July 27, 2011

Dear Marketplace Friend,

A selective highlight of reports regarding a topic in the “Top 10 List” of hot-potato political issues.  

GARDEN OF EDEN – The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him…” So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs   and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib   he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;  she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh… (Genesis 2:18-24).

ROMAN EMPIRE – Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools  and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error… (Romans 1:21-27, c. 50).

SAN FRANCISCO – New census figures show that one of every 100 California households is made up of cohabitating  same-sex couples, the highest proportion among the seven states for which detailed demographic data has been released so far… (Associated Press, June 23, 2011).

ALBANY — Lawmakers voted late Friday to legalize same-sex marriage, making New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples will be able to wed and giving the national gay-rights movement new momentum from the state where it was born… (New York Times, June 24, 2011).  

God invented marriage; He holds the patent, and He has indicated His intention to retain the rights for the control of His creation. But, in an era of knock-offs and counterfeits, the rights of the Divine Originator are no longer sacrosanct. Marriage – God’s masterpiece – has been shoplifted and corrupted.

In this matter, a growing number of Christian denominations have become more political than biblical in the last few years, choosing to recognize and perform “marriages” for same-sex couples; in tandem with that heresy is the increase in tolerance for “monogamous” gay clergy in denominational settings.

Pardon me for weighing-in on a topic that is today’s headline, but God has spoken… and His patience toward sinners should not be misunderstood for acceptance of sin.

With whom do you stand?

Bob Shank