Wendell Berry on Homosexual "Rights" and my Response

"My argument, much abbreviated both times, was the sexual practices of consenting adults ought not to be subjected to the government’s approval or disapproval, and that domestic partnerships in which people who live together and devote their lives to one another ought to receive the spousal rights, protections and privileges the government allows to heterosexual couples,” Berry said.

How manipulative and dishonest it is for folks to use the word "rights" whenever they are out to get their way, and making it their mission to cause those with dissenting views to shut up.  Women's "rights," homosexual "rights," children's "rights," animal "rights," and so on.  Nobody wants to be accused of removing the "rights" of anyone.  God forbid!  It's proven to be a tactic quite adept at silencing people, especially Christians, who do not want to be labeled as intolerant, hateful, judgmental, unloving or bigoted. 

In light of what homosexuals are clamoring for, why not afford special governmental "rights," protections and privileges to two sisters, or two brothers, or a sister and a brother, or two friends, or a parent and child who have lived together and devoted their lives to each other?  

“Jesus talked of hating your neighbor as tantamount to hating God, and yet some Christians hate their neighbors by policy and are busy hunting biblical justifications for doing so,” Mr. Berry said.  “Are they not perverts in the fullest and fairest sense of that term?  And yet none of these offenses -- not all of them together -- has made as much political/religious noise as homosexual marriage."  

The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, He hates with a passion. ~Psalm 11:5  

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him:  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community. ~Proverbs 6:16-19
 

For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness; with you, evil people are not welcome.  The arrogant cannot stand in your presence.  You hate all who do wrong; you destroy those who tell lies.  The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, Lord, detest. ~Psalm 5:4-6
 

Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?  Who may live on your holy mountain?  The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others; who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.  Whoever does these things will never be shaken. ~Psalm 15  

Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Romans 9:13

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them. ~John 3:36


Yes, Mr. Berry, God is love, but He is also holiness and justice, which means He cannot wink at sin.  His love is worthless if not illuminated by His Truth which is Jesus.

“If I were one of a homosexual couple--the same as I am one of a
heterosexual couple--I would place my faith and hope in the mercy of Christ, not in the judgment of Christians,” Berry said.  “When I consider the hostility of political churches to homosexuality and homosexual marriage, I do so remembering the history of Christian war, torture, terror, slavery and annihilation against Jews, Muslims, black Africans, American Indians and others.  And more of the same by Catholics against Protestants, Protestants against Catholics, Catholics against Catholics, Protestants against Protestants, as if by law requiring the love of God to be balanced by hatred of some neighbor for the sin of being unlike some divinely preferred us.  If we are a Christian nation -- as some say we are, using the adjective with conventional looseness -- then this Christian blood thirst continues wherever we find an officially identifiable evil, and to the immense enrichment of our Christian industries of war.”  

Obviously, Mr. Berry is not paying heed to Jesus' own sobering words in Matthew 7:21-23 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’  

Many have enacted great evil in the name of Jesus when, in actuality, their hearts were far from Him.  Their comportment did not display His character.   Even Hitler claimed to be a Christian!  Genuine Christians, part of the Body of Christ, have done great good for the cause of Christ in our corrupted world, people like: William Wilberforce, John Newton, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Corrie ten Boom, to name only a few.  In our day, Dr. James Dobson, Eric Ludy, Chuck Colson, Eric Metaxas, Hannah Rose Allen, Jill Stanek, Dinesh D'Souza, Franklin Graham and Shaun Carney are a few of Jesus' courageous warriors attempting to punch holes in the darkness.

OUR CONSCIENCE VERSUS OUR SIN NATURE

Although we are born in original sin, we are also born knowing God. Each of us, created "in His image" and for His purpose, has an inner programming, put there by God, to seek His influence in our lives. This programming, as deeply ingrained in us as though it were embedded in our DNA, impels us to discover and submit to His inner leading in all things, or else live meaningless, deluded, and ultimately wasted lives. Conscience is literally the presence of God in us, the friction between the way we are and the way we could be. Our conscience causes us inner conflict when we're doing the wrong thing. We experience this correcting and illuminating presence - which is actually our greatest friend - as pain when we deviate from its urgings.

If we tumble into the grip of dark forces we don't understand and then start to defend our obsessions and compulsions, we inevitably come to regard our conscience as an enemy. And although we may be somewhat successful in drowning out that inner warning bell, what happens when this conscience factor appearing in another person gets too close to us for comfort? We feel threatened. Therefore, we feel compelled to silence the "voice of conscience"- not just the one inside of us, but the one in other people, which tends to revive our own conscience with which we're at war. This means we can't tolerate dissent. Thus, many of us ignorantly come to regard conscience as a problem, even an enemy, and strive to eliminate it any way we can. The most loving stance for others to take is not to serve as enablers of self-destructive and immoral compulsions, but to stand in patient but firm opposition. In other words, we need to side with the afflicted person's conscience. Until we're ready to let the life of pride and sin inside us wither and die, we find it nearly impossible to "listen to the right side."

An innocent young child has a "bright light" quality that feels mysteriously threatening to those in the grip of corruption. To the person led by her sin nature, it's deeply satisfying to her to lead an innocent one astray. Doing so serves to anesthetize her own conscience and assuage her inner conflict by destroying the innocence of another person, since that innocence tends to make her aware of her own corruption.

Remember, our conflicts contain the seeds of redemption - that is, as long as we know we have a problem, there's hope for a change. But if we deny there's a problem, we are robbed of the chance to find healing. A generation ago, we understood there is such a thing as sin, and that sin is a serious matter and to be avoided. Now there is no societal consciousness of sin - only limitless "freedom," and "choice." Beguiled by our scientific and technological advances into believing we are enlightened, in reality as we move further and further away from our Judeo-Christian spiritual roots, we actually understand less and less about ourselves. We defend our own corruption at great peril.

All due to a blindness that dominates our age - a blindness that obscures that which every child knows naturally: we all have a "good side" (conscience) as well as a "bad side" (sin nature). If we pay heed to the wrong side, terrible consequences follow. In our nation that has strayed far from God, many have forgotten the simple, intuitive understanding of right and wrong that we grasped effortlessly when we were innocent children, but which we were later intimidated or seduced into doubting and abandoning. We mock and deny the "old truths" that, unbeknownst to us, still form the very substance of everything valuable we possess today. In our culture, the prevailing mind-set is, increasingly, to mock and demonize those who rebuke our growing infatuation with our lower nature. We've forgotten that we're here to serve a much higher purpose than just fulfilling our own desires.

excerpts from David Kupelian's EXCELLENT book entitled HOW EVIL WORKS