Most of my friends know that I am a prolific reader. Thankfully a majority of the books I read I would rate as decent or good but occasionally I read a book that is like a breath of fresh air. Currently, I am reading two of these books and wanted to pass the titles along.
John Webster, Holiness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).
Thomas F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being Three Persons (New York: T & T Clark, 2006).
Lee Jefferson, a visiting professor of religion at Centre College, recently wrote an article in response to New York State’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage.[1] The focus of his article was to examine what the Bible actually says about the subject of gay marriage compared with what many Christians claim it says! Since this subject is such a hot button issue and because this article directly confronts several of the core values of the church I’m on staff at (some of these core values include: being a Bible Based church, a Family Focused church, and a Mission Minded church), I thought it would be beneficial to write a
thought for thought response to Professor Jefferson and point out some of the prejudices and flaws in his thinking.
Part I: Introduction
Before addressing Professor Jefferson’s four arguments against Christians who claim the Bible is opposed to same-sex marriage, I found it to be very interesting and telling how
he portrayed the issue. He begins by noting:
“Such opposition quite often utilizes religion as a bruising hammer to drive home their message, and often the Bible is invoked to justify any anti-gay argument. Groups opposed to same-sex marriage cite Biblical passages to endorse their rejection of any marriage
amendment while condemning same-sex practice in general on the basis that the
Bible ‘says’ it is wrong.”
While I will admit and agree with Professor Jefferson that some Christians do use, “religion as a bruising hammer,” and have used the Bible to justify any “anti-gay argument,” there are many others who do not do either of these things. There are numerous Christians who have responded to this issue with compassion and well reasoned arguments, however, there is no mention of this larger segment of the Christian population in this article. To me this raises the question, why is that? Is Professor Jefferson purposefully painting all Bible believing Christians with one broad-brush
stroke of being ignorant and anti-gay in order to poison the well? Is he merely
picking on Christianity’s low hanging fruit instead of seriously dealing with Christianity’s
best spokesmen on the issue? After a careful reading of the article I cannot help but conclude that Professor Jefferson is indeed guilty of the fallacies I raised above. While I hope this was done out of ignorance rather than insolence, I fear it is the later (although as you will see there is plenty of ignorance on display as well)!
Jefferson concludes his above claim by noting the real reason behind the article is to call into question the use of the Bible as an authoritative source. He states:
“If anything, this exercise questions whether we should develop stances based upon what the Bible ‘says’. Simply put, the Bible is a complicated collection of documents that was never meant to ‘speak’ to our contemporary situation, but groups often speak through the lens of the Bible and lob textual grenades on issues like same-sex marriage.”
In other words, Jefferson believes that anyone who would use the Bible as a source of authority today is incapable of understanding the “complicated” nature of the Bible itself, let alone the nature of our “contemporary situation.” As a result of this lack of comprehension demonstrated by Bible believing Christians anything they have to say on the issue of same-sex marriage or same-sex relationships should be ignored and their
arguments should be rejected prima facie! These presuppositions of Jefferson’s are further buttressed by the fact that he offers no reasons for holding his position concerning the nature of the Bible, nor does he have any further discussion or dialogue on the issue of authority. He is right and Bible believing Christians are wrong. He is an authority and
the Bible is not. And this is how he prefaced his arguments against the Christians position. Once again, Professor Jefferson is guilty of another fallacy known as stacking the deck. Under this conditions nothing the other side has to say can or will be correct, while everything he has to say will be!
Last week was one of “those weeks” where every day and every evening was jam-packed. I had several extra church meetings, graduation events, and a mission trip fundraiser added to my already over loaded weekly schedule. It was so bad that one day when I ran home to eat and freshen up before running out again, I overheard my daughter Chloe as she played with her dolls, ask the mommy doll, “when daddy would be home?” Sadly, I’ve discovered that “those weeks” happen way too often (I know this shocks a lot of people who believe “real” pastors only work one day a week and youth pastors just hangout and eat pizzaJ). Continue reading
This past weekend the church I pastor at, Waxhaw Bible Church (www.waxhawbible.org), had a concert of prayer. It was a great time of corporate praying and praising the Lord for what he has, is, and will continue to do at the church. The service followed the ACTS format: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. During the time of confession I mentioned that confession has two components both a positive and a negative, that is, a confession of faith and the confession of sin. As the New Bible Dictionary notes: Continue reading
