Reformation Lutheran Church
\nAnno Domini 2001<\/p>\n
Position Paper: Sodomites and Civil Rights<\/p>\n
Statement:<\/p>\n
\tWe are defining sodomy as sexual relations between persons of the same sex. Such action is an abomination for individuals (Rom. 1; Lev. 18:22,23; 1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Thes. 4:3). This action is not to be regarded as a matter of privacy, outside the bounds of legislation. Homosexual actions have always been criminal in common law as well as the codes of the various states of the union. It is only in this finis de siecle when longstanding Christian standards were dumped into a cultural abyss to make way for the advancement of freedom without the restraint imposed by that out-of-date Hebrew god (albeit the same god followed by the founders of the colonies and the federal government) \u2013 that figment of Moses\u2019s imagination; it was only at the turn of the century that a few states like Georgia and Maryland followed the standard already set by the federal courts and de-criminalized homosexual perversity.<\/p>\n
\tWe call upon states to assert their rights as sovereign governments answerable to the One True God, who reigns above those tyrants who rule from the federal courts, who subvert the people\u2019s laws and who suborn the people\u2019s morals. We call upon the states to strengthen their sodomy laws (as defined above) and require the death penalty for those who are found guilty of sodomy. <\/p>\n
Explanation:<\/p>\n
\tThe advancement of sodomite rights has succeeded because it has been packaged as a civil rights issue. Fair-minded Americans don\u2019t like nice \u201cgay\u201d boys to starve for lack of a job. Don\u2019t we all have a right to work? (\u201cWhy surely we can\u2019t starve someone to death for something he can\u2019t help! We must be compassionate and fair-minded.\u201d) Moreover, the argument goes, they say they are born incorrigibly as they are. In fact, homo-orthodoxy would have it that this alleged perversion of sexuality is actually quite a good thing, and not a bit abnormal. After all, who is to say what is normal and right, since there is no Law, no divine Standard. Everyman has his own private god. Surely there is no God whose laws apply universally; surely there are no laws which can define sexual behavior as good or evil. And what does it matter what two consenting adults (or an adult and a willing adolescent) do with one another? Who can say? There is no God. There are only lots of gods; \u201cTo each his own! \u2013 god.\u201d <\/p>\n
\tWe reply to this anarchistic gibberish that it is precisely the God issue that cannot go unresolved. The laws of society \u2013 if the government which enforces them wishes to be honored for more than a week or two \u2013 must be predicated upon more than the whims of a fickle, polytheistic electorate or than the passing petards of justices! All stable societies, which have lasted for more than a century or two, have grounded their laws in what they averred to be the revealed law of a deity.<\/p>\n
(The unbeliever may wish to consider throwing in with the Christian God of the states and his con. If he cannot stomach the society which was produced upon the assumption of that Revelator and His \u2013Sorry, Feminists\u2013 Laws and of the same, perhaps he can embrace the \u201cestablishment\u201d on pure philosophical pragmatism grounds.)<\/p>\n
There is a more salient reason for Christians to lobby for upholding the laws against sodomy. It is quite a selfish reason (and therefore understandable to the modern, hedonist mind). The fact is that the standard privacy argument for de-criminalizing sodomy (as also for abortion) fails from the outset. The claim that there are no victims (we will concede for argument\u2019s sake that the child really is only \u201ca potential life\u201d and no a living, sentient person with a brain, heart, and soul) in the private acts of abortion and sodomy is false. The God which Christians worship has revealed that He judges not just his covenant nation Israel for violating his covenant but that He also judges other nations for particular transgressions. The pagan countries which did not have the law of Moses were, nevertheless, destroyed for practicing incest, sodomy, bestiality, child-sacrifice, and witchcraft (Lev. 18:6-28; 20:2-23). They were held accountable (because they knew in their very hearts that it was abominable) and destroyed; no excuse.<\/p>\n
The reason, then, that we want people to refrain from sodomy is simply that we do not want to suffer the judgment of God. (\u201cIt\u2019s for the children,\u201d to quote the oft-confused former First Lady.) We do not want our children along with the rest of the nation to suffer the awesome judgment of a Holy and Almighty God. We are part of the nation that this angered God will destroy because of our toleration of this disgusting and odious perversion. <\/p>\n
\tWe reply to this anarchistic gibberish that it is precisely the God issue that cannot go unresolved. The laws of society \u2013 if the government which executes them wishes to be honored for more than a week or two \u2013 must be predicated upon more than the whims of a fickle, polytheistic electorate, and more than the passing petards of justices. All stable societies, which have lasted for more than a century, have grounded their laws in what they averred to be the revealed law of a deity.<\/p>\n
(The unbeliever may wish to consider throwing in with the Christian God of the states and his con. If he cannot stomach the society which was produced upon the assumption of that Revelator and His \u2013Sorry, Feminists\u2013 Laws and of the same, perhaps he can embrace the \u201cestablishment\u201d on pure philosophical pragmatism grounds.)<\/p>\n
There is a more salient reason for Christians to lobby for upholding the laws against sodomy. It is quite a selfish reason (and therefore understandable to the modern, hedonist mind). The fact is that the standard privacy argument for de-criminalizing sodomy (as also for abortion) fails from the outset. The claim that there are no victims (we will concede for argument\u2019s sake that the child really is only \u201ca potential life\u201d and no a living, sentient person with a brain, heart, and soul) in the private acts of abortion and sodomy is false. The God which Christians worship has revealed that He judges not just his covenant nation Israel for violating his covenant but that He also judges other nations for particular transgressions. The pagan countries which did not have the law of Moses were, nevertheless, destroyed for practicing incest, sodomy, bestiality, child-sacrifice, and witchcraft (Lev. 18:6-28; 20:2-23). They were held accountable (because they knew in their very hearts that it was abominable) and destroyed; no excuse.<\/p>\n
The reason, then, that we want people to refrain from sodomy is simply that we do not want to suffer the judgment of God. (\u201cIt\u2019s for the children,\u201d to quote the oft-confused former First Lady.) We do not want our children along with the rest of the nation to suffer the awesome judgment of a Holy and Almighty God. We are part of the nation that this angered God will destroy because of our toleration of this disgusting and odious perversion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reformation Lutheran Church Anno Domini 2001 Position Paper: Sodomites and Civil Rights Statement: We are defining sodomy as sexual relations between persons of the same sex. Such action is an abomination for individuals (Rom. 1; Lev. 18:22,23; 1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Thes. 4:3). This action is not to be regarded as a matter of privacy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-position-papers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":521,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions\/521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}