A Response to Elton John's Suggestion that Religion Should be Banned
Christians Must Ask If Their Message is Getting Out or Getting Lost
Such a call should be occasion for Christian introspection, not because it is issued by a world-renowned celebrity such as Sir Elton, who apparently has a record of histrionics against religion, journalists and others, but because we find ourselves at a cultural crossroads.
With momentum of the gay privileges movement apparently growing, the future of American culture is hanging in the balance, and people like John who have the ear of the media will have an inordinate sway over public opinion.
The question that should concern Christians, however, is how well have we articulated the message that it is the sin, not the sinner, that we oppose?
For there is nothing in Christianity that supports hatred of anybody. The phrase "for God so loved the world" means that anybody living in this world is loved by God. The New Testament also makes clear that everybody sins: "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."
Yet this doesn't mean that we are to be amoral null quantities. Christ's message was not one of "go along to get along": "If salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."
But the Christian message of loving confrontation gets lost in the secular world, partly because the irreligious resent being told when they're wrong, partly because Christians are humans who can get angry at some of the more blatant agendas of the gay privileges movement, and partly because the church itself falls short of its own standards.
What moral ground can we Christians stand on when we see some churches endorsing gay marriages and actively homosexual clergy? The Catholic Church's allowing gay clergy to run rampant and prey on children is a travesty that has brought worldwide shame to God's people. The hypocrisy of prominent ministers like Ted Haggard who live double lives does grave injury to the cause of righteousness.
How can we expect the world to hear our message when we put up with religious leaders who themselves turn a deaf ear to the moral demands of their positions? Why should anyone listen to us Christians if we give ourselves a pass?
There is a gay agenda making inroads in our society. Christians oppose it because many of the goals of the gay privileges movement would be very destructive to America, and we Christians are called upon to uphold righteousness in this world.
But we must not confuse this as a call for hatred of gay people. We must not allow our moral dudgeon to deny the humanity of anyone, even political opponents.
If we cannot remove the plank from our own eyes, we will never be able to muster the political muscle to block misguided laws that encourage homosexual recruitment and oppression of free speech in our classrooms and religious institutions.
There is a strong streak of anti-religion in the homosexual political agenda. Christian employees have lost jobs, students have been harassed by teachers and petition gatherers have been threatened by police simply for standing up for traditional values.
There is almost a pathological need evident in the gay privileges movement to win either moral approval or abject submission from the church.
That the gay lobby should be so bent on suppressing religion should not be surprising for a philosophical outlook that reduces sex from a spiritual gift to a mechanical recreation and by implication denies the divine nature of mankind and the existence of a plan for humanity.
This materialistic nihilism is deeply disturbing. The gay lobby is just one expression of the outlook that says man is just another animal and life is ultimately meaningless.
Sir Elton referred to Christians as "hateful lemmings." We Christians must show the world otherwise.
Published by Tad Cronn
Tad Cronn is a freelance writer and artist whose works have appeared in the Los Angeles Daily News, the Orange County Register and the Seattle Post Intelligencer. View profile
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20 Comments
Post a CommentAll sinners can be saved if they will ask forgiveness for their sins. You can't be saved until you realize you are a sinner. Jesus died to save everyone willing to accept him as Lord and Saviour.
Overall, I'd still have to say that Christians are far more pushy about their beliefs. I've never tried to convert someone and make them gay and no one had to convert me. Yet the Christians are still knocking on my door... hmm. I must not be spraying on enough of that Jesus-Freak repellant I bought.
I agree with you that gays have an agenda. As a Christian, I know that we have one too. The Bible is for people who want to be saved or are saved. You cannot judge sinners by it. If they have not accepted Christ, they are doing by nature what their father (you know who I mean) wants them to do. They cannot rise above their master. As for the hatred that Christians have dealt to gays. We have to repent. That simple. God loves people though he hates the sin. Personally, I am so sick of hearing about who is sleeping with whom, that I don't care. It is not in my bedroom, and I do not have to face my maker for them. The bottom line is that neither group wins in points in the PR department, because both have the ALL or Nothing mentality. Problem. I have gay friends, but none of them claim to be Christians. That is my only thing when people claim to be Christians, when it is clear from NEW TESTAMENT teaching that it is sin.
From my personal experience, it is we atheists who are far more persecuted than Christians although none of us have driven any airplanes into skyscrapers. Atheists are also more supportive of our troops than these homophobic Christians who show nothing but disrepect with their hateful "God bless the IED's" demonstrations.
"There is a strong anti-religion streak in the homosexual political agenda" I wonder who's fault that is! Why is there an anti-Klan streak in the black community or an anti-Nazi streak in the Jewish community? I think gays would be more sympathetic to religionists if latter would stop picking on the former.
by the way if we're banning lifestyles because they're "choices", let's start with religion -- religion has felt the need to take on the gays. we have the advantage. intelligence. fashion sense. and we'll scratch your eyes out.
Gays didn't bring up the issue of gay marriage - it's the christians and republicans who brought it up as an issue designed to rile up the constituents. Once you brought it up, you put gays on the defensive, diverted our attention from other issues like the military and HIV. But the gay community isn't going to shy from this fight just because we didn't start it - after all, we're used to being picked on -- you ignorant slobs have been doing it to us since most of us were in grade school. hate me cuz i'm an a**hole not cuz I take it there.
(cont'd) strain of any offspring involved). Why should anyone support an institution that just as often as not results in the shattering of several lives? Is that God’s will? BTW, don’t think I’m against marriage in general based on this comment; I’m just presenting the inverse argument (i.e. - if gay marriage is invariably bad, then shouldn’t straight marriage be invariably good?).
2. No, I don't personally know any Jews or Muslims or Atheists who are against gay marriage. Though the only people willing to aggressively seek the eradication of it are those who follow religious dogma, Christians, Jews, and Muslims included. I'm an atheist (naturalistic secular humanist), and as far as I can tell, the only reasons anyone has for opposing gay marriage rely on the supposition that their source book is the inerrant word of God, despite being obviously self-contradictory and historically inaccurate based on other texts written around the same times. Any self-respecting atheist wouldn’t oppose gay marriage, though they wouldn’t necessarily have to support it either. I don’t oppose or support heterosexual marriage, but if traditional marriage’s track record were any indication of its “sanctity,” no one should support it, as half of the “God-approved” unions between two American humans end in divorce (and quite often the mental s
I think all gays get frustrated with Christians at times. I know I am sick of Christians coming up to me trying to convert me to their religion and "save" me. And why are Christians singled out? They do it to themselves. I have never had a Muslim, Jew, or anyone else ask me to switch to their religion. It's only the Christians who go around preaching to people who just don't care to be preached to. I think religious people should be tolerated, but they should not be able to put their beliefs on others. Homosexuality is not a sin for me, for me, it is how I was born.