As the Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Methodist Churches, all related to the Anglican Church, openly embrace homosexual clergy, dividing its congregations, the Anglican Church itself is promoting euthanasia. Now political groups in Norway want to enforce quotas on its national church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, for homosexual clergy. As we debate the validity of peoples sexual orientation, not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings or deny them their (God given) human rights, and the sanctity of life under the guise of being fair has anyone asked; What about God? How does God feel? Was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ fair? The laws and practices of religion, namely Christianity, are relentlessly scrutinized and dissected by a humanistic politically correct dogma. In this process has anyone stopped to consider God as a living being, with desires, feelings and rights Himself?
May I humbly suggest the founding fathers of our great nation did just that. That the power and wisdom behind the First Amendment, the establishment clause, was not based on political realities but on an advanced knowledge of the living God. Seeing beyond their religious differences and facing common struggles, they recognized the living God present in all men and sought not to allow humanistic powers to corrupt or restrain this spirit of freedom whose origin was not in question. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;".
As we face a new age of globalization, and the reality of man's immense power over life and the creation, allowing us to reach to the ends of the universe, a deeper understanding of the living God needs to be applied. Humankind needs to recognize their own inherent power, given by God, comes with great responsibility, and to take this responsibility away, is to deny humankind its dignity; their position as His children. Is it fair to blame God for our self made quagmire? God's council has been far from unjust and within His rights as our Father. Whether it is abstinence education, which works and is highly beneficial to communities and society, or working to curing people of their the homosexual tendencies, it is time to acknowledge God and the blessings He has bestowed upon man. Not just to humble ourselves to His ways, but to understand that He suffers with us and has never desired evil or unhappiness for any of His children, which includes all humankind. After a century of seeing godless materialism destroy the lives of the people under its control and ultimately fail, it is time to acknowledge God's feelings and rights, and humankind's unseen ties to His blessings and ideals for our lives. He has only given us the world and the universe in which it rests.
Happy Thanksgiving.
5 comments:
The Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Methodist Churches, who openly embrace homosexual clergy, do so, as I understand, not because they embrace "godless materialism," but because they legitimately believe that "the living God" made gay people as gay people and accepts their homosexuality. Indeed, according to their belief, He created it.
You may say they are wrong; but that is a theological dispute. And the Founders of this nation, when they invoked their "nature's God," TO AVOID THEOLOGICAL DISPUTES drew such a low LCD between the different sects, including deists and unitarians, who reject much or all of revelation, that the "knowledge" of the living God and "His Rules," turned out to be quite simple if not vague. They knew for instance that there was some overriding Providence who would ultimately reward good and punish evil, but not much more. The notion of a "nature's God," is therefore just as consistent with Gene Robinson's pro-gay God as the God of fundamentalist Christians.
As I have alluded to in previous posts, one of the short comings of Christian doctrine, held by most of Christianity is the belief that God had foreknowledge of everything. In short absolute predestination or variants thereof. In that case, evil, or what people conclude as evil (not to offend any homosexuals), comes from God and since He is eternal is eternal. The acceptance of homosexuality as 'how God made them' could easily be derived from that kind of thought (or maybe more properly contradiction).
To view God as someone who could only create what is good, never evil, never desiring unhappiness, misfortune for His children, whom He has given power over all of His creation as He has, may be what people think the Christian God is, but push comes to shove the doctrine doesn't match the image.
In short all God created was good. He created us to be loving families; His children. Though man was decieved by Lucifer (all beings with free will) and created this mess God hasn't changed, or responded to evil in anyway. If we can all get on the same page and respond to God's council, He will provide to those working to resolve the problems keeping us from this kind loving family the answers.
"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..."
The reality of God is what drove our founding fathers. A material culture hardly promotes this reality.
We can find happiness on many levels, even through materialism, but we were created to find fulfillment through loving families according to God's model, so no matter how hard we try, if we can't reach this goal our happiness hits a wall and we feel empty.
That's just how I see it.
I agree that the key Founders -- Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, and a few others -- were driven by "[t]he reality of God" in the sense that they devoutly believed in "God" and connected Him to public policy [He granted unalienable rights; because God exists to ultimately reward good and punish evil, belief in Him is essential for maintaining public virtue]. The problem though, is arguably they believed in a different God than you. For one, they were all theological unitarians who denied eternal damnation. They believed that the good, via their good works, would achieve salvation after death; the bad would be punished temporarily and then eventually redeemed. I could go on.
Is this what you believe in?
I have visited many churches. I have read theology, philosophy and history but do not have any formal training in theology.
I believe that what people believe about the beginning, the end and the process of salvation are the predominant influences on one's life. Out of the 3,000 or so Christian denominations, who have different combinations of beliefs, few think about how their doctrine translates into the real world.
Absolute predestination cannot be reconciled if you believe there is an ultimate end to evil.
Good works allow God to work in our life and seperate us from evil. The ultimate salvation is provided by God.
God does not directly punish evil. We reap the fruits of our own efforts as God made this world to be.
Like the communist nations, evil will come to an end according to God's providence. All the people under communist rule could have stood up at once and ended it, but that's not what happenned. A few stand up and usually get killed, but opposition slowly grows and the system corrupts and colapses. At some point there will be an awakening. There needs to be to meet this new global age, if you believe in God and His providence.
I understand unitarianism, and do not believe people who believe in eternal damnation have the ability to face the problems of this world.
But again, the view of the beginning, that God had foreknowledge of all things including evil, opens the door for the abandonment of absolute values.
Post a Comment