Controversial topics: Gathering a few favoured posts and articles on Same-sex “marriage” and the SCOTUS ruling.

I’ve read much on this topic over the past few weeks. As a rule, I am looking for authors who, if Christian, write with a clear demonstration of an attitude of humility, of compassion, of an unwavering commitment to hold to God’s truth with courage of conviction, and who show good reasoning skills. Sometimes, I will confess, I do enjoy a good satire, but those would be the exception rather than the rule. Mostly because satire tends to implicate a measure of disrespect through the delivery, and I’d prefer not to encourage that. But sometimes… And then, there are the secular articles and responses, which have caught my eye for varying reasons.

I want to put together here, for my own benefit, some of those links that I have kept over these past weeks. If they turn out to be of benefit to others, so much the better. If you have liberal leanings, you probably won’t appreciate this collection, and may want to consider moving on to the next post (BUT) perhaps, and something I would hope for, you will read through the links, and honestly evaluate and weigh the thoughts and ideas shared. Come, be a Berean with me….

The Biblical Response to #LoveWins (Dr. Michael Youssef)

Statement by Gov. Perry on SCOTUS Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PEDIATRICIANS ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE RULING: ‘A TRAGIC DAY FOR AMERICA’S CHILDREN’

How Can Homosexuality Be Wrong if It Doesn’t Harm Anyone? (Russell Moore, J. D. Greear, and Voddie Baucham)

How Not To Talk About Homosexuality in Romans 1 (Dr Joel Hoffman)

SCOTUS APPROVES SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: TEXAS LEADERS REACT

Australian Religious Leaders Call On PM And Parliament to Uphold True Meaning of Marriage

Tony Campolo: For the Record  and Holding It Together (foundational document for the next articles/posts)

An Open Letter to Tony Campolo (Dr Michael Brown)

A DAY LATE, A DOLLAR SHORT (Carl Trueman)

Which Way, Evangelicals? There is Nowhere to Hide (Albert Mohler)

So-Called Same-Sex Marriage, Lamenting the New Calamity (John Piper, Desiring God)

Same Sex Marriage and a Christian Pastor’s Response (Dermot Cottuli)

Should We Expect Non-Christians to be Moral? (Israel Wayne)

I’m Gay, And I Oppose Same-Sex Marriage

Here We Stand, An Evangelical Declaration on Marriage (The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission)

Marriage: What It Is, Why It Matters, and the Consequences of Redefining It (Ryan T. Anderson)

“Gay Christianity” Refuted! (Dr James White)

THE BIBLE AND SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS: A REVIEW ARTICLE (Tim Keller)

There are over 40,000 preachers ready to stand against the government.

A Warning from Canada: Same-Sex Marriage Erodes Fundamental Rights (Dawn Stefanowicz-The Public Discourse)

Pro-Lifers Didn’t Give Up After Roe v. Wade. Here Are 3 Critical Steps to Take on Marriage. (Ryan T. Anderson)

Rosaria Butterfield on the Christian Response to Homosexuality (YouTube)

YES, WE ARE JUDGMENTAL (BUT NOT IN THE WAY EVERYONE THINKS) (Kevin DeYoung)

Is It Right to Judge? (James Melton)

My Exchange with Two New York Times Writers on Marriage Equality and Civility (Ryan T. Anderson)

A Few Thoughts on the Profaning of Marriage in the United States (Dr James White)

OUR UNHEALTHY PREOCCUPATION WITH ACCEPTANCE (Erik Raymond)

A Believing Response to Matthew Vines’ 40 Questions (Dr James White)

Time for a Little Q & A (re Matthew Vines 40 questions) (Douglas Wilson)

Baker Has a Message for the Gov’t Official Who Just Fined Him $135,000 for Declining a Gay Wedding Cake: ‘He’s Doing This With the Wrong Christian’ (The Blaze)

THE FAQS: CHRISTIAN BAKERS FACE $135K FINE AND GAG ORDER OVER WEDDING CAKE FOR SAME-SEX COUPLE (Joe Carter)

Presbyterian Church considers withdrawing from Marriage Act if gay marriage allowed (SMH)

Senator regrets media’s loss of objectivity in same-sex marriage debate (ACL)

Religious freedom and same-sex marriage need not be incompatible (The Australian)

Take Heed (Nicholas T. Batzig)

Blessings.

