It depends on the depth of your delusion
“So you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy."
Exodus 31:13
(Bold and underlined print is my addition).
(Bold and underlined print is my addition).
Evangelical gadfly Tony Campolo has come out in favor of full acceptance, by churches, of same-sex married couples. He released the statement on his blog a few days ago. Campolo explains the process of his reasoning this way:
"One reason I am changing my position on this issue is that, through Peggy, I have come to know so many gay Christian couples whose relationships work in much the same way as our own. Our friendships with these couples have helped me understand how important it is for the exclusion and disapproval of their unions by the Christian community to end. We in the Church should actively support such families. Furthermore, we should be doing all we can to reach, comfort and include all those precious children of God who have been wrongly led to believe that they are mistakes or just not good enough for God, simply because they are not straight.
I like Campolo's reasoning, I really do. I honestly believe Campolo has struggled greatly with this matter, and his conclusions seem logical. I don't accept Campolo's reasoning because I can't accept it. If Campolo were the creator of marriage, if he were the founder of Christianity, and had died on a cross for my sins to save and free me, then I could accept Campolo's reasoning and conclusions. Campolo may claim whatever religious tradition he likes, but the Bible places upon those who claim faith in Jesus Christ, that Jesus is God's human/divine representation to the world. Campolo is not God's savior, I am not God's savior, Billy Graham isn't God's savior, and etc. God points only and always to Jesus as his answer for sin and slavery to sin. Make no bones about it, there is not one place in Scripture where homosexuality is addressed that homosexuality is not viewed in a completely negative way. The standard for what marriage is, is consistent, from the Old Testament through the New Testament. Jesus, speaking of marriage, affirmed the picture of what God intends for marriage:
I get a lot of pushback from progressive Christians because their acceptance of gay marriage seems, on its face, reasonable. I have no doubt, that they, like Campolo, have invested time, sweat, and tears struggling with the matter of Same-Sex Marriage. The difference between me and the progressive Christians, like Tony Campolo, is I don't begin with the imagined or real needs of individuals or groups. As a Christian my thinking begins with what the Bible teaches. I do not always like what the Bible has to say about issues and matters concerning human beings. But Jesus never asks for my opinion, he only asks for my trust and obedience.
Honestly, were I having a conversation with Campolo I'd ask him to hold up his hands, I would hold up mine as well, and ask, "Are there any nail holes in your hands or are there any nail holes in my hands?" I understand that's a bit snarky on my part, but I want to establish who is and who is not authoritative on matters, to which the Bible clearly speaks. Like it or not: He who has the nail prints in his hands and feet, the thorn marks upon his brow, the spear hole in his side, the marks from the scourge on his back, who died and rose from the dead is the one who tells us what is true about marriage. Jesus claims that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. Jesus gets the final say so.
Jesus' message isn't easy; isn't always fun; doesn't always, at first glance, make sense; and goes against what the world around us feels and wants. The expectation of Jesus Christ is that we trust and obey him (John 8:31-32). 7 times from John 13 to John 17 Jesus makes obedience equal with love for him. That people can make their sexual immorality look a lot like love doesn't raise their or anyone else's sexual immorality to the standard of what God calls love. Campolo wants people to accept people, and that is certainly an admirable and, indeed even Christlike attitude. The problem isn't the acceptance of people. The problem Campolo and other progressives ignore is that their way of acceptance is accepting people Jesus tells us are enslaved to sin. Jesus died to set us free from slavery to sin, so there is no way to make acceptance of enslavement acceptable to Jesus. Jesus accepts all who come to him, but if we are in Christ then we are dead to sin. If we are dead to sin then we don't continue in sexual immorality.
NOW HERE IS A BIG PART OF THE REAL PROBLEM:
What does freedom from sexual immorality look like? What is the discipleship process for the sexually broken, and how does the "everyday" kind of Christian join the sexually broken in that discipleship walk? The Ex-gay ministry Exodus International was a horrendous failure! The idea behind ministries like Exodus is outreach to broken people by people who are called "wounded healers". The problem with homosexuals being "wounded healers" is it doesn't work if the healers aren't healed. If you put two people who have the same disease into a room together, with the expectation they'll cure one another, you are in for an UGLY SHOCK. Before expecting a wounded healer to work with others toward their cure, the wounded healer has to be under the power of the cure. The religious organizations supporting Exodus International, in truth, were, largely, using the ministry as a hazardous waste dump for people they didn't want to deal with. Exodus International didn't fail because God can't cure homosexuality, but because Christians were and are chiefly indifferent to the freedom of sexually broken people. If "everyday" Christians (not suffering with Same-Sex Attraction) had invested themselves in the sexually broken (and not just LGBT persons), working and walking with them toward wholeness in Christ, the Exodus International story would have been very different.
