In case you need a reminder, this is what a family is supposed to look like. |
Whatever the Supreme Court of the United States is, it is NOT (PRAISE GOD!!!) the final arbiter of eternal truth. However, make no mistake about it, the SCOTUS's ruling today that makes same-sex "marriage" the law of the land across the U.S. is a powerfully historic and tragic moment in American history. With the vote of five foolish Justices deceived by a foul wickedness, we have now officially gone the way of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Of course, as many have noted in recent days, all is not lost. This just means that we--the church, the hands and feet of Jesus--have even more work to do. Sadly, today's ruling also reflects a tragic failing of the church. We have ignored the fundamental truths on marriage, sexuality, and the family for too long. However, this doesn't mean that we are to tuck our tails and accept defeat. Our witness to these eternal truths is more important now than ever. (See: The Marriage Commitment Challenge.) Again, on marriage, we can NEVER give in!
Sadly, obedience to the eternal truths of God may mean that we now run afoul of the civil laws of our land. Many Americans are going to have to make hard choices about whom they are going to obey. It will cost some of us our jobs, and for others, the loss of a job may be only the beginning of the suffering that results from standing for the truth on marriage. As a public school teacher in the state of Georgia, let me say right now: I will NEVER affirm homosexual relationships as normal and healthy, and I will continue to take all opportunities to live and tell the truth on marriage and sexuality.
I'll again close with this: Marriage is the oldest institution in the history of humanity--older than God's covenant with the nation of Israel, older than The Law, older than the church. Marriage is one of the earliest truths revealed by God. If ANYTHING is true, marriage as the union of one man and one woman is true. On this, there can NEVER be compromise.
P.S. With a liberal court, we get the rulings we deserve. Or, in other words, elections have consequences. It's safe to say that, without the election of Barack Obama, we would not have to endure liberal Supreme Court justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor sitting in judgement of marriage. (Both appointed by Obama in his first term, and both voting to legally redefine marriage.) Of course, the election of a republican, especially the likes of John McCain, gives no guarantee of conservative appointments to the Supreme Court. However, justices Roberts and Alito, appointed by George W. Bush, both voted against this sweeping perverse ruling on marriage. All of those who voted for Obama have their fingerprints on today's judicial travesty.
Copyright 2015, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com
The arguments you use to defend your bigotry are the same the church used to defend its fight against interracial marriage, against the end of segregation, against the end of slavery, against women's suffrage, and on and on and on. If you do, indeed, defend this idea until the day you die, your children will remember you the way children remember parents who were in the KKK. Social justice marches forward and pulls along people who use their Bibles to defend their bigotry. So it always has been in the United States, so it is today, and so it will continue to be.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure you understand what is an "argument." The homosexual agenda has nothing to do with the movements to gain civil rights for blacks, women, etc. and many of those involved in such movements have said so.
ReplyDeleteAnd what about your "bigotry" towards Christians? Why is it that only the "values" of liberalism belong in our politics and our legal system? Not one single Founder of the United States would celebrate this decision.
As I've said before, not one single Founder would give the notion that marriage is anything other than the union of one man and one woman more than a half-second’s thought before (rightly) concluding that such an idea is either a terrible joke or spoken by a lunatic.
And today's ruling is EXACTLY why Christians should be involved in politics. God's Word is THE definitive word on "social justice."
So that happened. Scalia and Thomas' heads just exploded. Yea for freedom and liberty! Heh...
ReplyDeleteAs far as the ripples, we'll see how big they get. You can't turn one of the oldest truths in God's creation on its head without some dire consequences.
ReplyDeleteSo your for "freedom and liberty?" Are you going to chant that when the polygamists, incestuous, and the like sue for their "right" to marry?
Quote:
ReplyDelete"Are you going to chant that when the polygamists, incestuous, and the like sue for their "right" to marry?"
Tisk tisk, you shouldn't attempt the classic conservative bait and switch tactic suggesting polygamy and incest (and bestiality and whatever else you can dig up) are equivalent to a legal union between two consenting (and non-related) adults. This isn't any more an invitation of those things than establishment of the right of men and women of different races, ethnic backgrounds, or religions to marry. Remember there was a time in some states when a black man couldn't marry a white woman. Social conservatives (and many religious conservatives) made the same shrill predictions when that curtain fell too.
Quote:
"You can't turn one of the oldest truths in God's creation on its head without some dire consequences."
Does that observation apply to Jesus' ministry which established the new covenant with God? What tradition did observant men follow to atone for sin before the advent of the Lamb of God?
When Jesus brought his ministry to God's children, a curtain representing an old truth (perhaps the very oldest) was rent in twain from top to bottom. The Pharisees predicted dire consequences, and they conspired to make Jesus pay the highest price any man can pay. Who will conspire as they did to undermine and corrupt today's ruling?
A "bait and switch" on polygamy and the like? Perhaps you've never read "Beyond Same-Sex Marriage, A New Strategic Vision for All Our Families & Relationships, July 26, 2006."
ReplyDeleteInitially signed by over 300 LGBT activists, it states:
To have our government define as 'legitimate families' only those households with couples in conjugal relationships does a tremendous disservice to the many other ways in which people actually construct their families, kinship networks, households, and relationships. For example, who among us seriously will argue that the following kinds of households are less socially, economically, and spiritually worthy?
[The ten "kinds of households" listed include "blended families" and "single parent households," plus "Committed, loving households in which there is more than one conjugal partner."] (See American Thinker today for more.)
Of course, I and many others, have been making these arguments for years.
