Who Says? — Part II

I read an article in the online New York Times yesterday by Op-Ed Columnist Frank Rich titled "Smoke the Bigots Out of the Closet." It is hard to capture the whole article in a few sentences, but it uses the Pentagon's move to possibly repeal the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy of the military towards gay soldiers as a platform to happily advance that the majority of Americans now see gay as an immutable identity and not a "lifestyle." He talks about the "progress" we are making on the issue (its greater acceptance) and uses words to describe those who oppose the homosexual agenda like "homophobic" and "prejudice" and makes the homosexual issue a civil rights issue.

I found the article catching my attention because of the post I had just made (2/7/10: "Says Who?," or "Who Says?") in which I asserted the need for an absolute standard for defining right and wrong. Whether it is the homosexual issue, the abortion issue, racism, prostitution, etc., unless there is a standard defining point for right and wrong there will always be arguments on both sides. In his column, using words like "bigotry," Mr. Rich talks about the court arguments about California's Proposition 8 and he attacks the arguments of those who testified of the danger to marriage of its being repealed and gays being allowed to marry.

Really, we can make all the arguments we want for how gays in the military will affect morale, or what it would do to other soldiers, or for how gay marriage will threaten the institution of marriage, and how it will advance the homosexual agenda in schools, etc., but the reality is that the supreme reason we stand against any of it (or against abortion or prostitution or . . . ) is because God's Word says it is wrong. Just like we would tell an adulterer that they are wrong, and still love them as we do it, we declare homosexuality wrong and abortion wrong—because God says it is.

Every argument we can advance will have a counter argument. Every fact will have a counter fact. Whoever has the best lawyers and the heart strings of the majority of the voters will stand the best chance of having their position ratified . . . unless, and until, Jesus is embraced by our nation as God's Son and the Bible as God's Word. In the absence of an absolute standard there is, simply, argument against argument. Who has the most believable expert witnesses? Who has the best commercials? We have lost the point, which is who has truth? If the people of America who profess to be Christians simply stood—lovingly and humbly, but firmly—on the standard of God's reality and His Word as supreme truth, this wouldn't even be an issue. Until we do we will probably lose more battles than we win.

Note: You can read Mr. Rich's complete article by clicking here.