Posted by Jim_Daly May 24, 2012

Dr. Al Mohler is a dear friend and member of the Focus on the Family Board of Directors. He has one of the sharpest minds of anyone I know and I deeply value his input and counsel concerning many matters, both personal and professional.

Al was recently invited to contribute to CNN’s Belief Blog and deftly answered a question that is being asked in many circles today:

If the Bible condemns many sins, why do Christians seem to focus on the sin of homosexuality?

I’m delighted to share his response with you:

Are conservative Christians hypocritical and selective when it comes to the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality? With all that the Bible condemns, why the focus on gay sex and same-sex marriage?

Given the heated nature of our current debates, it’s a question conservative Christians have learned to expect. “Look,” we are told, “the Bible condemns eating shellfish, wearing mixed fabrics and any number of other things. Why do you ignore those things and insist that the Bible must be obeyed when it comes to sex?”

On its face, it’s a fair question. But it can be posed in two very different ways.

First, the question can be asked to suggest that the Bible’s clear condemnation of sexual sins can simply be set aside. The other way of posing the question represents a genuine attempt to understand how the Bible is to be rightly applied to life today.

In truth, those asking the question the first way really don’t want an answer.

An honest consideration of the Bible reveals that most of the biblical laws people point to in asking this question, such as laws against eating shellfish or wearing mixed fabrics, are part of the holiness code assigned to Israel in the Old Testament. That code was to set Israel, God’s covenant people, apart from all other nations on everything from morality to diet.

As the Book of Acts makes clear, Christians are not obligated to follow this holiness code. This is made clear in Peter’s vision in Acts 10:15. Peter is told, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

In other words, there is no kosher code for Christians. Christians are not concerned with eating kosher foods and avoiding all others. That part of the law is no longer binding, and Christians can enjoy shrimp and pork with no injury to conscience.

The Bible’s commands on sexual behavior, on the other hand, are continued in the New Testament. When it comes to homosexuality, the Bible’s teaching is consistent, pervasive, uniform and set within a larger context of law and Gospel.

The Old Testament clearly condemns male homosexuality along with adultery, bestiality, incest and any sex outside the covenant of marriage. The New Testament does not lessen this concern but amplifies it.

The New Testament condemns both male and female homosexual behavior. The Apostle Paul, for example, points specifically to homosexuality as evidence of human sinfulness. His point is not merely that homosexuals are sinners but that all humanity has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The New Testament condemns a full range of sexual sins, and homosexuality is specified among these sins. In Romans, Paul refers to homosexuality in terms of “dishonorable passions,” “contrary to nature” and “shameless.” As New Testament scholar Robert Gagnon has stated, the Bible’s indictment “encompasses every and any form of homosexual behavior.”

Some people then ask, “What about slavery and polygamy?” In the first place, the New Testament never commands slavery, and it prizes freedom and human dignity. For this reason, the abolitionist movement was largely led by Christians, armed with Christian conviction.

The Old Testament did allow for polygamy, though it normalizes heterosexual monogamy. In the New Testament, Jesus made clear that marriage was always meant to be one man and one woman.

“Have you not read that He who created them made them male and female?” Jesus asked in Matthew. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” For this reason, Christians have opposed polygamy on biblical grounds.

Why are Christians so concerned with homosexuality? In the first place, that question is answered by the simple fact that it is the most pressing moral question of our times. Christians must be concerned about adultery, pornography, injustice, dishonesty and everything the Bible names as sin. But when my phone rings with a call from a reporter these days, the question I am asked is never adultery or pornography. It is about homosexuality.

Christians who are seriously committed to the authority of the Bible have no choice but to affirm all that the Bible teaches, including its condemnation of homosexuality. At the same time, our confidence is that God condemns those things that will bring his human creatures harm and commands those things that will lead to true human happiness and flourishing.

In other words, we understand that the Bible condemns all forms of sin because our Creator knows what is best for us. The Bible names sins specifically so that each of us will recognize our own sinfulness and look to Christ for salvation and the forgiveness of our sins.

Christian love requires that we believe and teach what the Bible teaches and that we do so with both strong conviction and humble hearts. The Church must repent of our failures in both of these tasks, but we must not be silent where the Bible speaks.

