…we were surprised when former CT editor David Neff on Facebook praised Campolo’s move. As he put it in an email to me clarifying his comment, “I think the ethically responsible thing for gay and lesbian Christians to do is to form lasting, covenanted partnerships. I also believe that the church should help them in those partnerships in the same way the church should fortify traditional marriages.”
At CT, we’re saddened that David has come to this conclusion. Saddened because we firmly believe that the Bible teaches that God intends the most intimate of covenant relationships to be enjoyed exclusively by a man and a woman. We’ve stated this view explicitly in many editorials, and it is implicit but clear in many of our feature stories.
Still, many of our readers become alarmed when a prominent evangelical leader says otherwise. Add the changes of mind to the legal juggernaut sweeping through the land to legitimize gay marriage, and the orthodox can become demoralized. They fear that history will sweep all of us into this view eventually.
But it’s not at all certain that the rapid cultural shift in America on gay marriage will be mirrored in the Christian church. North American and European Christians who believe in gay marriage are a small minority in these regions, and churches that ascribe to a more liberal sexual ethic continue to wither.
Very sad to see that former CT Editor David Neff loses his bearings on Christian sexual ethics and anthropology…
We all need prayer in this difficult time.
You know, this is all a test by the Almighty. Not sure I’ve figured out what the test is, but it surely is a test.
Not sure whether it is being obedient to His Word, or how we react to those who aren’t.
What Neff and Campolo (and before that, David Gushee) did are constantly being thrown at me. “These intelligent evangelicals all gave in and supported same-sex marriage, why can’t you?”
I am frequently reminded of these lines from Robert Bolt’s [i] A Man For All Seasons[/i]:
[blockquote] The Duke of Norfolk: Oh confound all this. I’m not a scholar, I don’t know whether the marriage was lawful or not but dammit, Thomas, look at these names! Why can’t you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!
Sir Thomas More: And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship? [/blockquote]
This is not a popularity contest. I don’t care what the cool kids think. My purpose and goal is to –
[blockquote]attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that [I] may no longer be [a] child, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, [I must] grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love….
[I must] testify in the Lord, that [I] no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. [/blockquote]
The aid and comfort that Neff, Campolo, and Gushee give the enemy is very distressing.