(no subject)

[arndis]

When the Slacktivist's latest linked to "complementarian bukkake" I just had to go look.  And I found this and this linked from its front page. And now I just must boil down its argument. The writer is a pastor in Iowa, so he is trying to explain why it is wrong for Iowa to legalize homosexual marriage, and what good Christians should do about this.  I present the stripped-down version of his argument:

Why it is wrong to legalize homosexual marriage

1. Gay sex is ungodly because it has the wrong numbers of penises and vaginas involved.
2. You must be gay if you approve of gay marriage, and God will punish you with increased gay sexual desire.
3. God will smite you and you'll deserve it.

What good Christians should do about this

1. Crack down on all ungodly sexual behaviour, not just on gays. He says, "Marriage is attacked when church members go undisciplined for fornication and adultery. Marriage is dishonored through abusive husbands and disrespectful wives, through the use of internet pornography and the reading of smutty novels." I will give him a thumbs-up for abusive husbands being counted here.
2. Cracking down on all ungodly sex instead of just gays will convince others that Christians are telling the truth about gay marriage being wrong. The writer has noticed that the rest of the world thinks that the anti-gay marriage Christians are a bunch of homophobic hypocrites who scream about the evils of gay sex while indulging in heterosexual fornication. Therefore, living by the rest of their sexual mores will give them a leg to stand on publicly about the evils of gay sex. What the writer does not address is how them being more virtuous actually convinces everyone else that gay marriage is wrong.  It probably involves God somehow, instead of rational arguments.
3. Go out and evangelize to gays so that God will convert them into good straight people. The "logic" here is that gayness is a sin, and sin comes from hating God, so gays must hate God. Therefore, if you convert a gay, causing him or her to love God, God will respond by removing the icky gayness.

Has this man really thought through what his argument looks like from the outside, and in particular what it must look like to a gay person, especially a Christian one?  And how is God increasing your gay sexual desire going to be a punishment for any gay person who isn't repressed? Wouldn't that be more of a reward?

He could have written this as "gays are icky and God tells me so" without reducing the content terribly much.

Comments

[csi-tokyo3.livejournal.com]

I'm just trying to figure out how, if God hates homosexuality, as my translation of Leviticus has it, then why on earth would he increase something he hates in those of us he loves? .... Logic circuit incomplete... *ffzzzzt* x.x

[arndis.livejournal.com]

Dear, the answer is that the Bible is written by fallible (though possibly divinely inspired) human beings, and they failed on this point.

Another way to reconcile it is the abusive father model of God, where He loves you very much when you behave the way He tells you to, and smites you otherwise.

[csi-tokyo3.livejournal.com]

I'd say it's more than this particular human has failed in his interpretation of God's Word, unless he's referencing the first chapter of Romans where Paul states that God "handed them over to their sinful desires", but that'd be stretching it a bit.

[arndis.livejournal.com]

I think he is:

"Second, God is giving you over to act on dishonorable passions and a debased mind as due punishment for exchanging of his glory for something less and approving of those who do the same. Paul further asserts that when men so dishonor God, God responds by handing them over to dishonor themselves. His primary example of this punishment is men and women consumed with and acting out homosexual desire."

[csi-tokyo3.livejournal.com]

Ahh, what do you know? I was right and without even reading his article. ^^ *gives self a point*

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

Another factor (encouraged by "homophobes" such as this person) is that the set of gays and the set of Christians are mainly disjoint these days, so that the description "gay christian" is becoming oxymoronic. This ws not always the case (and it was certainly not that way, according to at least one book I have heard about) as late as medieval times; it is that way now.

Too many people (not just christians) treat religions and faiths as an excuse to turn off one's brain. That seems to be the best explanation for this case.