I’d like to direct your attention to a couple of links before I have another say of my own on the issue of homosexual marriage.
First of all, Ed Veith at Cranach links to an article by an Australian sociologist, from The Australian:
Phillips’s use of language implies opponents of gay marriage are likely to be motivated by “old-time religion”, which is by definition “incompatible with modern society”. From this standpoint, criticism or the questioning of the moral status of gay marriage violates the cultural standards of “modern society”. What we have here is the casual affirmation of a double standard: tolerance towards supporters of gay marriage and intolerance directed towards its opponents.
Then, from World Magazine, a report on an effort by military chaplains to get legal protection for their right to believe, and to express their belief, that homosexual behavior is sinful.
And that, I think, goes to the heart of the matter. The true goal of the “gay” movement, I believe, is more than just to end restrictions on homosexuality and homosexual behavior. It is to marginalize, and then criminalize, traditional religious beliefs.
Any religion that holds to the authority of Scripture, whether directly (as in the case of Orthodox Jews) or mediated through the New Testament (as with Christians) is a threat to the spirit of the age. The installation of the “gay” agenda in our laws, and the demand that everyone must respect homosexuality on penalty of law, provides an opportunity to turn matters of faith into matters of statute.
Muslims are a special problem. I’m not sure how Muslims will be handled. The Muslim conundrum (for the Left) may in fact be the only thing to prevent the disasters I see coming.
This is what I see—First, more and more people will lose their jobs on account of their religious beliefs, and they will find they have no recourse to law.
The slogan will be (I’m almost sure it will be worded this way) “There Is No Right To Hate!”
Once that step has been accomplished, the imprisonment and “reeducation” of dissenters will follow, sooner or later. No appeal to constitutional rights can prevail, because “There Is No Right To Hate!”
The church will go underground. Maybe some of us will be able to flee to China, or parts of Africa, where (one hopes) there will by then be some measure of freedom of religion.
I’m not saying true Christianity will disappear. The church will always exist, if only in a persecuted remnant, until the return of the Lord.
Still, I think more and more often of Luke 18:8, “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
I was thinking today that Christians may look to politics or civil service as God-given occupations, if they can tackle them, for the purpose of fulfilling their proper roles, that being to defend justice and promote mercy.
The Gay Rights Movement will push for whatever it can get. In the past, it was too easy for those who identified themselves as Christians to cast a blind eye to unequal opportunity and unequal justice(unequal laws)for gay persons and to look down upon them as gutter sewage. I find myself in agreement with Obama that equal rights are the way to go, but not as far as gay marriage contracts. The New York model allowing marriage contracts with religious safeguards looks like Trojan Horse, which it probably is.
I have known a few ‘christian gays’ and I worked closely with westernized muslim colleagues when I was working with refugees. They both carried their own heavy burdens within the context they were living. I believe gays and muslims are exactly the kind of persons that can effectively challenge Christians to discern the difference between their religion and their spiritual lives. The Christian Church has always suffered persecution throughout its history and when it didn’t it became so culturally assimilated that it became an empty shell of what it once was.
Nobody but God knows exactly how many countless Christian people were slaughtered and/or imprisoned in Russia during the 20th Century. The Russian soil is saturated with martyrs blood and out from it has sprung a reinvigorated Church and Spirituality that was never totally destroyed even though it was driven for the most part underground. At the same time there is a firmly established militant scientific humanism in Russia that will challenge and mock the Church every step of the way. China really doesn’t have a Christian tradition, but the cultural and spiritual void in Chinese society is driving many to explore and discover many religions and the underground Christian Church is steadily growing, while at the same time as militant scientific humanism is as firmly established there as it is in Russia. With Modern Mass Communication, Muslims are more aware of the fact that most muslims are being killed and persecuted by other muslims, who are either zealously religious or zealously secular in their own self-interest.
Many North American and European christian churches are so pacified by cultural assimilation that they have lost their spiritual vitality. The Church needs to be challenged to live what they truly believe and those choices will play out differently. Without friction there is no heat to fill the apathetic and cold emptiness. You can be born into a religion, but you must choose to live a spiritual life that will transform the cultural and religious trappings of one’s mind, heart, and soul.
I think homosexuals who want the right to marry just want the rights of married people and nothing else.
Watch what happens.