When is Sin a Good Thing?

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Isaiah 5:20, cf. Psalm 52:3, Malachi 2:17

The answer is never. Wishful thinking on my part says you all got that question correct. Can I see a show of hands? A closer scrutiny of society will reveal however that many people get it wrong.

I address this to a Disciple of Thecla post comment which raised the question “why is there such hostility to homosexuality and not an equivalent crying out against the other sexual sins in society? Here is the reason. All those other sins are pretty much understood by everybody to be wrong. Few would argue that adultery, or any of the other sexual ills suffered is an appropriate behavior and healthy for well adjusted, productive society. They are practices done in the dark, in secret, so as not to be discovered.

Homosexuals, on the other hand, want to be considered normal, accepted. Behavior to be a thread deliberately woven into the fabric of society in bold, pronounced colors. It is even to be celebrated with parades and festivals, to be legitimized and protected by law.

That is why the sin of homosexuality causes so much uproar and is so vocally and roundly condemned by Christians, more so than some other sins of our society. It is a slap in the face of all that they consider true, healthy, moral and good. The promotion of such behavior openly declares that there is really no such thing as right and wrong. Whatever any individual decides is true is appropriate for them. My version of truth and morality is just as valid as anyone’s. But when that happens immorality become amoral. True becomes false. Good becomes evil. There is simply no difference!

It is true that our civilization is rife with as many manifestations of rebellion from God’s grace as the imagination has capacity to produce. And in spite of the great many Churches in America, and the large evangelical and missionary outreach in our own country, very great evils continue as if unabated with seeming unabashed impunity: child abductions and molestation, the sex trade, all manner of thievery, murders, bullying, just to scratch the surface. But all these things are rightly understood by most as unacceptable in a civilized society and are forcefully proscribed. If a great momentum for the acceptance, approval, legitimization and legalization of any of these evils were propagated certainly a very great outcry would rise against it. Why should it be surprising then that the practice and promotion of homosexuality as an equally valid way of family life receives such reproach?

Why are some so forceful in their opposition to what many think is a private, personal matter? Frankly if that was really all it was then there probably wouldn’t be this level of outrage expressed against the homosexual community. If they just led quiet lives and did not flout a universally unacceptable behavior in the face of society the headlines wouldn’t be so pronounced. But the hornets nest has been stirred. Opposition is merely matched by the flagrant flaunting of their behavior in the public arena. What did they think was going to happen?

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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One Response to When is Sin a Good Thing?

  1. After reading over Leviticus 18 again last Sunday, I realized that the two prohibitions which God strongly emphasised as sinful – abortion and gay sex – are the two sins that liberals and secularists want everyone to accept and endorse.

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