https://thepreachersword.com/2019/05/02/celebrating-a-sinful-lifestyle/
Celebrating a Sinful Lifestyle
“I stand before my family, friends and graduating class today to say that I am proud to be a gay son of God,” announced Matthew Easton in his valedictorian speech at Brigham Young University last Friday night.
The “coming out” announcement which came as a surprise to the majority of the 10,000 in attendance, including some family members, was received with cheers and applause that echoed through the Marriott Center.
Easton smiled, paused, and waited for the applause to subside. Later he said. “Four years ago, it would have been impossible for me to imagine that I would come out to my entire college. It is a phenomenal feeling. And it is a victory for me in and of itself.”
Ironically the church of which he is a member, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and BYU consider same-sex marriage to be a “serious transgression.” Until recently Mormons involved in homosexual unions were treated as apostates and subject to excommunication from the church.
Easton, however, considers himself a Christian. “I am not broken,” he declared. “I am loved and important to the plan of our great creator. Each of us are.”
In an interview with The Washington Post, Easton said he had been inspired by Pete Buttigieg, the Democratic mayor of South Bend, Ind., who announced his candidacy for president. The mayor, an openly practicing homosexual and married to a man, has repeatedly spoken of his faith and believes there is nothing contradictory about being a Christian and engaging in homosexual relationships.
Buttigieg recently spoke to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, in which he condemned Vice President, Mike Pence on his views regarding morality.
“That’s the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand: That if you have a problem with who I am, your quarrel is not with me,” Buttigieg said. “Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”
A reporter’s observation on Easton’s speech wrote, “A private conquest, the speech also marked a notable chapter in a searching public debate about faith, sexuality and generational change.”
“My generation, and even more so the generation after me, we’re changing the way we talk about our identity and who we are,” Easton said. “But the more that I’ve understood my relationship with God, the more authentic I’ve been able to be and the more true to myself I’ve felt.”
Stories like Matthew Easton’s are becoming more frequent. And, as is always the case, the liberal new media celebrates and applauds the “courage” of those admitting their homosexuality.
Yes, times are changing. 50 years ago everyone knew homosexuality was a sin. Society and the media regarded it as the perversion that it is. For 5,000 years the Judeo-Christian ethic of marriage between one man and one woman was largely accepted.
Now, we come to the point where homosexuality and same-sex marriage is not only accepted but celebrated. It reminds me of the culture in the prophet Jeremiah’s day. “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; Nor did they know how to blush” (Jer 6:15).
What has changed in our world?
Surely not the Bible, nor God’s description of sin. While Easton, Buttigieg, and others in the LGBTQ community presume to know God’s view of homosexuality. They are mistaken.
In an era when our public schools, universities, the mass media and the cultural elite are celebrating sinful lifestyles, we need to be reminded of what God has revealed to us about morality and marriage.
The New Testament not only condemns homosexuality but speaks of it as being a perversion. When Paul recounted the Gentiles’ rejection of God, he described it in these words:
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. (Romans 1:24-27)
Sexual impurity. Degrading. Shameful. Unnatural. Indecent. Perversion. I think these words pretty much describes God’s view of homosexual relations. Instead of trying to be true to ourselves and whatever confused and perverted feelings we possess, this generation needs to be true to God. To His Word. And His commands.
To say, “I’m proud to be a gay son of god” is a gross misrepresentation. One might as well say, “I’m proud to be a fornicating son of god” Or an “idolatrous son of god.” Or a “stealing son of god.” Or a “cheating son of god.” What’s the difference? All of these sins and more are listed along with homosexuality in 1 Cor. 6:9-11. Unrepented sins will exclude the sinner from the Kingdom of God.
Friends and brethren, let us not applaud what God disapproves. Nor celebrate what the Bible condemns.
–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman