But It’s Not Worse Than Any Other Sin! (Or Is It?)

My wife asks me why I get so worked up over homosexual sin. “You don’t get as mad about heterosexual sin,” she says. Well, that’s not quite true. All sin is damning. But I am unaware of any adulterers’ rights marches or fornicators’ lobbyists. (Well, maybe there are one or two; but when you see things like lobbying for the rights of single people, it’s so absurd that it’s not worth bothering with. And those greeting cards for adulterers never quite caught on, I’m guessing. Also, NAMBLA doesn’t count, yet. Most people still instinctively retch at the name, and justifiably so. We’ll see how long the rhetoric remains on the side of those who oppose NAMBLA’s “policies.” That’s a euphemism, in case you didn’t catch it.) Whatever sin is currently being paraded around as normal, that’s the sin that will receive the most attention. Whether it should or not is another question.

And, frankly, I think homosexual sin might indeed be “worse” than most heterosexual sin. I didn’t say more damning. Damned is damned is damned. But did you ever notice in the Old Testament how God prescribes punishments relative to the crimes? He doesn’t say “stone everyone,” or “pardon everyone.” Distinctions are made between, say, sleeping with your aunt or with someone of the same sex, and lying (as in, telling a falsehood). It is God who gives the regulations and the penalties for breaking them. And they are not all the same.

Homosexual sin fundamentally inverts the human sexual relationship as God created it. Heterosexual sin (still damning, remember), in a twisted, distorted way, still preserves that created order–“order” here meaning “the way it’s supposed to be.” The idea behind the idea that it might be okay to have a physical relationship with whomever you please, because it’s really the inner “love” that matters, is simply and irreversibly opposed to the way we are made. We are not souls having a bodily experience; we are “us.” Souls and bodies cannot be separated. What your body does, you do. What your soul does, you do. You are you, not some abstract “self” trapped in a physical body. Christians believe in the resurrection of the body, not the resurrection of the soul. Even if all sins are equally damning, does that mean that the darkness and gnashing of teeth are equally dark and loud in all corners of Hell? Speculation aside, some sins have more damnable consequences than others, and some sins tear more readily at the fabric of human society.

Timotheos

School Expels Homosexual; “Outrage;” blah, blah, blah…

Why is this news? Everyone clear now? If you choose to attend a university that says you can’t be a homosexual, and you’re a homosexual, what do you think will happen? You’ve got only one guess.

The university makes sure everyone knows its policy on homosexuals, but apparently they haven’t been as careful with their policy on Christianity.

One of Johnson’s close friends, Jennifer Roberts, a senior from Belfry, said “everybody on campus is extremely upset about this.”

Roberts said Johnson was a person of high character, honesty and trustworthiness who had distinguished himself in several campus activities, especially theater.

“He’s openly gay but doesn’t flaunt it,” she said, then added: “I think you would be floored by the amount [that’s “number,” sweetheart] of gay people at our school.”

“I would consider Jason a Christian because so many of his values are Christian,” she said. “He embodies everything a friend should be. A lot of people are suffering because he is not here.” [Ah yes, the “Christian” “value” of “friendship.” Suffering? It seems Cumberlands students are prone to hyperbole.]

Roberts and Johnson worked together on a student-run television show, Patriot Talk. “I’m producer, he’s director,” she said.

Johnson was stage manager for a recent production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, and was a key person in the theater outreach program. [Outreach to whom? Non-theater students? Heterosexuals?]

Roberts said some students will not be afraid to express their outrage.

“They’re already printing T-shirts that say ‘Jesus loves gay people, too,'” she said.

Well, that’s sweet. Of course He does! What does that have to do with it? He loves all sinners, even the open, non-flaunting type. That doesn’t mean He wants them fornicating with whomever. Just like He doesn’t want heterosexuals jumping into bed with the next person of the opposite sex with working genitalia who happens by. Come on, Baptists! Hell is still hot. Sentimentalism masquerading as love has infected even the fire-breathing Bible thumpers!

Timotheos

Wednesday in Holy Week

Merciful and everlasting God the Father, who did not spare your only Son but delivered him up for us all that he might bear our sins on the cross, grant that our hearts may be so fixed with steadfast faith in our Savior that we may not fear the power of any adversaries; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

[Timotheos]