“that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Matthew 19:4-6 (NIV)
Honestly, were I having a conversation with Campolo I'd ask him to hold up his hands, I would hold up mine as well, and ask, "Are there any nail holes in your hands or are there any nail holes in my hands?" I understand that's a bit snarky on my part, but I want to establish who is and who is not authoritative on matters, to which the Bible clearly speaks. Like it or not: He who has the nail prints in his hands and feet, the thorn marks upon his brow, the spear hole in his side, the marks from the scourge on his back, who died and rose from the dead is the one who tells us what is true about marriage. Jesus claims that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. Jesus gets the final say so.
Jesus' message isn't easy; isn't always fun; doesn't always, at first glance, make sense; and goes against what the world around us feels and wants. The expectation of Jesus Christ is that we trust and obey him (John 8:31-32). 7 times from John 13 to John 17 Jesus makes obedience equal with love for him. That people can make their sexual immorality look a lot like love doesn't raise their or anyone else's sexual immorality to the standard of what God calls love. Campolo wants people to accept people, and that is certainly an admirable and, indeed even Christlike attitude. The problem isn't the acceptance of people. The problem Campolo and other progressives ignore is that their way of acceptance is accepting people Jesus tells us are enslaved to sin. Jesus died to set us free from slavery to sin, so there is no way to make acceptance of enslavement acceptable to Jesus. Jesus accepts all who come to him, but if we are in Christ then we are dead to sin. If we are dead to sin then we don't continue in sexual immorality.
NOW HERE IS A BIG PART OF THE REAL PROBLEM:
What does freedom from sexual immorality look like? What is the discipleship process for the sexually broken, and how does the "everyday" kind of Christian join the sexually broken in that discipleship walk? The Ex-gay ministry Exodus International was a horrendous failure! The idea behind ministries like Exodus is outreach to broken people by people who are called "wounded healers". The problem with homosexuals being "wounded healers" is it doesn't work if the healers aren't healed. If you put two people who have the same disease into a room together, with the expectation they'll cure one another, you are in for an UGLY SHOCK. Before expecting a wounded healer to work with others toward their cure, the wounded healer has to be under the power of the cure. The religious organizations supporting Exodus International, in truth, were, largely, using the ministry as a hazardous waste dump for people they didn't want to deal with. Exodus International didn't fail because God can't cure homosexuality, but because Christians were and are chiefly indifferent to the freedom of sexually broken people. If "everyday" Christians (not suffering with Same-Sex Attraction) had invested themselves in the sexually broken (and not just LGBT persons), working and walking with them toward wholeness in Christ, the Exodus International story would have been very different.
"If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."
1 Corinthians 13:3
Lots of churches, para-church organizations, and individual Christians gave a great deal of financial support to the poor messed up people at Exodus International. Plenty of Christians have decided they're going to suffer the "slings and arrows" of unrighteous people who don't like Christians in our ever evolving and sexually saturated culture.
I certainly don't agree with what Tony Campolo is doing. But I gotta say, if you don't like the direction Campolo and other progressives are going then hold to the Bible's teachings, reach out to sexually broken people, work and walk with them toward relationship with God, and the freedom that brings. You don't have to know exactly what to do. When you offer God's love the false love of the sexually broken will show itself to be false. Quit focusing on their sin and believe the God, "who makes you (and them) holy." With the grace and truth in Jesus Christ the sin ceases to be a problem. Stop obsessing about the sickness, live under the power and authority of the cure yourself. Go to the sick slaves to offer the cure through relationship with them!
ONLY God makes holy. So my prayer is that God will give Tony Campolo and other progressives, who've bought into the delusion, eyes to see that only God can make marriage holy.
ONLY God makes holy. So my prayer is that God will give Tony Campolo and other progressives, who've bought into the delusion, eyes to see that only God can make marriage holy.
Just Some Thoughts,
Lonnie
