by Robert A J Gagnon on X
Leo has once again shown why he can be counted on to carry water for the Democrat Party. Yesterday (April 23), he declared that “justice, equality, the freedom of men and women, and religious freedom” are “much larger and more important [moral] issues” than “sexual issues.”
๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐ฉ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฌ ๐๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฌ๐
As far as the Scriptures are concerned, sexual issues are of very high importance. This is obvious from a clear creation mandate that prioritizes sexual issues above all else: The intentional creation of “male and female” which intersects sexual differentiation with image-bearing (Gen 1:27), and the joining of man and woman in the institution of marriage as the only two sexual counterparts whose union is effectively a re-union, constituting the first and most important societal institution (Gen 2:21-24).
Two of Jesus’ Six Antitheses in Matthew 5:21-48, all of which are devoted to closing loopholes in the law of Moses, had to do with sex, and this in a society (viz., early Judaism in the land of Israel) that already had a strong sexual ethic. In the great “sex text” in Mark 10:2-12 (with parallel in Matthew 19:3-7), In basing his opposition to remarriage after (invalid?) divorce on God’s intentional design of two and only two sexual counterparts, Jesus showed himself to be the most rigorous proponent of the moral logic of a male-female prerequisite for sexual relations anywhere in the ancient world (i.e., two sexes is the foundation for limiting the number of persons in a sexual union to two).
Jesus’ outreach to sexual sinners alongside economic exploiters (tax collectors) showed that he thought sexual offenders were at highest risk of being excluded from God’s kingdom if they failed to repent. His outreach to both groups signaled his desire to reclaim the lost rather than to communicate that these were matters of lesser significance.
The premier apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, front-ended sexual issues for his converts as behaviors that could still get them excluded from the kingdom of God (1 Thess 4:2-8; Gal 5:19-21; 1 Cor 6:9-10; Rom 1:18-32; Eph 5:3-6). In 1 Corinthians, Paul addressed a church steeped in problematic behavior. Yet only in a case of egregious sexual immorality did he insist that the offender be put out of the church pending repentance (1 Cor 5).