Friday, April 24, 2015
A Fresh—and Orthodox—View of Gay Marriage
And I mean "Orthodox" as in Eastern Orthodoxy. My wife and I have been
fans of Frederica Mathewes-Green's writings for some years because she
has wise things to say. In this case, she says
the history of spirituality demonstrates that gay marriage (and any sex
outside of traditional marriage, not to mention other sins) is simply
bad for the soul. But she also notes that it does not sabotage
traditional marriage as much as many common evangelical practices do. It's an argument I made a few years ago as well.
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The Political L'Engle Unearthed
For fans of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time comes some new revelations
about the writing of that book. Careful readers have long known that it
is much more than a children's story. Now early drafts reveal something
more of her social philosophy and her deep distrust of conformity.
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'Dorm Brothel'
This week's long read argues "the university's complicity in the destructive culture of sex." It's more or less an update of a CT article
published ten years ago by one of the authors. But, sadly, it's still
all too timely. And even sadder is any university's complete denial of
how they've helped create and foster the sexual anarchy on campuses.
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Red-Letter Jesus Is Not Enough
To be honest, I've never liked red-letter Bibles. For one, the
red-lettering is hard to read. For another, it's difficult at times,
especially in the Gospel of John, to know when Jesus left off speaking
and when John began. (Just read John 3 to see what I mean; fortunately,
it's all God's Word anyway!)
On top of that, some well-meaning pastors, activists, and theologians have begun calling themselves "red-letter Christians,"
meaning they give priority to obeying only the words of Jesus. This has
become a way to avoid issues that concern conservative Christians: for
example, Jesus never talked about issues like homosexuality or the
Trinity, so we don't have to worry about such things. Then again, Jesus
never talked about the environment or racial reconciliation or other
social issues that red-letter Christians are rightly passionate about.
In the end, it's not a good way to build a consistent theology or ethic.
English professor Karen Swallow Prior says as much, but from a literary perspective. If we read the Bible as we do any other book, red-letter reading is insufficient.
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Grace and peace,
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