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The Standard of Liberty Voice
For God,Religion,Family,Freedom
A publication of The Standard of Liberty Foundation
www.standardofliberty.org
April 1, 2013, #68

Chapel Doors Open to "Gay" Marriage?

More and more churches are making the concessions that gayness is pretty much innate and permanent in normal healthy young people and insisting that this is why we all have to embrace homosexuality as perfectly fine. This is pretty crazy for several reasons, among them, (1) science is on the nongenetic side, (2) just because people say they were born with some tendency doesn't mean it isn't bad, (3) people fall in and out of it, and (4) homosexuality is maladaptive, harmful, and condemned by God.

Still, even as they make concessions, some churches continue to maintain that acting out homosexually is prohibited. Such a church remains officially opposed to gay marriage. Apparently, open gays who say they aren't acting out (whatever that means) can enjoy full fellowship, including all the opportunities and blessings of church employment, education, missions, callings, and the church's most sacred ordinances including marriage (albeit of the "mixed orientation" variety) just as worthy heterosexuals can.

Sad to say, when we accept something in principle, it will naturally become a reality. No matter what the written rules or laws, it is public sentiment, spoken or unspoken, that will rule the day, especially in a morally relativistic and radically individualist society. So we ask, if public sentiment within a church has embraced the principle of homosexuality as normal and fine, what is going to stop the embrace within that church of gay coupling and, ultimately, of gay marriage?

If you think we're out on a limb, just hear us out. Say a legally married gay or lesbian couple moves into your congregation. (It wouldn't matter in what state they were married or if the state in which they live does not recognize same-sex marriage; it just matters that they act like a legally married couple.) How does this unfold? It isn't hard to imagine. They present themselves as a married couple when they introduce themselves. "Hi! I'm so-and-so and this is my husband/wife, so-and-so." Nobody's going to contradict them. Maybe they have children leftover from broken heterosexual relationships/marriages, they adopted, or they used sperm donors or surrogate mothers. They are legally the parents of these children. Hence, we are being handed what for all social intents and purposes functions like a marriage and perhaps a family with growing children at home. How can we pretend otherwise? At this point it appears much too late to do or say anything negative. Who would want to break up a family? Since they went to the trouble of getting married, it stands to reason they are acting out sexually, that is, homosexually, which is supposed to be prohibited by the church they belong to. But who thinks about those things? Who is going to ask? No one. They are married and it's none of our business.

Despite all the protestations of discrimination and rejection we hear from gay organizations, how do you think the gay family will be treated in your congregation? We'll hazard a guess. They'll be treated as all the other married couples, parents, and families in your congregation are treated: as a legitimate sovereign unit. The whole congregation will get used to this very quickly; it's just the way things are and nobody's going to do anything about it. Besides, everyone wants to be known as not just tolerant but "enlightened,"" loving," "Christ-like." This wholesale embrace of homosexual behavior under the protection of marriage and family will be further facilitated if the gay couple is outgoing, attractive, accomplished, talented, always willing to serve. If  perceived as put-upon victims of an intolerant society they will likely be shown even more special attention and validation. 

Yes, in no time at all gay marriage will be legitimized within your own chapel doors. The gay couple's memberships will be read and voted in as a family. They'll be asked to give talks from the pulpit and introduce  themselves as a couple and family. The gay couple will be notified, as parents are, when their child is asked to give a talk or is receiving an award. The gay couple will sit in meetings rubbing each others' backs, participate in classes on parenting and family, attend special meetings and activities such as baptisms, all as a couple and family. They'll share sweet and funny personal stories about marriage and parenting just like everybody else does and we'll all nod and laugh. They'll appear as a couple for interviews and callings. They'll be teachers and leaders. Their children will rave about their two dads or two moms and all the other kids will grow up being taught that homosexuality is normal and equal to heterosexuality, if not better.

