"Vile Passions"

Once in a while, it is imperative for decent men and women to be truly "up in arms" about something vital. Now is the time for all such people to lift up their voices to God and ask for help.

Why?

There are many terrible sins besetting the British-descended and American peoples. But one of the most awful and most fundamental sins today is that our peoples are beginning to embrace something they would not have even dreamed of 20 or 30 years ago—same-sex marriage! This sin strikes at the very heart of all decent human society. It defines the kind of people we are and will become. It strikes at the core of all our civilized values.

United States Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist spoke out very plainly on this issue. He stated: "Marriage is very simple: a union between one man and one woman, not two men or three men or four men, or one man, or one woman, or two women, three women, or three women and three men. It's not that. It's one man, one woman. It's what the law of the land is."

Yet many of the professing-Christian churches in the United States are quietly "going along" with this movement toward same-sex marriage! On August 5, 2003, the U.S. Episcopal Church confirmed the establishment of "gay unions" and ordained its first homosexual bishop. Quite a number of major denominations are "struggling" with this issue—seemingly unable to come out strongly one way or the other. And the American Baptist Union, Reform Judaism and the Unitarian Universalists all permit the ordination of homosexual clergy and bless same-sex unions in some form.

Is this supposed to be "Christian"? Where does the Bible fit in all of this? What does the inspired word of God have to say about these practices? Describing the foolish and wretched ideas of pagan philosophers, the Apostle Paul wrote: "Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due" (Romans 1:24–27).

What is the "penalty" of the sin of sexual perversion? When the AIDS epidemic was just beginning, one of the nations leading newspapers editorialized that this horrible epidemic would be one of the "easiest" to stop if the homosexuals would just cease from their promiscuous ways. But of course they did not do so! And now millions of lives have been lost, and millions more are enduring agonizing pain and suffering. Much of the continent of Africa is being devastated because of AIDS!

Of course, AIDS is just one of the many penalties of homosexuality. Others include a much higher incidence of venereal disease, a much higher degree of frustration and emptiness resulting in a high rate of suicide, and a total lack of the kind of committed love, stability and genuine family relationships involved in a true Christian marriage. Speaking of family, there would of course be no real families and no children if everyone followed the example of the homosexuals. A very real Satan the Devil would have obliterated the existence of mankind on this earth!

Articulating a view held by many "liberal" religionists, former Presidential candidate Howard Dean explained that "his decision as governor to sign the bill legalizing civil unions for gays in Vermont was influenced by his Christian views, as he waded deeper into the growing political, religious and cultural debate over homosexuality and the Bible's view of it" (Washington Post, January 8, 2004). His view stands in contrast to those "more conservative Christians who take a more literal approach and point to scripture in the New and Old Testaments that they believe forbids homosexuality. For instance, Leviticus 18:22, according to the King James Version of the Bible, says: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination'" (ibid.).

It is amazing that the author of that Washington Post article—just like most liberal writers in the media—states that conservative Christians point to scriptures which "they believe" forbid homosexuality.

"They believe"!

How much plainer could God's word be than calling this practice an "abomination" in the very scripture the author cites? How much plainer could the Apostle Paul be in describing these perversions as "vile passions" (Romans 1:26)? Or by concluding this scriptural passage by stating that "those who practice such things are deserving of death" (v. 32)?

Is the inspired passage in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 really that difficult to decipher? "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God."

The Bible is a revelation of the mind of God—the mind of the Supreme Being who made us male and female and stated that one man and one woman were to become "one flesh" in marriage (Genesis 2:24). In the past, when our Creator has seen a growing acceptance of the vile practices that our society increasingly calls "normal," He has intervened decisively. The word of God describes what happened in one case: "As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude v. 7).

If we in the U.S. are to continue as a nation, may God help us to wake up and to resist this push toward homosexual marriage! If our liberal courts contrive to force this issue upon us, may God give our leaders and our people the intestinal fortitude to stand up and say "enough"!

As quoted in World magazine (January 10, 2004), social commentator Cal Thomas stated: "If conservative groups fail to rally around marriage as a core value of our society and nation, there will be little left for them to stand on when activist groups try to remove the few remaining foundational principles of our nation. And they will try."

The Eternal God commands His faithful ministers: "Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching God" (Isaiah 58:1–2). Yes, millions of Americans attend liberal churches where the ministers are usually "too nice" to comment on the growing rottenness in our society. Churchgoers themselves usually want to "kid" themselves that they are seeking to learn God's ways. Yet they would be offended if a minister really did "lift up his voice like a trumpet" and show them their sins! The Apostle Paul described these people as "having a form of godliness, but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3:5). He then commanded: "From such people turn away!"

May God help each of you, individually—and may He help our nation—to see where these perverted ideas and practices are leading, and to repent before the darkness falls.