Time to wade carefully into these waters.

There's an interesting discussion of SSM going on over at Alas.  It's one of many such threads; Alas is a big proponent of SSM and makes excellent arguments on behalf of his cause.  I made a couple of comments in the current thread, but mostly I'm just watching.

However, it has reminded me that I haven't posted anything on this topic, and it is a topic that I think about.  I'll be posting a series of brief articles on this subject, although LTF will not become an SSM blog by any stretch.  (I have 200 daily readers to Andrew Sullivan's 200K, but that doesn't make me immune from Sullivan Syndrome, in which one's personal interest in an issue becomes all-consuming.)

I want to be very careful in developing these posts.  This is a contentious and very emotional issue for a lot of people on all sides.  I have a strong viewpoint, but with a fair amount of nuance (it's safe to use that word now, right?) and my position, while internally consistent, is not simple.

These first posts will deal mainly with definitions, concepts, and worldview.  This entire issue is so contentious that if I don't proceed carefully, we'll be deluged with hate comments.  I don't mind deleting hate comments, and sometimes it's even fun to get into the mud and fight it out, but at the present time I'm too darn busy.  I'd prefer to use my time writing rather than arguing.

First:  my worldview.  I am a Christian (a very bad one).  I am not a fundamentalist.  I believe the Scriptures are the inspired word of God, but I acknowledge that the Word was taken down by the hands of fallible men.  Scripture is a guidepost, a beacon, a philosophical document, a history.  It's not a step-by-step guide to living a good life, although it is instrumentally useful in doing so.  It's not a self-contained laundry list of God's law, although it is critically important in formulating a law code for humans here on Earth.  To take the example most often used by advocates of gay marriage, there are laws in Scripture which we have decided were meant for a time and a place, and are no longer binding.  There are other laws in Scripture that we believe are eternal and unchanging.  It's OK to eat pork or wear blended fiber clothing now; it will never be OK to engage in adultery.

Second:  my position on homosexuality per se.  Homosexuality is not a sin.  It is a condition, a state of being, a fact about an individual's makeup.  Homosexuality is not a sin any more than dwarfism or blue eyes or a fondness for reggae music are sins.  If you hate tall people or spit at the brown-eyed or steal your reggae music, then your state of being may have led you into a sinful act, but the state of being itself remains morally neutral.  Homosexual behavior is sinful.  So is a whole lot of other behavior. 

I need to be very clear on this.  A person who condemns homosexual acts is on firm Scriptural ground, just as a person who condemns other sins.  However, it is important for Christians to remember that we are not called to judge the actions of other people; we are called to love them.  A person who commits homosexual acts is in the same spiritual position as everybody else on the planet - they are committing sins.  So are you.  So am I.  If there are Christians who are in a position to legitimately uniquely condemn homosexuals for their actions, I haven't met them.  God does not "hate fags".

More tomorrow.

Robert @ 19:32 | | | . | E-Mail This Post