This Week's Topic: Homosexuality and Gay Marriage

We are not free to Alter the Image of God

"Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools . . . they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator . . Because of this, God gave them over to . . . . .(Paul now lists many things but goes straight back to Genesis 1:27 and lists first of all homosexual behavior as a practice which he puts in the category of idolatry)" Romans 1:25-27 ff (NIV)

Two Big Thoughts

1. The Image of God as male and female played out in marriage which includes the intended potential and trajectory of bearing, loving and rearing children is also the foundational building block or structure of all of human society. No society anywhere has not somehow institutionalized and regulated the sexual bonding of men and woman and their subsequent responsibility for rearing children.

Here’s an amazing stat “Bill Galston, a senior fellow at Brookings who served as President Clinton's domestic policy advisor, has explained that an American today must only do three things to avoid living in poverty: graduate from high school, marry before having a child, and have children after age 20. Only 8 percent of people who do these three things are poor, while a stunning 79 percent who fail to meet these expectations live in poverty” (From Marriage is a social Justice Issue)

Society, therefore,  has a huge stake in how it chooses to regulate sexual practices.

2. Whatever we do about gay partnerships, we must not redefine marriage. We must instead invest in it. The Apostle Paul sees that there is a sense in which the redefinition of marriage is a reconfiguring of the image of God. Same sex partnerships, whatever they look like are not marriage. And it’s hard to see how Paul is not connected this basic institution of marriage with one of the crucial biblical images of God.

Prayer

“Lord, help each of us to read the Bible in a way that transcends what we prefer it to mean. Amen."