Category: Ethics

“Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10 NIV).

Love

Love is not a feeling, it is the act of the will. It is aiming to choose the highest good of others equally with our own.

Harm

The purpose of the moral law is to eliminate “harm” and hurt in the world. So when we ask if something is a sin, we can ask does it or is it likely to cause harm and hurt.

Sex outside a monogamous committed relationship is likely to cause harm and hurt. Therefore, a monogamous committed relationship is prescribed by God.

Monogamous Committed Relationship

Is sex between two consenting adult men in a monogamous committed relationship a sin? I don’t believe it is. For it does not and is not likely to cause harm or hurt, any more than a heterosexual relationship.

And is seems contrary to good logical to require gay men to be celibate. For Paul says that “it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion” (1 Cor. 7:9).
Homosexuality is biological, it is not a choice.

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is “the quality or characteristic of being sexually or romantically attracted to people of one’s own sex” (Oxford English dictionary). Heterosexual culture did not understand this. They thought it was a choice. Because it would be a choice for them.

Therefore, the Bible never condemns homosexuality. Rather, it condemned men having sex with men, or women having sex with women (Romans 1:26-27).

Arsenokoites

Now most translations render arsenokoites as “homosexuals” (1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Tim. 1:10 NASB). This is the first time the term appears in any extent manuscripts, and it seems like a slang term. It literally means something like “male beds.” It was later interpreted to mean “men who have sex with men.” So arsenokoites does not mean homosexuals, those with same sex attraction, but “men who have sex with men.” For same sex attraction was not in the worldview of early cultures.

NRSVue

But even the translation “men who have sex with men” may be a later understanding of the term. This is why the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition has a footnote that says, “Meaning of Gk uncertain.”

It translates both 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10 as, “men who engage in illicit sex.” Which significantly changes the meaning

It Doesn’t Matter

It is not surprising that a heterosexual man would condemn sex between men. Paul could simply not understand the concept of same-sex attraction. Most most heterosexuals cannot.

But if you actually talk to homosexuals, they will tell you that they knew that they were attracted to men very very early in their childhood. That means that they were born that way.

References

“ἀρσενοκοίτης • arsenokoites,” 1 Corinthians 6:1-11. Rev. Thomas G. James. Washington Street UMC.
February 2, 2020

“There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

If there are neither male nor female in Christ Jesus, then why do we segregate women from the ministry?

Apostle to the Apostles

Mary Magdalene was the Apostle to the Apostles. For Jesus appeared to her first, and sent her to give the news of the resurrection to the Apostles (Matt. 28:10). So she was the first Apostle of the resurrection.

Prominent Among the Apostles

“Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Israelites who were in prison with me; they are prominent among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was” (Rom. 16:7).

Junia, a woman, is here called an apostle. Since a woman can be an apostle, a woman can be a bishop. Patriarchy is not happy with this verse, because it makes women equal with men.

Woman Teaching a Man

We also read about a man named Apollos, who had an imperfect understanding of Christianity. So yge Bible says that “Priscilla and Aquila,” a husband and wife, “took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately” (Acts 18:26). Here a woman taught a man.

What Should Be Done?

I believe that it is a universal principle that “there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). Which means it serves to guide interpretations that are circumstantial.

As Paul said, “What should be done then, my brothers and sisters? When you [men and women] come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up” (1 Cor. 14:26).

Political historian Robert Paxton defines fascism as:

“a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cultures of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elitist, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”

The Cleansing

The cleansing must begin with a small group that the majority dislikes. In the United States that is the trans community. An easy target to begin the cleansing with. Also included are the immigrants, the stranger in our midst.

Widespread Ignorance

Most Americans are ignorant of the organizations who are behind this hostile government takeover. They know nothing of the Heritage Foundation, Christian Nationalism, or Project 2025. They are completely ignorant of the history of the rise of Adolf Hitler and Mussolini. They don’t know what fascism or oligarchy are

The fact of the matter, they don’t understand how the United States government is supposed to work, how propaganda works, and how they have been manipulated by big money. They have bought into conspiracy theories, trust media outlets, and believe they’re lying politicians, both Democrats and Republicans.