In spite of the book you claim to have read, polygamy and incest and bestiality (and whatever else you can dig up) are NOT LEGALLY equivalent to a marriage union between two consenting (and non-related) adults. You may infer that 300 or more LGBT activists wish it were so, but that does not make it true or likely to become law. This is what I referred to as shrill predictions of doom. It didn't happen when race-related marriage restrictions fell, and it won't happen now.
ReplyDeleteI must ask: Did you really read that book, or did you quote someone from a third party web site who skimmed the dust jacket for useful dirt?
It's not a book. Go here: http://beyondmarriage.org/full_statement.html
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, whether you realize it or not, the polygamists are making the very same arguments as same-sex "marriage" proponents. See: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/04/legalize_polygamy_marriage_equality_for_all.html
http://juicyecumenism.com/2015/02/05/polyamory-activist-hijacks-third-way-pastors-sexuality-logic/
http://www.trevorgrantthomas.com/2008/05/why-not-polygamy.html
I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see the Obama admn. undermine Hillary.
Well since you didn't link it the first time, I figured it was a book, and the date you provided was probably a publish date. My bad.
ReplyDeleteQuote:
"And yes, whether you realize it or not, the polygamists are making the very same arguments as same-sex "marriage" proponents."
By that I assume you mean the Mormons and FLDS people. I think they got blocked by their own church, so I'm not sure how much political clout they can demonstrate on a national level.
Getting back to Hillary, I'm gonna predict this whole "take down the Confederate Flag" movement is intended to prepare ground for a second political group to dig up old video of Hillary claiming she supports the Confederate flag. This would place her firmly on the "wrong" side of a key wedge issue.
I'm very suspicious and cynical regarding these recent developments. Nothing is innocent or accidental anymore. Everything about politics is underhanded and dishonest. As they say, nice guys finish last. They will do to Hillary what they did to Herman Cain and John Edwards and General David Petraeus, -which will save them from having to do to Hillary what they did to JFK.
I can't tell if you really misunderstood what I wrote, or if you're choosing to misinterpret it, so let me say it to you more plainly.
ReplyDeleteWhen slaves were fighting for their freedom in the United States, southern Christians argued that the Bible gave them the right to own slaves. Ephesians 6:5. Titus 2:5. Moses' Pentateuch. This is a historical fact.
During the Civil Rights battles of the 1960s, southern Christians used the Bible to defend segregation, their fight against interracial marriage, and acts of horrific racially motivated violance. Deut. 32:8. Moses' Pentateuch. The major prophets. The minor prophets. This is a historical fact.
When women began fighting for their suffrage, evangelical Christians used the Bible to defend laws that kept women from voting. Collosians 3:18. 1 Corinthians 14:35. 1 Corinthians 11:9. This is a historical fact.
This is the short list. Christians like you have been saying "God's Word is THE definitive word on 'social justice'" to to deny minorities the rights granted to them by the Constitution since they arrived on this continent. Sometimes the Supreme Court has to intervene and move the country forward (Loving vs. Virginia, Brown vs. the Board of Education, etc,). Sometimes Congress has to amend the Constitution (Fifteenth, Nineteenth, etc.). Once, an entire civil war was fought!
Likewise, it has been a go-to battle cry for decades that the Founders would decry the advances minorities have made in this country. Would the Founders support marriage equality? Maybe not. But most of them would also have thought women voting and slavery being abolished were terrible jokes or words spoken by a lunatic.
We learn. We grow. We get better. The country steps forward and drags evangelical Christians, kicking and screaming, with it.
You can choose to not believe those facts. You can choose to ignore them. But they are facts. I will happily read your 27 diatribes against marriage equality if you will read a history book.
I know I'm not going to change your mind today, Brother. You're too lost in your own echo chamber, and I understand, I've been there too. I want to leave you with this thought. (And don't worry about yelling back at me because this is the last time I'll visit your website. I've got to heed the advice about about to give you.) How you're living your life right now, is it how Jesus would be living his life in modern day America? No, it's not. He wouldn't have lived his life defending slavery or racism or any of the other hateful things evangelical Christians have wasted their lives defending. Don't waste yours either, Brother.
"Nothing is innocent or accidental anymore."
ReplyDeleteLately, I've found myself thinking the same thing.
Although, I haven't quite gotten to "Everything about politics is underhanded and dishonest."
Yes, just like what is happening with marriage today, some Christians misused Scripture to justify their sin. It is also a historical fact that it was Christians who led the way in the abolitionist movement.
ReplyDeleteI'm way ahead of you on reading history. I'm currently working on a historical book, thus I'm currently reading over a dozen history books: (Democracy in America, Memoir of Samuel Slater, The Making of America, The 5000 Year Leap, The Industrial Revolution, Light for the World: Edison and the Power Industry, The Automobile Revolution: The Impact of an Industry, A History of American Christianity) to name a few.
I challenge you to do this as well: Examine the Bible and look for passages that discuss marriage or family. There are thousands of them. Take notice of the number of times that "husband and wife" or "mother and father" are mentioned.
Also, as far as you never visiting my site again, if I don't get feedback such as yours, how will visitors to my site get a contrary opinion? (I really do value a back-and-forth like we've had, thus it doesn't have the feel of an "echo chamber.") As long as things are civil, on topic, and not vulgar, I will never delete your comments.
As to the latter: Well, you're still relatively young. Give it a few years. To every thing there is a season. Your season for this belief will surely come in time. -Unless of course the Lord our Savior returns first. Methinks on that day a whole lot of politicians, media moguls, propagandists, and money changers are going to be struck down by Holy Fire.
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