The Rebel Christ by Michael Coren

Author:Michael Coren [Coren, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Theology / Christology
ISBN: 9781459748538
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Published: 2021-10-19T00:00:00+00:00

The scriptural arguments around gay relationships also run parallel to the scriptural arguments around the ordination of women. Both issues relate to creation ordinances, and especially to particular Pauline passages which seem to rule out both homosexual practice and female leadership on the basis of those ordinances. But of course everything depends on the hermeneutic you apply. A literal exegesis will no doubt rule out same-sex relationships, but it would equally rule out giving any authority to women (let alone ordaining them). Even more strongly, not just on the basis of Paul’s teaching, but on the basis of Jesus’ own teaching in four separate Gospel passages as well as in Paul, it would rule out the remarriage of divorcees as being equivalent to adultery. I suppose one might just about respect those who reject gay relationships on the basis of scripture, provided they also veil women, forbid them to speak in-church, and condemn the remarried as adulterers.

In some ways the most pertinent of all of the past issues and examples is that of interracial marriage and Christian attitudes toward race in general. Under the apartheid system in South Africa right up until the early 1990s there were Christians and even entire churches that based their defence of racial separation and segregation on Scripture and it wasn’t long ago that full denominations in South Africa were proud of such teachings. The vast majority of those churches changed their minds and their understanding of biblical instruction. In the United States, the Virginia trial judge in the 1959 case that led directly to the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down laws in sixteen states that prohibited interracial marriage made the following argument: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” This was said in living memory — the year I was born, in fact — and such an attitude is far from extinct among certain Christian communities — there are still churches in the southern states of the U.S. that effectively disallow mixed-race couples. As recently as 2011 a major poll found that while 9 percent of Americans opposed interracial marriage, 16 percent of white evangelical Christians were against it; 27 percent of Americans believed mixed marriages were beneficial while only 17 percent of evangelicals thought so. Of course, we have to consider other factors such as class and education but those numbers are too consistent and too obvious to simply disregard. It can’t be denied, however, that most Christians today would be appalled at the idea that the Bible stood against people of different races enjoying a lifelong and loving commitment and receiving a church wedding or the sacrament of marriage. They reject those references of the Old Testament that forbid interracial marriages and believe them

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