You ask how acting-out homosexuals could be treated as equals to virtuous heterosexuals? Isn't what they do unchaste? Don't they get excommunicated or something? Maybe so, but accepting homosexuality in principle will change that. Even if somebody decides to wake up to the fact that gay marriage is legitimized sodomy, there are excuses already in place  to rationalize the behavior under the auspices of "true love" and "marriage." False notions are spreading, such as:  homosexuality can be chaste; and even if it isn't, the hope of gay marriage and gay marriage itself would encourage monogamy; monogamy is better than promiscuity; that is, monogamous, married sodomy is better than promiscuous, unmarried sodomy! Really? It may be better in that deadly diseases aren't spread around, but it is definitely harmful in a wide variety of other ways to the people involved, an exponentially high risk of anal cancer in males for one, not to mention rebellion against God. Sodomy, monogamous or promiscuous, is an abomination, and this evil engenders more evils too numerous to mention here.

It's funny how church people think they have to (pretend to?) embrace homosexuality to keep from losing the homosexuals in their families and congregations. Their stance is, how can we influence them if we oppose them? But do we really think we can trick people into compliance by pretending they are doing nothing wrong? Do we think that in giving them an inch they won't take a mile? Sorry, but even the most well-meaning church people can't turn unrepentant, proud, self-proclaimed homosexuals into humble, compliant penitents. Activists aren't about changing themselves; they are about changing the order of society, the church, the world, and are obviously having great success. The more concessions are made, the more power and influence the homosexualists wield.

So, as events in society, government, and churches increasingly indicate, same-sex sexual coupling, or gay marriage, which is another name for sodomy, formerly actively resisted, will slip into our way of life without compulsory means. Because we have accepted it in principle, a blind eye will be turned toward what we once thought of, and the Holy Scriptures refer to, as abominable lusts and behaviors. As one active church member recently put it, "Well, the scriptures say that, but we have to live in the real world."

It makes one wonder how far in the future formerly staunch churches will routinely host gay full-on weddings. The head-in-the-sand sentiment will read: They love each other, they're faithful to each other, so don't they deserve to be together forever too? According to how they seem to live and how we treat them, there seems to be no reason why not. It is intellectually dishonest to accept gays, normal and fine, as "who they are" while denying them the same opportunities and privileges everyone else enjoys.

But even if churches resist hosting gay marriages themselves (at least until mandated by government),  can you see that for all practical societal purposes the fight is over? It's a done deal. It's here. Homosexuality (behaviors included), masked as a permanent identity, disguised as love and marriage, redefining and deconstructing family, and exploiting, harming, indoctrinating, and recruiting children, is boldly walking through the chapel doors. Think about how heterosexual coupling has always been modeled to each rising generation in subtle, unspoken ways, and how homosexual coupling is now being modeled as equally appropriate. As a teacher recently admonished a Sunday School class, "There are all kinds of families now and we better get used to it."

We at SoL say the exact opposite. We may have to watch this and all manner of evil intrude on our own local congregations and everywhere else, but we most certainly had better not get used to it. We must remember that we make our covenants with God, not men. We may have to walk out of certain meetings or classes where homosexualism is modeled or taught. We may have to refuse certain assignments or callings if they yoke us with open homosexualists. We may have to opt ourselves and our children out of noncompulsory activities (even if our kids don't like it) that are run by proud homosexualists. We may have to undo at home as best we can what wrong ideas, spoken or unspoken, we and our families are inadvertently exposed to within the doors of our own local chapels. Even for our general scriptural beliefs having to do with sin, repentance, and Christ as Savior, we may be the ones who really are discriminated against and rejected, and it may get worse than that. We may be slandered and persecuted from within our own congregations. It may get so bad that we have to relocate in order to protect our children.

Actually, these things are already happening. Not only is gay coupling (and all manner of other sins) being excused and accepted, modeled and taught in church congregations, but those who stand for truth and right are being cruelly persecuted. It mustn't matter. Unlike our gay brothers and sisters and their spineless families who can't seem to survive without the approval and adoration of just about everybody, we must grow a thick skin, endure the cold shoulder or outright condemnation from friends, family, neighbors, and fellow congregants, and put our complete trust in the Lord. If we believe we will someday meet our Maker and be judged, if we truly have charity for our fellow man as in caring what becomes of him, we must keep our minds firm and stand for truth and righteousness whenever we can and should.

--Stephen & Janice Graham

 

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