Just got back in town from a marriage conference in Lynchburg, Virginia, and spent the day yesterday trying to shovel things off my desk. Right before we left, a discussion arose on worldmagblog.com about the issue of Credenda we published last year in which we argued for “owning the curse” of homosexual marriage. In the course of that discussion (on World’s site, and elsewhere), more than a few confusions made their appearance, so here are just a few clarifications in no particular order.
Owning the curse does not mean surrender, or going over to the other side. If there were a referendum on the ballot in Idaho, seeking to legalize homosexual “marriages,” I would of course vote against it. If there were a political measure defining marriage the way the Bible defines it, then I would of course support that as well.
Owning the curse is about priorities, and the allocation of resources. As we respond to the threat to our nation that this corruption of marriage represents, and as we mobilize, the question has to do with where we put our resources. How do we mobilize? If I had a million dollars, would I spend it (and my time) trying to influence the political process? Or would I do it in seeking the reformation of the Church? In our ministries here, we are called to the latter. And we believe that those who are called to the former (as some are) need to recognize that the success of their venture depends entirely on the success of ours. If the Church is not reformed, then how can we expect the nation to enjoy the fruits of such reformation? If the Church won’t obey the Bible, why would the world do so? If the salt of the earth loses its saltiness, then it is fit for nothing other than to be thrown out and trampled by men. The reason we in the Church are trampled upon by men is not because we are poorly organized in the political sphere. The reason we in the Church are trampled upon by men is because we in the Chuch worship God in ways that are offensive to Him. We are an ecclesiastical nation of spoiled brats, more interested in entertainment and getting our felt needs stroked than we are interested in coming before the Lord of hosts with reverence and godly fear. This latter approach is what the Bible calls acceptable worship. All that other crap is unacceptable. In worship, we have substituted our ideas for His Word, and we think that our grand idea of taking the ark of the covenant before us in battle will guarantee automatic success. We think there is no connection between how we worship and how our nation will fare with God. And so in the course of our culture wars, this explains why we keep getting our hineys kicked.
Owning the curse does not mean kowtowing to the dictates of the PC-police. Anybody who thinks that our ministries here are thought of with affection by homosexual activists and pc-nazis needs to get out more.
Owning the curse is about throwing down idols. But we do not just want to throw down the idol of those who want to establish iniquity through the law, which is what homosexual “marriage” is. We also want to throw down another idol (far more prevalent in evangelical circles) which looks to the state as savior, to political processes as salvific, and for anyone other than the Lord Jesus to rise up and scatter our enemies.