Posted on 07/07/2015 7:20:01 AM PDT by wagglebee
July 6, 2015 (BreakPoint) -- Both before and after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, some Christians argued that allowing same-sex couples to marry is not inconsistent with traditional Christian teaching on marriage.
At the heart of these arguments is the assertion that same-sex relationships are, to borrow a phrase from gay writer Andrew Sullivan, “virtually normal.” That is, same-sex relationships are, with one very obvious exception, not all that different from traditional marriages. Thus, just as the Supreme Court held that similarly-situated couples should be treated equally under law, similarly-situated couples should be treated equally in our churches.
The problem is that same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples are not nearly as alike as those making these arguments would have us believe.
This reality was amply demonstrated in a recent broadcast of “Weekend All Things Considered.” Host Arun Rath spoke to J. Bryan Lowder of Slate, who worried about the impact of the Court’s decision on gay culture.
By “gay culture,” Lowder wasn’t talking about a particular fashion sense and a fondness for Judy Garland. What he had in mind was the ability to “imagine different ways of being in romantic relationships and loving.” For some gays and lesbians, this “meant monogamous relationships that looked exactly like a married couple . . . [without] the legal imprimatur of the state. But for other people, they had many different kinds of arrangements.” Emphasis on many.
Lowder was concerned about losing “some of that imagination that the gay community has had in the past to think about how to live in different ways and . . . offer a critique to straight culture of how we can arrange our romantic lives.”
In other words, LGBT folks are just like straight folks except when they’re not. They want to be married like everyone else, except when they don’t want to be. They want to embrace bourgeois domesticity, except when they don’t and, instead, prefer to use their imagination, as he put it.
Lowder is hardly an outlier. Last year, in a Daily Beast article provocatively entitled “Were Christians Right About Gay Marriage All Along?” gay activist Jay Michaelson acknowledged that there “is some truth to the conservative claim that gay marriage is changing, not just expanding, marriage.”
Michaelson cited a 2013 study finding that “about half of gay marriages surveyed . . . [are] not strictly monogamous.” He called this fact “well-known in the gay community,” adding that “we assume it’s more like three-quarters” that are not monogamous. They are, to cite a now-popular phrase, “monagam-ish.”
Michaelson admitted that his straight friends who believed that they “were fighting for marriage equality, not marriage redefinition,” felt “duped.” But he was unapologetic. In his words, “actual monogamy has never been an actual norm,” as opposed to an ideal.
Michaelson seems to think that because some men have been unfaithful, monogamy should not be an expectation of marriage. The vast majority of women, by the way, would undoubtedly disagree.
This brings to mind an exchange between Andrew Sullivan and conservative columnist Mona Charen more than 20 years ago. In response to Sullivan’s claim that marriage would domesticate gay men’s sex drives, Charen replied that marriage doesn’t domesticate men, women do.
This, my friends, is sexual complementarity in a pithy nutshell. The sexes are different, and each promises the other something different that will contribute to their union and the wellbeing of their offspring.
Frankly, Christians who support same-sex marriage have been had. The question is: Now that they know what’s really going on, will they change their minds?
Reprinted with permission from Break Point.
well, bye.
You are right. We are not saved by having correct theology, but through Christ.
That said, those who support “same-sex marriage” seem to lack a fundamental understanding of the Christian faith. And may be CINOs rather than true followers of Christ ...
I guess in his world, some are more equal than others. It’s not enough to keep your sex practices quiet & private, you must FORCE others to accept your perversion by advocating for special rights & forcibly shutting down anyone who stands in your way.
I knew it was only a matter of time
What would you say of a self-proclaimed Christian, who advocates the worship of Molech? All Christians are sinners. Some of them support idolatry. Have I correctly understood your position?
lol....
Some merely ask for it, others ....
Sometimes, we need to unpack things, so folks can see the details involved in broad statements.
For example, it's clear to me that "We are saved through the Grace of Jesus Christ" but if I coupled that with "not saved by their stand on murder" people would want to know if I meant that murderers were free to murder.
This isn’t theology. It is morality.
Same-sex marriage is wrong, whether you are a Christian or not.
Possibly but some might respond that bombing civilian areas in WW2 was murder.
If we dismissed Salvation based on someone’s stand on current societal narratives, we’d be committing a great sin.
That is different than evaluating someone's claim of salvation based on their behavior.
I don't think that a murderer running around murdering has a claim to Christianity.
Nor do I think that a person involved in a gay marriage who steadfastly claims that that behavior is not sin, despite all historical Christian evidence to the contrary, is providing evidence of a claim to Christianity.
I would say they are not Christian based on their behavior COUPLED WITH their claims to have rejected God's evaluation of that behavior.
He went from being a squish on marriage to outright defending the queer agenda.
That boy just warn’t right in the head.
But we aren’t talking about people engaging in same-sex marriage
We are talking about people supporting it.
It's a trick of Satan to associate Christians with such things.
Christianity isn’t a mere matter of profession. It’s an ontological category. One does not cease to be Christian simply because of embarking on a great evil. Hitler and Stalin did not cease to be Christians.
I am surprised this verse was not mentioned... but it is a bit lengthy.
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due....
who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:26-27, 32
I think you're saying that one CANNOT cease to be Christian, even if one loudly and publicly rejects every aspect of Christianity (as Hitler and Stalin did) ... thus even my hypothetical Molech worshiper, or the not-so-hypothetical Ba'al worshipers (who call themselves "gays") are still Christians. Sinful, apostate, and if finally unrepentant then damned to Hell ... but Christians still.
Is that a correct understanding of your position?
Same difference when it comes to calling God wrong.
Correct.
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