Family: Why My Kids Don’t Come First

Some wise words from Danielle Jones on building a healthy identity and relationships within the family…I must confess this is a post that resonated deeply with me, simply because of my own family of origin story, and not just to one generation, but three. My prayer? That I might be a blessing to my children in these areas of their lives, and be part of a new story from this generation forward. God is merciful, He is good, He is faithful, and He redeems.

So, “…how do we avoid the pitfalls…?

God Comes First…

My Marriage Comes Next…

My Kids Don’t Fulfill Me…I can be tempted to find my identity  and heart’s fulfillment in and through what my children do or accomplish. I may see this in myself when my kids joyfully obey me, do well scholastically, or succeed in sports. Do I find my self-worth in their accomplishments? If they fail am I angry because I feel like a bad parent? Do I idolize the idea of having my kids live close by, visit often, or choose certain jobs when they grow up?

I’ve observed quite a few parents who still struggle with finding approval from their children even into their adulthood. Whether it’s giving them emotional guilt trips or trying to manipulate how close they live to each other, not letting our children live their own lives can really hurt a parents’ relationship with their adult child. A relationship built on guilt or manipulation doesn’t breed healthy relationships.

Yet it’s now—while my kids are young—that I must start creating healthy relational boundaries with my kids. Emotional guilt trips may work, but they will not create a genuine bond. Manipulation may be successful, but is that how I want to teach my kids to relate to others? Each child is created by God and has their own special purpose in life; I must not hold them back from doing or going where God leads by making them feel tethered to making me happy in their choices….”

Please read the rest of the post here: Why My Kids Don’t Come First

Christianity: “WHY CONSERVATIVE CHURCHES ARE STILL GROWING”

Dr Michael Brown, speaking to the counter culture phenomena of the growth of conservative churches…God and the gospel are at work…

“…People are looking for certainty, not ambiguity, for truth, not speculation, and they are willing to commit themselves to a cause if they can find a worthy one. (I remember a young man telling me in 2000, “Give us a cause, and we’ll die for it.”)

When we preach a water-downed gospel and call for no more commitment than showing up at an occasional church service, we will attract a certain crowd that wants to satisfy its religious itch, but we will not attract true disciples, those willing to take up the cross and follow Jesus, those willing to go against the grain of the world and do what is right regardless of cost or consequence.

That’s because if Jesus is one of many ways to God, his death on the cross becomes pointless. And if we sit as judges on the Scriptures (rather than the Scriptures judging us), it becomes just another book, even if it is a really good book. As Augustine once commented, “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself…”
Read more at WHY CONSERVATIVE CHURCHES ARE STILL GROWING by Dr Michael Brown

Christianity: Every Test and Every Temptation

“Life is full of difficult circumstances. Life inevitably involves circumstances that we would never have chosen on our own. Yet, the Bible assures, God does not work his grace in his people despite circumstances, but right through the middle of them.

As we look at life’s difficult circumstances, we can sometimes be confused about what this thing is and what it is meant to accomplish. The Bible tells us that there are at least two categories of difficult circumstances: there are tests and there are temptations (see James 1). Both of these exist, but they have very different sources and very different purposes. Every test is an invitation to grow in your faith and draw closer to God; every temptation is an invitation to weaken your faith and push God away. You face that battle every day…

For some people, your trying circumstance may be another person’s success. It may be that you are uniquely prone to the sin of envy, and God makes you aware of another person’s success in order to test you, in order to allow you the opportunity to find joy in that person’s accomplishment. God’s desire is for you to rejoice at what that other person has done and to praise God for his wisdom and blessing. But right there in the test you will face the temptation toward envy. You will face the temptation to resent or even hate that other person; you will face the swell of pride that you are the one who deserves the accomplishment and the accolades. Your evil desires have come raging forth and now the test has become a temptation to sin.

