Morally Bankrupt

This is not a religious column with an emphasis based on the notion that I am a member of the perfect Christian denomination and therefore all of the other denominations are wrong. Far from it, in fact, because I can see the flaws in some of the doctrines held by my own church. Having said that, I also believe those flaws are miniscule and I can live with them as they do not reflect on salvation, faith, or grace in general. Most of the other Christian denominations are similar in this vein with some being more/less liberal than others, etc.

But every now and then a story will jump out at you that will leave you shaking your head in wonder at how things are apparently heading these days. Last Friday one of the major Christian denominations was featured on Fox news and the story reported was their decision to ordain ministers that are openly homosexual - as long as those minister’s relationships were kept monogamous. This gives a whole new meaning to the ministerial requirement of being the ‘husband of one wife’ as instructed by the Bible in 1rst Timothy!

The story revolved for the most part about the fear of a loss of membership in the denomination and the possible ramifications within the church that would result from the passage of this ordinance. Of course, since it was a news story there were interviews of various individuals, both pro and con. The one interview that struck me most was provided by a church leader who said, “We can learn not to define ourselves by negation.” This quote was from a lesbian minister as she warned the church followers about “flouting Scripture when they had made past changes that are now seen as successful”. She was referring to the doctrinal change that allowed women to be accepted and ordained as ministers only a few years previous.

In 1rst Corinthians 5:1-2 Paul writes, “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.” There were sexually-deviant things going on in the church at Corinth, and some of those things were so bad that they were even considered taboo by the Gentiles. Paul questioned that instead of allowing it to happen; they should have been ashamed of it and put that person out of the church to begin with. But instead they became ‘puffed up’ (pious) and accepted it as the right thing to do. I see a lot of similarity here, and though the sin mentioned here is not exactly of a homosexual nature, what Paul records here is still a sexually-perverse sin. That is close enough to being ‘apples to apples’ for me.

I also can’t help but wonder if the modern church denomination mentioned on the Fox News report had actually preached the Word (‘thus saith the Lord’) by proclaiming that homosexuality is sin and an abomination to God; would they have had members within their churches that would have lobbied for this amendment in the first place?

This, overall, is yet another example of what happens when we disregard what the Bible teaches and instead try and conform to the standards seemingly set in place for us by the world. If you take a stand and proclaim that homosexuality is a sin, you are called a homophobe or worse and immediately discredited by everyone, it seems. However, although the fact may be submitted by a perceived homophobe, it does not change the truth that a homosexual relationship is sinful and morally wrong.

God’s Word teaches us that we should love sinners. We should be actively doing our best to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world as instructed in the Great Commission. Salvation by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ brings about a change in our lives. That should be our goal as a church. It may prevent things like this from happening in our own churches if we do.

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