This law is a cause for concern but it also drives one to
reflect on nations like Italy, Ireland and in this case Spain. These nations so
long under the influence and at times even domination of the Roman Catholic
Church are completing a multi-generational process of undoing and dismantling
Rome's legacy and moral teachings.
In the case of Spain, the transformation was remarkable. The
Roman Catholic backed dictatorship under Franco came to an end at his death in
1975. The monarchy intervened and shepherded the country into the era of 20th
century liberal democracy. Thirty years later in 2005, Spain, the once
ultra-conservative society that seemed 'backward' to so many in the West,
stunned everyone by legalising homosexual marriage.
Now, but twelve years later, the controversy is not over
homosexual marriage or the acceptance of homosexual behaviour. Instead the
controversy is over those who would dare question it.
There's a lesson here for Protestant nations as well. The
United Kingdom comes to mind and while the United States is on a different
timetable than Europe and at a different phase in this process... the lessons
are just as real.
As far as Conversion Therapy, I must confess that I wince
every time I hear of it. This is not because I'm opposed to people turning away
from homosexuality. That's right and proper. Therapy smacks too much of
psychology and the dominant syncretism that has taken place in Evangelical and
even Confessional circles. Therapy regimens and counseling certifications are
in many ways an assault on Sola Scriptura and in particular the notion of
sufficiency. This is not a mechanical issue of neurons and brain wiring. This
is an issue of the heart... of the will and the mind. Can Church leaders help
struggling people work through these issues? Yes, but it has precious little to
do with 'therapy' beyond identifying problematic thought-patterns and
behaviours. Dressed up Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Christian garb is not
the answer.
The heart of the problem is addressed by confession of sin
and repentance. And then of course an ongoing struggle to establish new
patterns and obedient desires. Faith so often coupled with obedience in the New
Testament is something poorly understood by Evangelicals.
I'm not keen on Conversion Therapy but I would strenuously
argue for Homosexual Repentance... a change and transformation of mind and
heart. The person turns away from the old life and embraces life in the
Spirit... finding their identity in Christ, not in a learned and degenerate
behaviour.
The Churches that accept the idea that people 'are' gay or
are 'born gay' have already lost the argument. Many Evangelicals have already
succumbed to this. Telling a homosexual that they are indeed 'gay' and yet must
live celibate neither addresses the problem, helps the person, nor is capable
of speaking prophetically to the culture.
They must cease to be homosexual.
While they may indeed wrestle with feelings and impulses, that is not their
identity... if they're Christians. Homosexuality is an identity they must
explicitly reject.
This issue over Therapy, so-called homophobia and sundry
attempts at legislating pro-homosexual ethics in society is not just a problem
in Spain... though its manifestation there is of particular social and
historical interest.
This issue is coming to the fore in the United States and
it's just going to get worse. Unfortunately Evangelical confusion regarding
this issue is going to make the road ahead that much more difficult.
I am encouraged that a handful of people... and they are
indeed very few, seem to be waking up and realising the American Christendom
project is (rightly) over. The victories of today are in reality defeats. The
turn toward someone like Donald Trump reveals that with great clarity. I would
argue the concept was dead on arrival... centuries ago and that all previous
heroes of the Christian Right from Reagan to the Bushes were all bankrupt and
compromised. The last figure that at least possessed some integrity was
probably someone like William Jennings Bryan and yet even that claim could be
called into question. I say this not to praise him, for I don't agree with many
of his views. But I will grant that he was a sincere man. I say that even while
acknowledging that many a Christian Populist at the time viewed him as little
more than a coward and compromiser. While many believe politicians like Reagan,
George W. Bush or Sarah Palin were sincere, I do not.
We must be willing to be viewed as fools and treated with
scorn. The days of respectability are over for anyone who's serious about
following Christ. It's been that way for a long time, but it's reached a point
that even the most resistant are being forced to see it and make a choice.
If we are to bury language of "gay" and "homosexual", then we should bury, equally, language of "heterosexual", which is blossoming into claims about "polyamory", embracing "open relationships". Both sets of identifiers find their ground in 19th century clinical psychiatry. The focus is not on identity, but on desires, which, when we switch focus, we find the deeper problem that there is almost no circumspection. Desires, because they exist they are good.
ReplyDeleteNow, this is still in line with a man's desire for a woman (and vice versa) as a norm according to creation. However, this is not sufficient. It might be not as warped as same sexed attraction, but there is perversity about an old man with a teenage girl, etc. And there's still a "commonsense" (common grace?) that still gives a vibe that it's at least abnormal or dirty.
It is said that Freud imagined himself as a kind of messianic figure, bringing salvation to the bourgeois world through the religion of psychoanalysis, spread to the corners of the world through his disciples. The mold of psychoanalysis is rotting the pillars of Christ's churches in America. Very few seem to recognize the existence of evil desires, let alone how desire itself can become an engine of mutation, mutiliation, and warping. Evangelicals are fond of quoting the prophet Jeremiah, "the heart is deceitful, who can trust it?", but seem the last to take it very seriously.
cal
PS. I want emphasize I was mostly talking about the problem of desire, the internal engine. From an external vantage, the old man who marries the teenage girl is still fulfilling the icon marriage represents, and why it is a gift to creaturely life. From this vantage, the question of same sexed marriage is an oxymoron. There's actually a fascinating approach from a French Roman Catholic, Fabrice Hadjadj, who integrates continental philosophy to argue for the "demonic" nature of same sexed marriage.
DeletePeter and Jude make the same argument. They appeal to the Genesis 6 episode and compare demons seeking human flesh with the homosexuality of Sodom. Despite the abundance of Scriptural evidence, Jewish and Church history, modern Evangelicals have decided to dispense with this Biblical teaching because they're embarrassed by it.
DeleteAnd they are all the more impoverished for it.