The short answer to the title question is "No."
Why should a Christian politely decline to attend a homosexual wedding? For exactly the same reason a Christian baker should politely decline to bake a cake for a gay wedding. It sends a message of affirmation for something God has plainly condemned.
A wedding is a celebration. Guests are there to rejoice with and congratulate the couple. Their presence represents approval.
Approving of homosexual "marriage" in any way, shape or form is one thing no sincerely devoted follower of Christ can do. This is simply because a homosexual "marriage" is based on a sex act the Bible uniformly condemns from beginning to end as immoral, unnatural and unhealthy.
The rest is worth reading.
Something to consider, especially as current legal trends continue:
ReplyDelete778542
lol Copy/paste fail. This is what I meant to paste:
ReplyDeletehttp://tenthousandplaces.org/2015/04/01/bake-for-them-two/
Annalea's post link advocates for Christians to not only not refuse to bake cakes for homosexual weddings, but to bake two cakes and really show how Christians "love".
ReplyDeleteJesus never advocated, condoned, celebrated, or encouraged sin. Declining to "celebrate" (or assist) evil (even if "wrapped" in a package of "love") is not "hate", but righteousness. And, to paraphrase Denver Snuffer: Righteousness kicks virtue's ass every time.
I'm sad to see you misunderstand the article in that way, Will. I know you to be a good man, with an earnest heart, and we'll simply have to agree to disagree on this one. God bless you, richly and often, my friend!
ReplyDeleteWhat did I miss or misunderstand? Please enlighten me Annalea. I don't even know what you believe! How can I "disagree" with you? ;o)
ReplyDeleteYour comment merely provided a link. I didn't infer your opinion thereby. Did my "post" and link express my opinion? Hardly.
You could not be more wrong. Love and compassion are always the better answer. I don't believe we were put on this earth to cast our approval upon things, as much as I think we were put here to learn to love. If you knew other people's struggles, you would have more of a desire to support them and show love for them, then a desire to approve or disapprove of their life. It's really about putting love for others first and foremost. I truly believe that was Christ's message.
ReplyDeleteGood Will,
ReplyDeleteI'm not convinced that attending a wedding or making a cake amounts to complicity or approval.
In the article by Bryan Fischer that you linked, he concedes the following point near the end of his post:
"One can understand that a parent might attend a same-sex ceremony in an effort to retain some relational connection with a much-loved but wayward child. But a parent should only do that after first communicating that attendance should not be read as approval."
I think in most situations it is possible that gifts, services, and compulsory taxes can be given in a way to those who are sinful --without condoning or approving their sinful behavior.
Christ's attendance in the Jewish synagogues (and his acquiescence to Roman taxes and also his approval of the widow's mite given to the wicked presiding officers) did not indicate his approval of Rome or of the Sanhedrin; it didn't make him complicit in their evil or mistakes. He knew that many of the Sanhedrin were adulterers and murderers-in-their-hearts, and that the Roman Empire was a brutal and misguided engine of war.
I think if I was a baker and I was asked by a client to top a cake with a same gender decoration that I would not be pleased in doing it, but I would not refuse. If I was asked by a friend to attend his or her same gender ceremony, I would not be pleased in doing it, but I would not refuse.
At some point in the interaction, I would unobtrusively share with them my beliefs, such as by giving them a personalized pass along card (in an envelope when delivering the wedding cake or giving the wedding present). This would be my way of letting them know -- hey, I respect your agency and I'm willing to treat you an equal and not deny you service or basic acknowledgement; I hope that if roles were reversed that you would treat me the same way even if you felt what I was doing was misguided; but I do think you are misguided, and this card has resources on it that if you run them to ground and investigate them, you will find some important truths and come to understand your mistake. God bless you in your journey.
Without engaging with them on their own terms in some limited way, those kind of missionary opportunities are not possible.
