The Church - time for a pink reformation?
Theo Hobson has written an excellent article in The Guardian. He writes that the crisis over homosexuality"revives the huge question of whether Christianity is meant to uphold a moral law at all. The original answer was no: Jesus and Paul wanted to sever the link between religion and the idea of a divine moral law. (It is therefore amazingly ironic that Paul is used as a "legal" authority for Christian homophobia.) But in practice Christianity became an organised religion, and therefore laid down the moral law - at first this law applied to a subculture, and later it merged with official public law. This was semi-challenged by the reformers of the 16th century, who wanted to revive the notion of "freedom from the law". But actually most forms of Protestantism returned to, and even intensified, the association of God and the moral law.Albert Mohler, bigwig in the Southern Baptist Convention, has written a reply where he agrees with Hobson, but isn't willing to discuss Hobson's biggest question. "Yet, the believing church that remains faithful to Christ and faithful to the Scriptures cannot surrender to a moral revolution that demands the abandonment of Scriptural teaching -- no matter how powerful the revolution may appear."
The crisis over homosexuality is reawakening us to the question that inspired Paul and Luther. The real question is not whether homosexuality is against "Christian morality" but whether moralism is against the Christian gospel.
I wish Mohler had engaged in the discussion about relative value, or lack thereof, the strong link between religion and divine moral law. I think Hobson has a very interesting point. Hefe, Old Man or MoLak care to tackle this issue either as it relates to homosexuality or to morality at large?
posted by Expat Teacher @ 6:52 PM
