congregation that you write about. I'll bet the pastor tolerates it. Fundamentalists think they are consistent in their beliefs but they often pick and choose and then take the moral high ground. From a Catholic perspective, divorce and remarriage amount to a state of perpetual adultery. It could be argued that this is worse than an occasional homosexual or heterosexual act. The Catholic can confess and be forgiven unless s/he is divorced and remarried in which case s/he is separated from the Church.
*
Divorce is the primary destroyer of families, not homosexuality. It's much easier to pick on gays, though, when there are so many divorced Christians. I don't think that you can expect traditional Christian denominations to change their theology to please gays but you can demand doctrinal consistency by pointing out these facts. Those who live in glass houses really should not throw stones.
Scripture tells us that many things are sinful. Sexual relations outside of marriage are just ONE of these sins. I emphasize the phrase 'sexual relations outside of marriage' because it is the orthodox view that all sex must be within marriage, so premarital heterosexual relations are just as sinful as homosexual relations. Divorce, except possibly where there has been infidelity, is also prohibited according to scripture; divorce and remarriage are equated with adultery. From a conservative scriptural perspective, homosexuality has to be seen as a lesser sin than divorce or, worse, divorce and remarriage. The fact, though, is that there are probably a lot of divorced or divorced and remarried people in the congregation that you write about. I'll bet the pastor tolerates it. Fundamentalists think they are consistent in their beliefs but they often pick and choose and then take the moral high ground. From a Catholic perspective, divorce and remarriage amount to a state of perpetual adultery. It could be argued that this is worse than an occasional homosexual or heterosexual act. The Catholic can confess and be forgiven unless s/he is divorced and remarried in which case s/he is separated from the Church.
*
Divorce is the primary destroyer of families, not homosexuality. It's much easier to pick on gays, though, when there are so many divorced Christians. I don't think that you can expect traditional Christian denominations to change their theology to please gays but you can demand doctrinal consistency by pointing out these facts. Those who live in glass houses really should not throw stones.
*
Interestingly enough, one ELCA congregation does not want to be counted among the gay haters and wants the congregation's name removed from the list of parishes joint the anti-gay Lutheran CORE organization. Urland Lutheran Church in Cannon Falls, Minnesota says that it never wanted to be part of the group. The Advocate has more details on that story here.
1 comment:
Thanks for publishing my comments. I'd like to clarify a couple of points: evangelical Protestant Christianity has a greater problem with homosexuality than Catholicism. According to Catholic teaching, homosexual acts are sinful rather than the condition itself. There is a willingness among Catholic Church leaders to accept that the condition is somehow innate and beyond the control of the individual. Thus the gay person is asked to live a chaste life. By contrast, evangelicals are largely INCAPABLE of accepting that homosexuality is anything less than a sinful CHOICE. They can not accept that God could have permitted an individual to be born with an innate attraction to the same sex. The consequence is that fundamentalists insist on 'cures' (thus the Reverend Ted Haggard took a sexual identity change course and pronounced himself straight after a couple of weeks!) whereas Catholics call for restraint and chastity but there is little, if any, belief that a 'cure' is possible short of a miracle. Neither position is very satisfying to gays but I think that the Catholic view is more enlightened. I've had chats with Protestant fundamentalists on the subject of homosexuality and I've tried to point out that no-one would consciously choose to be discriminated against and have to deal with all the issues that come with being gay. It just makes no sense. I've also played devil's advocate by proposing an amendment to the constitution that would both define marriage as evangelicals want but that would also prohibit divorce on demand while outlawing divorce and remarriage. The latter stuns them, especially when I point out divorce statistics and the terrible psychological harm that is done to children who have to live under these conditions. I have never had a coherent answer to my proposition because there is none an evangelical can give, unless s/he is truly sincere and consistent. I don't know that gays will easily get the law changed to allow same sex marriage but they really ought to take on evangelicals on their own terms, i.e. point out the shocking inconsistency of their own views. I have not even touched on the subject of Saint Paul's teachings regarding women. Few evangelicals require their women to keep quiet in church, cover their heads and obey their husbands. They find ways to wiggle out of these scriptural admonitions as well.
Post a Comment