Corporatists and Oligarchs

Democrats are just as guilty as Republicans. They both work for big money. Bernie Sanders is one of the only people telling the truth. The Democrats work for the corporatists and the Republicans for the oligarchs. With Donald Trump, the oligarchs won.

The Plan

The plan is simple, the United States government is being dismantled so that the rich are no longer taxed or regulated. Elon Musk is not the solution, he is the problem. Him and his other billionaire friends. They are no longer behind the curtain pulling the strings, they have stepped out of the shadows to take control. They are the owners of this country that George Carlin told you about.

Everything will be privatized and sold to the highest bigger. Democracy in the United States is dying. The Democrats helped weaken it, but the Republicans are driving the stake right into the heart.

Response

I am not optimistic. But we must do what we can to fight against the move to a fascist government. We need to protect the right of the LGBTQ+ community and the immigrant community. Other minorities will follow.

Christian Nationalism

My main concern is the misappropriation of the name of Christ and Christianity to sanction racism, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and hatred. This is wrong. This is slandering the Gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ. I denounce it in the strongest terms possible. It is reprehensible!

But the fact is, as Chris Hedges explains, our Christian values “are being dismantled often with stealth, by a radical Christian movement, known as dominionism, which seeks to cloak itself in the mantle of the Christian faith and American patriotism.” This group is Christian Nationalism and have taken over the Evangelical leadership.

Recommend Reading

• American Fascist: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris hedges
• The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta
• The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy by Matthew D. Taylor
• Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States by Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry
• How the World Works by Noam Chomsky

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” – Lord Acton

When Christians take power into their own hands, terrible things are done in the name of God. Shameful deeds of persecution, torture and killing. History has demonstrated that nothing is as dangerous as the joining of church and state.

The Evangelicals rail against the Catholic Church for the abuses of the Middle Ages. They would never do what they did. And yet, what do you think Christian Nationalism is?

Dangers of Christian Nationalism

Jesus said:

“My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36).

When Church and State join forces, you know that bad things are about to happen. This is not theory, this is history. When the Roman Empire made Catholic Christianity the religion of the state, soon after the persecutions followed.

Power is Poison

When Jesus was offered by the devil “all the Kingdoms of the world,” he refused (Matt 4:8-9). Now the Church in the United States is being made the same offer. Unfortunately, it is bowing the knee to glory and power to a kingdom that belongs to this world.

Jesus said, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.” Then why do some Christian want to create a kingdom on earth? This is against the wishes of Christ. And so we now have Christians who are willing to “fight” and kill for God.

The Ruler of this World

The sad part is that as they pursue Christian Nationalism, they fail to realize that they are joining up with the “ruler of this world.” And do you know who that is? The devil (John 16:11; 12:31; 14:30; 2 Cor 4:4). That is why 1 John 5:19 says that “the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.”

The most dangerous people in Jesus’ day were the religious leaders. Not much has changed in 2,000 years. What starts out as a good intention ends up becoming s a hideous catastrophe. Only pride blinds us to this temptation.

He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40).

Agape Love

The kind of love spoken of here is not a feeling, it’s an act of the will. It is the willing of the highest good of God first and foremost, and the willing of the highest good of others equally with our own highest good.

Selfishness

Selfishness is putting our interests above God’s and others. It is putting ourselves first and foremost. It is dethroning God as King of our lives and placing ourselves on the throne of our heart.

If “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10), and “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4), then selfishness is the essence of sin. Sin is not missing the mark, sin is a wrong aim. It is aiming to please self rather than God. It is the root of evil.

Flesh, Sin, and Sins

The flesh is the tendencies toward selfishness, sin is the aim to serve self, and sins are the selfish actions that result from this wrong aim. They are selfish thoughts, words, and deeds.

Testimony of the Church

“Sin is due to the abuse, not use, of free will. The abuse of free will occurs when we put our egocentric interests above the common interests.” – Thomas C. Oden

“The root of all sin is selfishness, separating first from God and then from man.” – Andrew Murray

“We hold the essential principle of sin to be selfishness.” – A. H. Strong

“We have also seen, that all sin is selfishness.” – Charles Finney