Newsweek's desperate case for gay marriage

On December 6, 2008, Newsweek magazine published a front-page article by Lisa Miller, entitled, "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage." Miller's article has created a firestorm of controversy in the religious community. And no wonder. Miller appears to have had more training from the political community in how to write spin than from Biblical scholarship in how to interpret scripture.

The so-called "case" that Miller builds for gay "marriage" is arrogant, ignorant and desperate.

The arrogant case

Miller arrogantly attacks scripture's clear meaning, referring to the bans on homosexuality in Leviticus as "throwaway lines in a peculiar text" and then has the audacity to say that Paul was "not talking about what we call homosexuality at all" in Romans 1:26-27. For the record, here is the text that she finds so unclear: "For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error." (Romans 1:26-27, ESV) As if this claim is not outrageous enough, Miller even claims that the Bible "neither explicitly defines marriage as between one man and one woman." Apparently she has not read Genesis 2:18-24, Proverbs 5:15-20, 1 Timothy 3:2, 12. Miller is so haughty as to pronounce from her throne on high that "no sensible modern person wants marriage-theirs or anyone else's -to look in its particulars anything like what the Bible describes." Which brings us to another major problem with the article: ignorance.

The ignorant case

When Miller says that "no sensible modern person" wants a marriage like one in the Bible, it appears that she missed the Song of Solomon, and the rapturous married love that is celebrated in that wonderful Old Testament book. Actually, her quote is referring in particular to the polygamy of Old Testament heroes like Abraham, David and Solomon. What she fails to notice is that the Bible is brutally honest about its "heroes," showing them with all of their faults. In fact, scriptural narrative reports the problems that resulted from polygamy, including the jealousies of Abraham's wives, David's sexual sin, and how Solomon's wives drew his heart away from the Lord.

Miller refers to Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well in John 4 as a "message of acceptance." Jesus reveals himself to the woman at the well, "no matter that she had five former husbands and a current boyfriend." Again Miller misses the point. Jesus does not praise the woman, but rather points out to her that she is living in an immoral relationship, while at the same time showing her that he cares for her soul, in much the same way that Jesus forgave the woman caught in adultery, but told her "go and sin no more" (John 8:11).

The desperate case

Finally, Miller is so desperate to try to justify homosexual marriage that she makes incredible stretches of logic and ridiculous claims. She repeats the popular claim of gay activists that David and Jonathan had a homosexual relationship, simply because David spoke of their deep love for one another in 2 Samuel 1:26. It is amazing how anybody could read about David's lust for Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11 and think that 2 Samuel 1:26 referred to homosexual love.
In dealing with Paul's condemnation of homosexuality in Romans 1, Miller's article makes the laughable claim that "recently progressive scholars have argued" that Romans 1 was really condemning the promiscuity of emperors Nero and Caligula.
In her final leap of logic, Miller lists the marriages of Moses to the foreigner Zipporah, of Queen Esther to a non-Jew, and of Mary and Joseph as examples of "marriages that defy convention" in the Bible. Desperate to find anything to back up her preconceived ideas, Miller reasons that since these marriages were unconventional, the Bible must therefore justify gay "marriage" as well.

All of this reminds me of something my father, a retired U.S. Army chaplain, told me about Bible interpretation. To illustrate that any two scriptures can be taken out of context and made to appear to say something that they do not really say, Dad gave these two verses: "Judas went and hanged himself…Go ye therefore and do likewise." Lisa Miller's Bible interpretation is just about as dangerous, and Newsweek magazine should be ashamed to print such dribble without even considering another viewpoint for balance.

Disturbing article about NAMB

The Nashville newspaper, The Tennesseean, has published a disturbing article about the North American Mission Board, saying that our evangelism efforts are poorly funded and lack leadership from Dr. Geoff Hammond, president of NAMB.
The article is a follow-up on another article written by The Christian Index, the Georgia Baptist newspaper, which was also very critical of the lack of funding plans for evangelism, and had some criticisms of the Dr. Hammond's leadership.
I'm praying that some good will come of this, and that NAMB can focus on leading Southern Baptists to share the gospel.

Christmas lessons for hard times

The National Bureau of Economic Research has pronounced that we have been in a recession since December 2007. How can we rejoice at Christmas in hard times? What does the Christmas story have to say to people who have lost their jobs? What does it say to somebody who is in despair?

Here are four answers:

1) Let God lift you up. When Mary heard that she was going to be the mother of the Messiah, she sang that God "has lifted up the humble" (Luke 1:52). Elizabeth, the mother of the John the Baptist, even said that God "has taken away my disgrace" (Luke 1:25).

Ken Freeman had nine step-fathers, slept in streets, garages, alleys, bars and cars. His real dad walked out when he was four, and his mother became an alcoholic and started beating him. He was molested at seven and was drinking and smoking at nine, and in jail at fifteen. But at age sixteen, a friend introduced him to Jesus Christ, and now Ken Freeman is an evangelist. He says, "God can take a mess and make it a message."

Do you feel shame? God wants to lift you up.

2) Dare to dream. An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream (Matthew 1:20) and also the wise men were warned in a dream not to go back to King Herod (Matthew 1:12). After the shepherds came to see baby Jesus, Mary treasured the events in her heart (Luke 2:19), and after the boy Jesus showed His knowledge of His Heavenly Father in the temple in Jerusalem, Mary kept all these things in her heart (Luke 2:51). They dared to dream that God would do amazing things.

Don't give up on your dreams.

3) Don't be afraid. Every time that an angel appeared to somebody in the Christmas story, he said, "Don't be afraid." The angel told Joseph not to fear (Matthew 1:20), the angel told Zechariah not to fear (Luke 1:13), the angel told Mary not to fear (Luke 1:30), and the angel told the shepherds not to fear (Luke 2:10).

What do you fear? Are you afraid of the future? The message of Christmas is that with Christ, you don't have to be afraid.

4) Look for God to surprise you. Often God is at work, but people aren't paying attention. When the wise men came to Jerusalem following the star, the people of Jerusalem had missed it (Matthew 2:1-2). When the shepherds came looking for Christ, they were told to look for an unusual sight-- a baby in a feeding trough (Luke 2:12).

After Hurricane Katrina, First Baptist Church of Rincon adopted the members of First Baptist Church of Poplarville, Mississippi to pray for them. Members of the Rincon church wrote letters of encouragement to every member of the church in Poplarville. Then a group of a dozen members went from Rincon to Poplarville, to help do yard clean-up. A lady from Rincon knocked on the door of the Luke family, and when Mrs. Luke answered the door, she said, "Hi, my name is Jan Miller. I'm from Rincon, Georgia, and we came to help you." Mrs. Luke began to cry. When she composed herself, she said, "I got a letter from a Jan Miller in Rincon, Georgia, saying she was praying for me. When I got the letter, I thought, 'That's nice, but I need somebody here to help me.' And now here you are standing at my door!"

That's the lesson of Christmas for hard times. God doesn't just sit up in heaven and say, "I care about you." He came down to earth to prove that He cares for us. He is Immanuel, "God with us" (Matthew 1:23). But are you looking for Him this Christmas?