Sermon Tone Analysis

SAME SEX MARRIAGE AND THE CHURCH

“We believe that marriage is a union between one man and woman, we also believe in the Due Process clause of the Constitution of the United States of America that safeguards against the arbitrary denial of life, liberty and property for all people,” states the Supreme Court of the United States of America, in a landmark decision, Obergefull v. Hodges.

Same-sex unions are protected by the constitution.

This landmark 2015 decree by the highest court of the land is in direct opposition to the historical church position on marriage between a man and woman.

The court decision however, allows the traditional church to remain firm in her longstanding biblical beliefs yet be cognizant that same sex unions are legal in the eyes of the law of the land.

Many individuals feel that the world is coming to an end.

They fear that church pastors and trustees will be charged with defamation and discrimination.

This may happen, you cannot prevent a person from suing you, however, the law at the present time tends to adhere to the “separation of church and state,” principle.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion for the court.

The following excerpts are attributed to him:

1. Marriage is sacred.

Since the dawn of history marriage transformed strangers into relatives, binding families.

2. There is a long tradition of opposite sex marriages.

3. The petitioners seek not to devalue marriage but to have the privileges and responsibility and real commitment.

4. The definition of marriage has evolved over time.

At one time marriages were arranged, a voluntary contract and women rights were inferior to their husbands.

5. Same sex intimacy was a crime.

6. Gay individuals were discriminated against in employment, government jobs, and immigration laws.

7. Homosexuality was considered an illness.

The court listed four principles under the constitution that apply with equal force to the same sex couples as heterosexual couples:

1.

Individuals have the right to personal choice.

2. Marriage supports a two-person union that is older than the Bill of Rights.

It is a coming together for better or for worse.

Same sex couples should have the security as opposite sex.

3. It safeguards children and families due process.

100,000 children are raised by same sex couples.

Legally married same sex couples children can no longer feel their families are less than other families, which causes humiliation and harm.

4. Marriage is part of the social order.

Material benefits, symbolic recognition, taxation, inheritance, property rights, hospital access, medical decision making.

The author of the court’s opinion also has a message for the church, “Many who deemed same sex marriage to be wrong, reach conclusions based on decent and honorable religious or philosophical premises, however when sincere personal opposition become law and public policy, the consequence is to put the state on an exclusion stigmatizes those who own liberty is then denied.”

The court also states “The First Amendment Rights ensure religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach precepts of their faith and those who oppose for other reasons.”

The law does not require the church to agree or minimalize her beliefs or practices.

In theory the church remains the church.

It would be nice if this was the case, but the fact is the church is now in the spotlight, and the court of public opinion will be watching the “churches,” every move.

The medical community has been proactive in addressing the socio-medicinal concerns of gay population.

They saw a need several years ago to adopt a code of understanding.

A publication by The Kaiser Permanente National Diversity Council, titled, A Provider’s Handbook on Culturally Competent Care states, “Sexual orientation refers to the emotional and physical attraction to others of a particular sex, whether that is a different sex, as in heterosexuality, or same sex, as in homosexuality.

The term “sexual preference” is inappropriate since it implies that sexual orientation is a behavioral choice rather than an intrinsic personal characteristic.”

This document was developed so that medical care providers would respect the personhood of all individuals that seek medical care.

It should also be noted that the medical community believes that sexual orientation, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, (LGBTQ) tend not to be choice but an inward orientation or formation.

I was in a meeting recently and I suggested it may not be accurate to categorize the entire LGBTQ population as exclusively a behavioral choice way of life.

According to the Kaiser document previously quoted, “Intersexuality features congenital variation of the reproductive and sexual system.

Intersex people are born with “sex chromosomes,” external genitalia, and/or internal reproductive systems that are not considered exclusively male or female.”

If that is true, how can a person decide their physical accessories-necessities? Conservative estimates suggest that one in 2000 newborn are found to have ambiguous external genitalia, and that 100 to 200 pediatric surgical sexual reassignments are performed in the U.S. annually.”

The fact is all mortals are tainted at conception with various manifestations of our inherited sinful nature.

In a nutshell, sin has tarnished the entire human race.

The LGBTQ community is tainted and the Un-LGBTQ community (also known as heterosexual community) is also tainted.

We cannot blame God.

We blame sin and if the truth be told, none of us deserve his loving tender mercy.

The universal church is no stranger to the gay population.

Congregations have known for years that gay individuals have served in their churches.

Gay preachers, priest, musicians, choir directors and others have played major roles in our churches, for better or for worst, for decades.

If we removed all gay people from the church, many ministries, in the eyes of the people would suffer a staggering loss.

If we stopped singing songs written by gay people our repertoire would be minuscule and bland.

The churches unspoken position has been similar to the military stance at one point and time in history, “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Congregations would suspect that certain individuals were gay, however they tended to look beyond their sexual orientation and love, respect and admire the individual.

Now that gay couples want the same rights and privileges of heterosexual couples, a loving monogamous relationship with one partner, the church immediately gets a serious case of indigestion and cannot stomach the idea.

The subtle message of the church to the gay population is, “You are welcome as long as you live in the closet, so to speak, you can continue to have one partner, multiple partners or one night stands.

However, if you want to get married and “settle down,” with one partner you should find another church to attend.

Recently I observed a discussion among pastors centered on the question, “what to do if a child of a gay couple wants to join your church?’

A better way to ask this question would be, If a child of a same sex couple wanted to give her/his life to Christ and join the congregation you pastor, what would you do?

This scenario can be further personalized.

Suppose your child or grandchild belongs to a same sex marriage, and the child says to you, “Papaw I want to give my life to the Lord and I want to serve in your church.”

Are you and the church, willing to cast the children aside and disesteem the words of Jesus in Matt 19:14, But Jesus said, suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

(KJV) because of their parents?

Imagine the emotional toll on the child.

I am not good enough to accept Jesus and be baptized and serve in the church because I have two moms or dads?

We have children of divorced parents, un-married parents, and common-law parents.

We accept them and do not ban their parents from church participation or admission.

If anyone becomes convicted by the message preached, then praise God.

The only sexual relationship that is authentically recognized in the Bible is a matrimonial heterosexual one.

All homosexual relations constitute sexual perversion and are subject to God’s judgment.

(Gen.

2:21-24, Matt.

19:4-6: Bible Knowledge Commentary O.T.)

If one accepts a literal reading of scripture, it is clear that the original intent of emotional/sexual intimacy was to be heterosexual.

The Apostle Paul specifically references God’s disapproval with homosexual sexual intimacy.

Later interpreters or re-interpreters of the afore-mentioned passage have surmised that Paul did not mean what he said, or present day readers do not understand what he really meant, or Paul had some latent sexual issues that manifested itself in homophobic rhetoric.

However, there is no concrete evidence to validate these opinions.

The book of Romans is a powerful doctrinal piece, it interprets Habakkuk 2:4, the just shall live by faith.

The following passage provides insight into the antithesis of a life of faith.

Rom 1:22-32 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised.

Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.

Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind; to do what ought not to be done.

29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.

They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless.

32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Verse 22 makes it clear that the root of the problem with the people, whom God abandoned, was their entrenchment with idol worship.

Craig Kenner in his commentary on the book of Romans said, “Pagan gods acted immorally and those that follow the pagan gods tended to act the same way.

These idol worshippers were abandoned by God to their degrading lust and at the top of the list were individuals who had sexual relations with people of the same sex.

God let them loose to fall further in degradation.

They rejected God’s invisible qualities, they became immersed in creature worship rather than creator worship and God refuse to deliver them, He let them go.

Paul said, “they are worthy of death.”