At a black Pentecostal church in Raleigh, N.C., the Rev. Patrick Wooden entered the sanctuary on Sunday to a standing ovation, exulting that God’s “high hand” had led voters last week to pass a statewide amendment banning same-sex marriage. He took to the pulpit and denounced President Obama for taking a stand “in support of sin,” and “in opposition to the biblical model of marriage.”
A thousand miles away, at a predominantly white, Lutheran church in Madison, Wis., where a rainbow banner greets churchgoers arriving for services, the Rev. Susan Schneider preached that gay men and lesbians were included when Jesus commanded his followers to love one another: “Knocking down the walls is what Jesus was after.”
Mr. Obama’s declaration last week that he supports same-sex marriage prompted ministers around the country to take to their pulpits on Sunday and preach on the issue. But in the clash over homosexuality, the battle lines do not simply pit ministers against secular advocates for gay rights. Religion is on both sides in this conflict. The battle is actually church versus church, minister versus minister, and Scripture versus Scripture.
[blockquote]The Roman Catholic Church teaches that homosexual behavior is a sin, but there are Catholic priests who secretly bless gay unions.[/blockquote]
That’s an interesting statement. I wonder whether it’s true.
Later on in the article, Michael Coogan, “a lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew Bible at Harvard Divinity School and the author of ‘God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says.’†posits the slavery pseudo-argument.
Then, we’ve got, “Pastor Schneider…said in her sermon that she was pleased when the seventh and eighth graders in the church’s confirmation class decided to write a letter to local politicians in support of same-sex marriage.”
Matthew 18:6 comes to mind.
There are no scriptures which condone gay marriage. Most reporters do no know this. If fairness is a biblical concept which applies to same sex marriage, then what about a man who wants to marry his adult daughter?
RE: “Religion is on both sides in this conflict. The battle is actually church versus church, minister versus minister, and Scripture versus Scripture.”
An interesting meme that the New York Times is promoting: “Christians basically take both sides of the issue in equal number.”
Of course, that’s patently false. Christians — even in the US alone and not counting the far more conservative Christians in other parts of the world — overwhelmingly recognize that Scripture, tradition, and reason oppose sex acts between men or between women. In fact, the very few ecclesial organizations that do support sex acts between men or between women are plummeting in membership, money and attendance. So what you’ve got is: 99% of the country’s Christian leaders — pastors/teachers/lay leaders/etc recognize that sex acts between men or between women are intrinsically sinful and disordered — and another 1% say otherwise.
The result is that there is a chasm between the 99% and the 1%, such that the former generally doesn’t recognize the latter as people who believe the same Gospel [and truth be told the same is true of the 1% as well]. The two groups don’t share the same Jesus or the same Gospel; they represent two different faiths.
They are also saying that what one person says about scripture is equally valid, equally authoritative and can be reduced to “proof texts” and sound bites.
If scripture is so malleable as to mean what anyone wants it to mean then why should it be authoritative for anything? And this would suit the secular press just as well.
Br. Michael,
Your comment reminded me of this quote from Luke T. Johnson’s book [i][b]The Creed[/b][/i] –
“If each Christian decides what Christianity means and which of its norms are truly norms, the church has then become a club that one can join on one’s own terms.â€
There are churches that are obedient and follow the will of God, and then there are churches that are seduced by the culture of this world and fall away from the Gospel. It has been so since the days of Jesus and the Apostles, sexual immorality being one of the primary snares. Paul and others repeatedly warned us of this, but the false teachers and false churches still take thousands of people away to condemnation on false teachings.
GetReligion will be pleased, it seems that the NYTimes has finally taken notice of their constant complaint that the religious left, primarily the old mainlines, are all but invivisble to the mainstream media in these debates.
Now, if they can also acknowledge GetRelgion’s [i]other[/i] big observation about the religious left – its catastrophic and ongoing collapse – so they can avoid giving the suggestion that this is a simple 50/50 debate among churches and church leaders, we’d have something in the ballpark of journalistic information rather than the likelihood of another bit of advocacy.
First rule: Under no circumstances ought a reporter to contact a serious Biblical scholar or theologian. Just pick up the phone book and dial the local Methodist pastor or whatever…. After all, we know where we are heading anyway with this article.