Yep, that's the Supreme Court in my former home state that just voted 4 - 3 to overturn the democratic process and invent a "right" to "same sex marriage."
I don't consider it my home state anymore, despite being born and spending 4o years of my life there. No nostalgia at all. No plans to so much as visit.
As far as "same sex marriage," it is something the state or very loud people can assert, but God simply does not recognize it.
After a marriage blessing, I tell the witnesses, "OK, don't leave before signing the license. God recognizes the marriage, but the state needs your signature."
"Same sex marriage" is the opposite - the state will slap a signature on it, but God doesn't recognize it. By what authority do I say this? How about the authority of Jesus?
4 comments:
Well, Tim+, I've never lived in California, and I've only visited there briefly twice in my life, but I think I can relate to your sense of alienation from your home state. And no, I'm not thinking of SD, where I grew up.
What I mean is that all of us who are in Christ are in a very real sense "aliens and exiles" on earth, since heaven is our true home. There are many biblical passages that teach us this, including Phil. 3:20 and Eph. 2:19-20, but the main place this theme is developed in the NT is in the book of 1 Peter.
Alas, many of us now feel like aliens and exiles from TEC as well. And like political refugees around the world today, we know we can't ever back to our homeland as long as the current regime is in power.
Ugh, I posted that comment too hastily. In the last line, I meant that, like political refugees, we exiles from TEC know we can't GO back, as long as the current regime is in power.
The Babylonian exile lasted for a couple generations (say, from 597 BC when Jerusalem first fell to Nebuchadnezzar's army until Babylon itself fell in 539 BC and Cyrus the Persian let the Judean exiles go home if they chose, or some might say it lasted until the rebuilding of the Temple around 515 BC).
Our exile as Protestants from our proper home in the Catholic Church has lasted about 500 years. How long will this new exile of orthodox Anglicans from TEC last? And how long will the Global South Anglicans and all of us aligned with them live in exile from Canterbury? Only God knows.
That's an interesting passage you chose to proof-text to prove your point regarding what Jesus said about same sex marriage and/or the blessing thereof. While you choose to focus on the male/female part, is it not possible that the point of this discourse is fidelity as opposed to sexuality? Further, who are YOU to determine what God the Almighty will or will not bless? It is this type of heresy which weakens any argument you might have regarding this issue: You are not God, you have no power to determine what God can or will bless. Further, if you celebrate the Feast of St. Francis, I'll bet you include a blessing of animals as part of that. How ironic that you would,or any priest, would have no problem whatsoever with this, but would state, without equivocation, that God would neither bless nor recognize the bond between two of God's children.
A blessing of animals is not a sacrament. How ironic that you would equate the blessing of useful animals, under human control, or the blessing of an inanimate house or a cheeseburger, with a liturgy meant to express the very nature of God.
The problem with LGBT or any other revisionism is that they reduce Christianity to therapeutic utility. How does it make me feel?
You actually play into the hands of Feuerbach and other atheists, who argue, "Know the man, know his God." The God of LGBT/TEC is a projection of the baby boom generation, nothing more, and will be dead with that (my own) generation.
The "proof text" I chose is significant, because Jesus hinges his argument for marital fidelity on the image of God, male and female, from Genesis 1 (also cited in Ephesians). So, it IS about sexuality, since the male-female bond and covenant represents the Biblical image of God in a way that same sex does not.
I've no doubt that same sex couples can provide feelings of love, acceptance, warmth and affection for the participants - but that does not "earn" the blessing of the Christian Church.
On the other hand, the cultural idea that "heterosexuality is normal" is not an adequate statement of marriage, either. Heterosexual marriage can be defiled/corrupted when not practiced "according to the purposes for which it was instituted by God." So, there are some fair critiques of the "marriage culture" that come from LGBT observations... but again that doesn't lead to an overthrow of Scripture's clarity and the institution of liturgical practices that convey a false message.
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