Posted by
The ConservaTOR on Sunday, January 28, 2007 1:30:38 PM
Click on the comments link to post your thoughts and ideas on Faith & Family issues, including the push for homosexual marriage, freedom of religion (even if you are a Christian), and Scriptural references to keep us walking in God's will, among other faith and family issues. Type anything you like in the header! Remember to speak the truth in LOVE. I'll start with the following:
Homosexual "Marriage"
First of all, the Church has been reading pulp fiction instead of Scripture when it refers to homosexuals being created that way by God. That does
not entitle the more than 75% of us who have clearly expressed our desire to RESERVE marriage as the sacred institution that IS created by God exclusively for one man and one woman to go about hating homosexuals. "For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) All caps in the word ALL mine. Let's address this before proceeding:
God Didn't Create People to be Homosexual
Believe it or not, this is not hate speech. It's truth. When the Church claims this as true, we have no problem referring to the Bible as the source of truth. And the Bible is clear on this issue:
Genesis 13:13 - "Now the men of Sodom
[Ed.: from which we derive the term "sodomy"] were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD." (NIV)
Genesis 19:4-5 - "
4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house.
5 They called to Lot, 'Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." (NIV)
Leviticus 18:22 - "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable." (NIV)
Judges 19:22 - "While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, 'Bring out the man who came to your house, so we can have sex with him.'" (NIV)
[Ed.: This is a different story from the one at Lot's house; see all of Judges 19 for this story.]
Romans 1:26 - "Because of this [Ed.: See Romans 1:18-25 to define
this], God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones." (NIV)
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 - "
9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." (NIV)
True, the Old Testament accounts were pointing pretty explicitly at homosexual gang rape and the pagan practice of male shrine prostitution (1 Kings 14:24, 2 Kings 23:7), but the New Testament passages identify homosexual lusts as "unnatural" and in line with "sin." NOTE: Homosexuals are not alone in their sin! You don't have to be gay or a lesbian to be an idolater, an adulterer, a thief, greedy, drunk, a slanderer, or a swindler!
The point is that God didn't create sin. He ALLOWED it. With consequences. And homosexuality is defined as sin (see references above).
Where we have issues with Homosexual "Marriage" is that this is imposing that sin in the much abused, yet still sacred institution of marriage. (We have enough trouble with the sanctity of this institution without the imposed deviance of purpose being imposed!) Here's what the Bible says about marriage (all NIV passages, unless otherwise noted; also index grouping from NIV Quest Study Bible, Zondervan Publications, c. 1994-1995):
The Institution of MarriageChoosing a Spouse
Ruth 3:10 - "'The LORD bless you, my daughter,' [Boaz] replied. 'This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor."
[Ed.: The young widow Ruth chose Boaz as a spouse because of his character, irrespective of his age or monetary status.]
2 Chronicles 21:6 - "[
Jehoram] walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab."
[Ed.: Marrying outside of God's design and will. Yes, even heterosexuals do this!]
Proverbs 21:9 - "Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife."
[Ed.: More reason to marry for the right reasons rather than following the desires of your eyes or other anatomical parts. Do I hear an Amen from you divorced or unhappily married fellows out there?]
Customs
Genesis 24:50-51 - "
50 Laban and Bethuel [Ed.: Rebekah's parents] answered, 'This is from the LORD; we can say nothing to you one way or the other.
51 Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master's son, as the LORD has directed.'" [Ed.: This is the arranged marriage between Isaac
[Ed.: son of Abraham and Sarah] and Rebekah. Arrangement was made by God. The point here is that this marriage was in accordance with the will of God.]
24:67 - "Isaac brought [Rebekah] into the tent of his mother Sarah, and her married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death."
[Ed.: Note the relational importance and value of wife and mother. In a union between two men, there is no such value placed. Remember, however, that there is relational impoortance and value of husband and father, and that in a union between two women, there is no such value placed.]
29:18 - "Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, 'I'll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.'"
[Ed.: True love waits.] 29:23-25 - "
23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her.
24 And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter as her maidservant.
25 Whe morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, 'What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn't I? Why have you deceived me?'"
[Ed.: Cutural habit was that women remain veiled during their wedding and even into their wedding night. And likely, Jacob was probably celebrating rather heavily after his wedding, not to mention that there was no electricity in the tent. Even so, Jacob assumed this was Rebekah. And we all know what happens when we ASSUME things are as they should be, even when they aren't. We have the Light to see by now so that we don't have to be deceived unless we just want to be.]
29:27 - "'Finish this daughter's bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for antoher seven years of work.'"
[Ed.: Speaker is the deceptive and manipulative Laban. When one ASSUMES that things will turn out all right but does nothing, things don't turn out all right. They get worse. The weird thing about this is that Laban probably thought he was being a good and responsible father!]
31:15 - "But [
Leah] said to [
Rachel], 'Wasn't it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son's mandrakes too?'"
[Ed.: Mandrakes were essentially ancient Viagra (see http://www.ccel.org/ccel/easton/ebd2.html?term=Mandrakes and http://www.ccel.org/ccel/smith_w/bibledict.html?term=mandrakes). Anyway, the point of this is that the deception affects more than the deceived; it affects everyone. You think Leah didn't know she wasn't the woman Jacob loved? So what's all this about taking away "her" husband?]
34:4 - "And Shechem said to his father Hamor, 'Get me this girl as my wife.'"
[Ed.: How sweet. Shechem had just raped "this girl," who was Dinah, Jacob and Leah's daughter. After Schedem violated Dinah, he thought he was "in luuuvvv!" Right. The deception continues to grow out of control.]
Ruth 3:7-8 - "
7 When Boaz was finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down.
8 In the middle of the night, something startled the man, and he turned and discovered a young woman at his feet."
[Ed.: This was no hanky panky; rather, this was Ruth proposing marriage to Boaz. Interesting custom, no?] 3:13-14 - "
13 'Stay here for the night, and in the morning if [the nearer kinsman redeemer] wants to redeem, good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the LORD lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.'
14 So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and [Boaz] said, 'Don't let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.'" [
Ed.: There is a difference between discretion and deception. Here, Boaz was honoring custom by checking with the other guy who had a right to claim Ruth. But he was obviously hoping that the un-named kinsman redeemer would refuse, as he was delighted by Ruth's pure attention and kindness. Until he had checked things out with the kinsman redeemer, though, he wanted to keep things on the quiet to avoid gossip, not to deceive anyone. The kinsman redeemer was the one who would inherit the land and ensure an heir was provided. See http://www.ccel.org/ccel/easton/ebd2.html?term=Kinsman for more on kinsman.]
1 Chronicles 2:21 - "Later, Hezron lay with the daughter of Makir the father of Gilead ([Hezron] had married her when he was sixty years old) and she bore him Segub."
[Ed.: May-December marriages were just as common in the past as they are today. The Hebrew custom was to ensure the propagation of the community.]
2:34-35 - "
34 Sheshan had no sons -- only daughters. He had an Egyptian servant named Jarha.
35 Sheshan gave his daughter in marriage to his servant Jarha, and she bore him Attai.
[Ed.: The custom was also to keep property and possessions within the family, even if you have to adopt your servant as your son to do so in order to secure both property (for the unmarried daughters) and an heir (for the married daughter).]
Political Genesis 20:1-2 - "
1 Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev
[Ed.: desert places occassionally containing pools of water] and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerrar,
2 and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, 'She is my sister.' Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her."
[Ed.: Abraham "gave" Abimelech his "sister" as a political offering. Technically, Abraham didn't lie, as he explains in verses 11-12, since Sarah was his half-sister. This is a case in which fear became the motivator for political action. It is not a case for marrying one's half-sister, nor is it a case for treating marriage with anything but sacred respect. God intervened for Abimelech's sake, knowing that Abimelech had no idea that Sarah was really Abraham's wife. But God cautioned Abimelech with a strong warning about knowingly violating the boundaries of marriage. (v. 6)].
41:45 - "Pharoah gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On [Ed.: Heliopolis] to be his wife. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt."
[Ed.: Because there was no comment made about God's approval or disapproval of this marriage, it can be assumed that God intended this marriage as a blessing. Joseph was being awarded with every favor Pharoah could think of. Given Pharoah's intentions and God's lack of intervention, it is probably safe to assume that Joseph and Asenath were already in love -- at least, Joseph loved Asenath -- and that this political favor actually took the form of a blessing of a desire. It is also probably safe to assume that Joseph had some positive spiritual influence over his bride-to-be. But this is just conjecture.]
- I'll log more when I get another chance. In the meantime, read these:
1 Kings 3:1 -
2 Chronicles 18:1 -
Relationship
Genesis 2:24 -
3:16 -
Proverbs 31:23 -
Jeremiah 16:2 -
Mark 10:8 -
Calling U.S. Christians to Account
God created marriage. He created people. He created order. To have disorder imposed by law on an already abused system of order does not restore order but brings more chaos that affects more people than we can possibly imagine.
When the Church endorses this deception by turning its head or by making statements such as, "God created them this way," the Church has offered itself to be accountable for the encouragement of chaos.
According to a poll conducted recently by NBC, more than 86% of the American population consider ourselves Christian. I suggest that the first plan of action the Church needs to enact to reserve marriage as it was originally intended is to read the Bible and find out what being a Christian actually means. And I'm talking to the leadership first, the laity second. The second action plan is to contact your representatives. Go to the Action Center right here in Townhall.com and find out how you can take a stand for the sanctity of marriage. And if you are yourself a heterosexual in a rocky marriage, get help from a counselor with a Christian perspective! This is a call to preserve the SANCTITY of marriage!
A house divided cannot stand; a house united cannot fall. (Can't find the author of this quote, but the first half is paraphrased from Mark 3:25, also used by Abraham Lincoln.) American Christians, we need U.S. to get on the same page! (Page references supplied above.)
We're Not Helpless in This!Groups such as the American Family Association are actively fighting this issue by addressing it in the marketplace, where, incidentally, the funding for issues such as this is being generated. We do have a choice in where we spend our dollars, so bcoming active with organizations such as
www.afa.org, and
www.onemillionmoms.org, or
www.onemilliondads.org can make a real impact in our taking a stand on this and other issues.
Other particularly proactive pro-homosexual "marriage" companies include:
- Ford Motor Company and all its affiliates.