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02/04/2015
'Public Discourse' helps Supreme Court see religious animus that drives anti-equality movement
In the run-up to the ultimate showdown at the United State Supreme Court, one would think those who must make a credible, factual, constitutionally grounded case against civil marriage equality would be focusing their efforts on arguments that shy away from religious-motivated animus. After all, if they have any chance of success (or their version thereof), it is going to be based in civil law, not theology.
But of course this movement is driven by faith-motivated animus. As if to drive home this point, scholarly publication Public Discourse, run by the Heritage Foundation's Ryan T. Anderson and promoted by many other key figures in the marriage debate (The Witherspoon Institute, Robert George), is using its crucial time here in these crucial months to yet again promote the view that gay people have broken sexual orientations in which we are "enslaved" and from which we must be saved. Here are the pertinent snippets:
Christianity makes normative claims, which means it directs our sexuality toward certain purposes and chastens us from embracing certain sexual desires. But a crucial caveat must be noted here: not all desires are equal. There are disordered or sinful desires that should not be acted on or embraced, because they thwart God’s plan for human flourishing. Good desires can themselves act as a way of helping us grow closer to God, as in the vocation of marriage.
What we often overlook is that our turn toward sin causes us to rebel not only against God, but against our own createdness. When we abandon sound ethics, we not only harm our relationship with God; we also harm ourselves. Sin harms us spiritually, in that it deadens us to heavenly obligation. It is also physically and mentally destructive. A person who acts on every sensual desire or psychological perception is not a free person. Instead, he becomes enslaved to disordered impulses.
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We can and we must affirm the dignity of each and every person, giving them the love they deserve as a child of God. What we cannot do is affirm individuals in what the Bible tells us is sin.
Christianity makes normative claims. It makes claims about how the world should be and how people ought to act. In short, it calls people to repentance. When the oughts of creation are broken and we stray from God’s plan, Christianity offers a way of salvation: the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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In today’s world, Christians might be tempted to apologize for the Bible. But we must not do that. Instead, we must lovingly tell our LGBT neighbors that there is a better way for them.
FULL: Is Christian Teaching on Sexuality Psychologically Harmful? [Public Discourse]
And of course the "better way" is to not be gay. Because this is what virtually every single person who has ever stepped up as an anti-equality, anti-gay advocate believes to be the solution for homosexuality. They want us "changed." "Saved." "Converted."
They have every right to hold this belief. And courts of law have every right to call it out for the animus that it is.
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*By the by: One of the coauthors of this article, Glenn Stanton, has previously described homosexuality as a "particularly evil lie of Satan."
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