I think that when Jesus spent his time with publicans and sinners, he was not worried about whether his presence with them would be interpreted as approval of of them, or as being anti-Mosaic or impure.
He was mournful about their sins, but after these meetings it must have been that the honest among them could not deny that he loved them as human beings and had treated them as equals.
It is perhaps not an easy thing to treat someone as an equal who is ignorant or misguided in various aspects of their life, but that kind of humility is the method by which Christ-like love is often demonstrated.
Some people who are ensnared in some very serious sins are pure and innocent in other areas of their lives. Worthiness is not all-or-nothing, it is compartmentalized (D&C 130:20-21).
If we are to minister to those who need our help, we must be willing to meet them in some limited way on their own terms, in their own world.
That being said, I think there is a line to be drawn, and I would not officiate at a same gender union if I was an ordained minister and was asked to do so. I would decline and gently state my reasons, and would give them a pass along card, and would pray that God would open their hearts.
Being intentionally present when various sins are being committed is not necessarily a problem -- but that explicit verbal approval or explicit acts of enabling are a problem. No doubt there is sometimes a very fine line between these things. The only safe course then is to have the Spirit always with us so that we can respond in the appropriate way in each unique situation.
Having hard and fast rules about not showing up to such and such events, or not providing service to such and such people -- that in my opinion is a mistake.
Well reasoned and well said, yankee.
ReplyDeleteThere are certainly many different ways to look at this issue. I welcome the discussion.
Would I feed, clothe and shelter a homosexual, even in my own home? (Yes, and I have.) Would I befriend him, hang out with him, enjoy his company, even love him? (Yes, and I have.) Would I mourn with him? Empathize with his struggles and concerns? Strive to bear his burdens with him? (Yes, and I have.)
DeleteBut I would not "celebrate" his "marriage" to another man, nor would I call his partner his "husband", his "spouse" or anything of the kind.
Perversion can be practiced with the best of intentions. Violating God's commandments because you "feel like it" doesn't make it right. The only thing more perverse than perversion is pretending it is not. One does not honor or support marriage by redefining -- and thus obliterating -- it.
Sorry I disappeared from the discussion. I would only add that Christ only condemned those who stood in places of authority or influence, and handed down judgement upon others, hedging up the way, and entering not themselves. The Savior blessed and forgave, blessed and forgave, blessed and forgave, with His unconditional love and acceptance for each heart plain for all to see.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking judgement hedges up the way to another person receiving a revelation of the love of Jesus Christ. If God is love, freely given to every one of us unworthy creatures, is it pleasing to Him if I place myself in a position of condemnative judgement, denying one of His children something I am wholly capable of doing?
Making a cake is not inherently sinful. Placing my own judgements above the opportunity to establish relationships isn't the example Jesus set.
Looking forward to greeting you in person this weekend. :-)
Will, it was good to talk to you this weekend, and to try to puzzle through this a bit more.
ReplyDeleteAs I've continued to ponder on this whole topic, it came into my heart and mind that there is a HUGE difference between walking in forgiveness and walking in approval. When faced with all of humanity--not just "someone who is doing something we believe to be wrong", because, honestly, there isn't a single person on the face of the earth who ISN'T doing something we believe to be wrong, right? You and myself included--we have three choices in how we respond:
1) With condemnation.
2) With approval.
3) With forgiveness.
Forgiveness is not approval . . . and that's what I've been trying to get at, here. We can love others, build relationships with them, without "approving" of their choices. Did Jesus approve of the publican's way of making a living (not just turning traitor to the Jews and work for Rome, but who often extorted their riches from the people from whom they collected tithes), or the whore's, or the sinners'? But He ate with them, talked with them, loved them anyway.
I would go to the gay wedding, unless God specifically told me not to. I would be happy for them, because they are happy. And I would do whatever Jesus asks me to do--no matter what my own ideas of right & wrong in a given situation might be.
Thanks so much for your testimony. :-) God bless you and yours, richly and often!