Are Christians hypocrites in insisting that homosexual behavior is sin? We, too, are sinners, and hypocrisy and inconsistency are perpetual dangers.

The church failed miserably in the face of the challenge of divorce. This requires an honest admission and strong corrective.

At the same time, this painful failure must remind us that we must not fail to answer rightly when asked what the Bible teaches about homosexuality. Love requires us to tell the truth.

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Posted by Jim_Daly May 23, 2012

Would it surprise you if I suggested that one of the greatest risks to your marriage is loving your spouse too much?

It’s true – but with a twist.

Many of us will be attending weddings in the coming months. They’re beautiful affairs where we witness two individuals pledging their love and fidelity to each other. The happy couple leaves the ceremony and reception awash in advice and wise counsel, all centered on the challenge of fulfilling the marriage vows. They're rightly enamored with each other and want to do everything they can to please their new spouse.

This is good, of course, but it can also be a problem if it’s taken to the extreme.

If we spend all of our time focusing our attention on our spouse, of pouring all of our energy into mastering their moods, their likes and dislikes, there’s a good chance we’re not spending enough time developing our relationship with God. And if our relationship with the Lord is deficient, there is no way our marriage can be all that God has designed it to be.

Jesus put it very succinctly in the gospel of Matthew: “But seek first His kingdomand His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (6:33).

Before reaching for that next book on marriage, consider digging into your relationship with Jesus. The very best thing you can do for your spouse is to fall deeper in love with the Lord.

C.S. Lewis once pondered this very question, of whether it’s possible to love another in excess. His conclusion was brilliant and instructive:

We may love another person too much in proportion to our love for God. But it is the smallness of our love for God, not the greatness of our love for the man, that constitutes the inordinacy.

In other words, it’s not about loving your spouse less, but simply loving your Lord more.

If you’re married or widowed, how have you seen this dynamic at play in your own life? How have you managed to make certain that the Lord comes first?

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Posted by Jim_Daly May 22, 2012

At last count, 43 Catholic institutions, including the University of Notre Dame, have filed lawsuits challenging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate that religious organizations provide medical coverage that violates their conscience and religious liberties.

I thank God that there are individuals and organizations in this nation willing to go to the wall for freedom and our First Amendment rights.

As a reminder, it was this past January when HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that nearly every healthcare plan was required to cover the cost of sterilizations and contraceptives, including ones that can cause abortion.

Since then, religious leaders and a number of legislators have been trying to persuade administration officials to reconsider their draconian ruling, but to no avail.  In response to the stalled talks, New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan sounded an ominous warning over the weekend.

"Time is running out,” he said, adding that “[our] fundamental rights hang in the balance, so we have to resort to the courts now.”

To a Christian, the lawsuit is, indeed, a matter of last resort, at least prior to practicing civil disobedience. At this point in the process there are more questions than answers. These 43 lawsuits are in addition to the current case that sits with the Supreme Court. Should the justices rule the entire healthcare law illegal come June, this matter regarding the HHS mandate becomes moot. But what if only a portion of the law is struck down? The stakes couldn’t be higher.

The very best thing that Christians can do about this stalemate is also the most fundamental thing we must always do when we’re up against seemingly impossible odds:

We must pray!

And I don’t mean perfunctory prayer. I’m referring to strong and powerful prayer. We need to pray for a miracle. I’m reminded of Jesus’ own words:

I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him(Mark 11:23). 

Do you pray with a spirit of expectation? Or is it more often offered with a sense of resignation, that you’ve exhausted all other options and, well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to file a short prayer of petition?

In the late 1800s there was a Christian evangelist in England by the name of George Muller. Those who were around him reported that he prayed about everything, especially for seemingly impossible or unlikely things. He prayed very practical prayers, that the thick fog would lift in the midst of a journey across the Atlantic. He prayed that a man’s hard heart would be softened and that the man would be willing to work through a cold night on a broken boiler. Time and time again, George prayed for what many thought be to impossible requests – and more often than not, his prayers were answered.

It’s time for us to pray for a turn of the tide. It’s time for us to pray for a miracle.

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