Sending Out the Wrong Signal
Presidential candidate Barack Obama started off the month of March riling Christian conservatives and adding more questions on not the sincerity of his faith, but rather the foundation of his faith.
"I believe in civil unions that allow a same-sex couple to visit each other in a hospital or transfer property to each other," the Illinois senator said, referring to same-sex relationships that are granted all the legal benefits of marriage but the title. "I don't think it should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state.
"If people find that controversial, then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans," Obama contended.
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Media agencies speculate that Obama was referring to Matthew 7:12, which states "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you."
"That's my view," Obama said. "But we can have a respectful disagreement on that."
Regardless of which passage in the Sermon on the Mount he was referring to, Obama's use of scripture to justify civil unions as something to be accepted is most certainly wrong.
And that is simply because supporting something that goes against God's Word is not only condoning sin, it is turning away from God.
Furthermore, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount reminds us that God does not change, and what He has said about homosexuality before still stands today.
As it states in Ecclesiastes 1:9, "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."
The "obscure" message that God delivered to us through the Apostle Paul, as recorded in Romans 1, is in line with the message in Leviticus 18 – in which God, through Moses, described homosexual acts as detestable. Paul, in listing the "sinful desires of their hearts," simply went a step further, calling such acts unnatural, indecent and perverted.
Furthermore, while the writers of the four books of Gospel did not record any comments Jesus may have made specifically on homosexuality, certainly from what Jesus says in the same sermon Mr. Obama brought out, it is clear that the Law is not to be abolished.
"I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." (Matthew 5:18)
Has God made a "retraction" on what He said about homosexuality?
No.
Will God one day say homosexuality or incest or bestiality is something that mankind can engage in?
No.
God won't issue a retraction because God doesn't make mistakes as humans do. Mr. Obama would be wise to know that not only is God still speaking, but He's also already spoken.
Furthermore, if Obama was in fact referring to Matthew 7:12, he's taken Jesus' words out of context.
Yes, Jesus instructs us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves – to do unto others as we would want them to do unto us. Jesus embraces us and wishes for us to embrace one another. But he does not embrace sin, and the relationship that we share with our spouse should clearly be distinguished from the ones we have with our brothers and sisters.
Sadly, some misunderstand this love and can't (or don't) distinguish between the love among brothers and the love among spouses.
Furthermore, there are "devout" Christians such as Obama who are not giving them the right signal either.
Marriage is not just about love, or sex, or rights. It's about the special relationship that God designed between two people who are meant to be one – and that connection is of the spirit and of the body.
While there is little doubt that Obama is aware of the spiritual aspects of life, there is obviously still a significant amount of static in his mind that is keeping him from picking up a clear signal. What the senator needs to do is pick up the Word of God – in whole and not in parts.
