No

by Jennifer Wells

Created on: January 02, 2010

I am very neatly offended by the title suggestion that Christian churches even consider ordaining homosexual ministers. I say neatly offended because this has less to do with homosexuality and more to do with government infringement upon religion.

Allow me to explain. The very essence of the word “Christian” implies Jesus Christ, or God, and a proclivity to follow His words and teachings. Anyone who has read or taken to heart the words of the Bible will have to admit that Jesus’ stance on homosexuality is clear; it is a sin.

Before you fly off the handle that someone has once again called this ‘chosen lifestyle’ a sin, let me remind you that the Bible refers to us all as sinners. Be it lying (there is no such thing as a white lie), stealing, cheating or even an act as simple as thinking angry thoughts against your neighbor, if the Bible is to be believed (and I do), we are all sinners. Homosexuals do not have the corner on sin, and are not being singled out when religious folk call them sinners, because we also, are sinners.

Now let me state the fact again that a Christian is a ‘person who adheres to Christianity, a religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus, who Christians believe is the Messiah, the Son of God.’ Further, the term ‘Christian’ is used ‘to describe anything associated with Christianity or in a sense all that is Christ-like”. (Definitions loosely paraphrased from Wikipedia)

Christ taught many things. He taught that it is a shame for a man to have long hair, that a woman should not dress in men’s apparel, that we are to pay our taxes (render to Caesar) and be good citizens, upholding the laws presented. He taught that a man should not see his parents nakedness, nor the nakedness of his neighbors, that it is wrong to lie with a virgin until wedlock, that it is a sin to even lust after someone else while married, much less commit adultery; among these things, we find teachings that it is an abomination for a man to lie with another man (or two women to lie together), or with a beast. Abomination means that these are sins that God hates.

Now, these Biblical facts considered, how preposterous is it to even ask if Christian churches should allow gay persons – stated by their own Christianity, indeed, by God, to be an abomination – to become spiritual leaders in any capacity? (Not all Christian churches have priests, as that is mostly a Catholic tradition.)

The modern world at large would have you believe this is a matter of discrimination, that the church is using her rightful freedom of religion to practice discrimination of people who would freely join in this same religion, if a few concessions were made regarding their chosen lifestyle. There has even been a law made to this effect; the so-termed ‘hate crimes’ law, which now recognizes sexual preference as a legitimate, protected way of life alongside the actually legitimate protections of a persons race or culture, religion, speech etc.

Who is to un-blur the line then? Now that I can decide to sleep with a dog as a life partner if I so choose, and consider it an appropriate lifestyle (for that, too, is recognized under the terms of current legislation, they have left out no sexuality, including pedophilia), am I free to continue to enforce my ‘rights’ up to the point that I force any or all religions to be redefined so that they include my ‘rights’?

I cry NO! I cry again, louder, NO! The fact is simple enough that if homosexuals wish to create a new religion at any point they are welcome to, and will not find opposition in any level of leadership thereof, but to ask Christianity, a much-encompassing term which says first and foremost we live under Christ, to take on homosexual leaders is, in fact to demand that it be re-defined.

Freedom of religion is freedom to worship. Freedom of sexuality is the freedom to choose in America who you will lie in pleasure with, and not be prosecuted or criminalized for it. It is not the all-encompassing right to locate, threaten, punish and redefine any single other lifestyle, religion, culture or organization out there into forcibly accepting your chosen sexuality. The freedom of sexuality, as there is now apparently such a thing (God, help us when the pedophiles realize this) is not and never should become the right to bum-rush and bully previously established religions into submission.

This is America, 2010. We have what few other countries have in the range of freedoms. However, should the day come when we continually allow one freedom to quash the rights of another, we would have succeeded in squelching the freedom of all. When a religion is no longer free to exclude members based on the principals of said religion, we have ceased not only to protect the freedom our forefathers came here for in the first place; we have effectively ceased to be truly American.

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