….Because each of us is unique, we face unique circumstances that bring about unique tests and unique temptations. But we only get to experience the joy of the test if we endure it. We lose all the joy if we succumb to the temptation. Alec Motyer says it so well: “The same circumstances which are, on the one hand, opportunities to go forward are, on the other hand, temptations to go back.” In every trying circumstance you need to ask and you need to decide: Will you go forward into increased maturity and increased holiness, or will you go back, and slide back into immaturity and sinfulness?”

Please read the full article here: Every Test and Every Temptation by Tim Challies

Marriage: “I Think There Are Irreconcilable Differences In My Marriage”

“If we really want to protect the sanctity of marriage, we’d start by abolishing no-fault divorce” Matt Walsh tweets…

Matt Walsh found himself receiving a haul over the coals (so to speak) by a reader who found offense in a few of Matt’s Tweets regarding the topic of divorce. Having read Matt’s Tweets, and having read the reader’s letter, it seems to me that the reader is in a place of invested hearing when it comes to what the Lord would require of him, and Matt has very reasonably laid out the supporting argument.

Can I suggest that it is *so* important that we allow open dialogue, encourage open and honest dialogue in the church on this issue, rather than treat it as the elephant in the room? And I know it is hard, certainly very hard, for so many people, for so many reasons, to talk about it. And yet talk we *must*. With courage, with compassion, with truth “on point”, with love, with humility, and with more courage.

I offer the following splicing of quotes from Matt’s article (response), and then a link to the full article following that.

“As far as my own marriage goes, the differences are many. I don’t think they can all be reconciled, and I’m sure I wouldn’t want them to be.

For one thing, my wife is a woman and I’m not. If that ain’t an irreconcilable difference, I don’t know what is….

She’s an extrovert. She’s a small talker. She’s a morning person. She likes to watch HGTV and come up with ideas for new decorative thingamajigs to hang on the wall in the kitchen. She puts the Wiggles CD on for the kids and sings along to it. She’s unreasonably irritated by the sound of a knife scratching against a plate. She hates long car rides. She gets mad at movies if they don’t have happy endings…She’s gets weirdly freaked out by geese. She likes frogs. She bites her finger nails. She’s empathetic. She’s incredibly friendly. She loves to be around people. She’ll laugh with you or cry with you because she can really feel what you feel….She listens. She’s not afraid to be vulnerable.

In other words, she’s the exact opposite of me in so many ways. The list could go on for 10 pages, and I’m sure it’ll be a hundred more by the time we reach our 10th anniversary. I’m not like her. I’m different. She’s different. And that will never change, nor do I expect or want it to.

Sure, we have things in common. We’re both pretty disorganized and forgetful. We both procrastinate. We both drink way too much coffee. We’re both hardheaded and stubborn. These are what you might call “irreconcilable similarities,” and they probably cause more trouble for us than all of the differences combined.

I know I lack the wisdom and the resume to teach anyone anything — especially if the subject is marriage — but I do know that this institution isn’t hinged on compatibility and commonality, no matter what Match.com insists. Marriage is a sacrament built on love, sacrifice, and self-denial. Our love for our spouses should mirror Christ’s love for us, and I can’t help but notice that Christ never said, “Sorry guys, but we’re just not that compatible. Looks like I won’t be able to die for you. I think I just need to work on myself for a while, you know?”

You say you’re a Christian. I believe you. Well, look at what the Bible says about love. And not just what it says, but what it shows. It tells a story of a Love that is painful and beautiful. One that gives, fights, sacrifices, cries, laughs, screams, dies, and lives again. We can choose to have this sort of marriage or not, but it is a choice, either way….

Don’t listen to anything I say. But listen to Christ.

But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. (Mark 10:6-9)

And this is the same Lord who “would have wanted” you to divorce? Here he is quite plainly saying, “no, not only do I not want you to, but you literally can’t.” You are one flesh. What God has joined, let no one separate. No one. Marriage is not soluble…”

You’ll find the article in it’s entirety here: I Think There Are Irreconcilable Differences In My Marriage by Matt Walsh