It is difficult to avoid the hubbub over Kirk Cameron's latest comments if you read the internet or have even a tiny bit to do with the social networking world (either Twitter or Facebook). Apparently, calling something a sin today can get you tarred and feathered - and then bloodied and bruised. The story, over at the Huffington Post has actually generated over 18,000 comments - almost as many as our story about the death of B.B. Warfield.Now, If you should be brave enough to start digging through this muck which represents the lowest form of public discourse imaginable (try reading the comments on Huffpo or ABC News' story) then you realize that the commenters are pretty evenly split. On the one hand, there are original gems like "It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. I love your show on TBN!" and then on the opposite end you have people calling out everyone who believes in right or wrong.
In other words, this is the opposite of rational public discourse, from both sides. I wanted to share an interesting sampling of self-contradictory and illogical comments.
- "Kirk Cameron is an idiot. Homosexuality is most definitely natural as it has been around for thousands and probably millions of years."
- "Kirk Cameron has a right to believe as he does but he doesn't have the right to make absolute comments."
- "I think many people are upset because he said that he thinks everyone else 'should do the same' as what he believed in."
- "Judge NOT. God is in charge of judging and condemning, none of us mere mortals is capable of that kind of responsibility."
- "For you to believe that GOD has any reference to this is just your way of trying to power play your beliefs onto someone else..DO NOT USE GOD AS YOUR BULLY TECHNIQUES!!!"
I'll save the most seriously cautionary comment for last: "In the past, the Bible was used to defend slavery, keeping blacks and whites seperate, women from voting and all kinds of other absurdities that we know now to be wrong. And anti-gay bigoty will likewise be relegated to the past." Note that all of this persons' examples of 'bigotry' involved the active oppression others, and that this oppression was eliminated by laws and by force, not by changing the public's mind through arguments and reason alone. Who knows what lies ahead for free speech for Christians if every view is tolerated except our own? We may become like our brothers and sisters in the rest of the world who live in danger for proclaiming Christ as Lord and God's Law as supreme. As Christians, we should be ready and willing - not to fight for our rights - but to suffer for the Gospel.
I thought Dr. James White had a good response to this issue:
ReplyDelete"Kirk Cameron dared to state publicly what Christians simply must believe biblically regarding homosexuality being unnatural (if God defines what nature is, doesn't it follow that if it goes against His creative decree, it is unnatural?) and destructive (the evidence for that is indisputable, both in the destruction of the lives of those who engage in it, as well as the inability of such people to create life naturally). The media elites are gnashing their teeth in response, and we must understand why. As God-hating secularism becomes the norm, we must realize that it cannot stand criticism, and it cannot allow for freedom of any dissenting viewpoints. The Great State must silence all other views. This is the nature of secularism, and history shows us the banishment of free speech and thought is a necessary element of totalitarianism (and you thought 1984 was just a compelling story!). As Christians we remember the words of Jesus, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:18-19). We expect the world's hatred. Those who court its friendship are enemies of God. John also told us, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). God may well be forcibly ripping us away from our love of the world by allowing the hatred of that world to express itself in ever more visible, and painful, ways."
http://aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?itemid=5010
I shared this on my Facebook as friends were discussing free speech, etc. Thanks for your insights and reminders.
ReplyDeletehttp://drawingthelinesomewhere.com
Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ, Please remember that our enemy is not those humans who disagree with what the Bible teaches. People who do not call on Christ as their Savior are hostages to the enemy's schemes. Our ammunition, so to speak, should be aimed at that enemy not his hostages. We should love as Christ loved. Sacrifice for their well being and not only clamor for our rights. Christ loved the woman caught in adultery before He called her to go and sin no more.
ReplyDeleteI heard his statement, and to be honest, just once I'd like to hear a Christian tell Piers Morgan that not only is it a sin (he didn't give a direct answer to that question in the clip I saw) against a holy God just like other sins including pride, and then proclaim the Gospel of Christ. He does it on the street; Piers Morgan needed that too. Instead, what we got (and are defending) is just more moralism.
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