Friday, June 6, 2014

Did Adam Support Gay Marriage?



Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”  Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.  And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.  The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.  But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.  So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. (Gen. 2:18-22 ESV).

Male and female are complementary to each other.  Only the male/female pair reproduce.  A masculine man brings certain qualities to a marriage (1 man + 1 woman 4 LIFE) and a feminine woman brings other characteristics that make a marriage work.  When Adam named the animals he noticed the male-female pairing.  Where was Adam’s compatible and complementary female counterpart?  Adam believed in complementarianism, not gay marriage.       

Genesis continues, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Gen. 2:24).

A man leaves his Father and Mother.  Neither father & father nor mother & mother constitute parents.  Same sex couples do not become one flesh.  Only the male/female pair can do this.
Robert Reilly has written a fascinating book on the morality of same-sex relationships, Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior Is Changing Everything.  Reilly has shown that a reasonable man or woman can understand that same-sex couples are ethically incorrect.

In 2009, President Barack Obama held a meeting to celebrate the gay rights movement.  Obama said this about alternative lifestyle activist Franklin Kameny, “We are proud of you, Frank, and we are grateful to you for your leadership.” [1]  Kameny said the following in 2008:

Let us have more and better enjoyment of the more and better sexual perversions, by whatever definition, by more and more consenting adults…  If bestiality with consenting animals provides happiness to some people, let them pursue their happiness.  That is Americanism in action. [2]

In Plato’s Laws, the Athenian states his position:
…our citizens must not be worse than fowls and many other animals which are produced in large broods, and which live chaste and celibate lives without sexual intercourse until they arrive at the age for breeding; and when they reach this age they pair off, as instinct moves them, male with female and female with male; and thereafter they live in a way that is holy and just, remaining constant to their first contracts of love: surely our citizens should at least be better than these animals.

In Book 1 of Plato’s Laws, the Athenian affirms,
…I think that the pleasure is to be deemed natural which arises out of the intercourse between men and women; but that the intercourse of men with men, or of women with women, is contrary to nature, and that the bold attempt was originally due to unbridled lust. The Cretans are always accused of having invented the story of Ganymede and Zeus because they wanted to justify themselves in the enjoyment of unnatural pleasures

Philosopher Immanuel Kant proposed his Categorical Imperative:  If it’s right, it’s right for all.  If gay is good and all practiced that maxim, then there would be no more babies.  Kant rejected homosexual conduct. 

Pleasure is indeed part of marriage (Song of Solomon).  But worshipping pleasure is a vain pursuit.  The Pleasure Principle can lead to destruction.   Consider the parable of Sam & Dave.  Sam and Dave are very good friends.  Sam loves to hit Dave in the head with a baseball bat.  Dave loves to hit Sam in the head with a baseball bat.  They practice this habitual pleasure for many years.  Sam & Dave never become one flesh (1 Cor. 6:16).

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” (Eph. 6:1-3 ESV)

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11 ESV)

Special thanks to Francis Hall for the first graphic.  You may contact us through the email in our profile.  Please follow us on Twitter. 


Notes:
1)  Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior Is Changing Everything by Robert Reilly (Ignatius Press, 2014), p. 3.
2)  Ibid., p. 4.