We have a private Member’s bill up about legalizing ghey marriage. For most New Zealanders, Marriage is not about a life long covenant. Many people do not bother with the ceremony — their commitment is expressed in the mortgage that binds them and the children they bear. Among these, a marriage is akin to a big party. This debasement of marriage has led to a sense that anyone should be able to marry, that it is a human right. Which is not true: there are restrictions on whom you can marry (to stop interbreeding). And Marriage changes things. From the Herald.
Two MPS have joined a protest against same-sex marriage that included people with placards likening gay people to animals.
In South Auckland yesterday, protesters carried handwritten placards saying “lesbi/gay copy … animals” and saying any MPs who supported the bill to legalise same-sex marriage were mentally ill.
One of the MPs, National’s Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, is a member of the Parliamentary committee that will consider public submissions for and against the Marriage Amendment Bill.
The other, Labour’s Su’a William Sio, infuriated many in his party by warning that they would lose Pacific Island votes if they legalised gay marriage.
So a Sikh and a Pacific Congregationalist had the courage to stand up to the ghey lobby. The herald has a photo of two bearded brown men showing hand written signs with crude messages on them. They imply that this is hateful and rude. Well, rude it is, but rudeness and confrontation are no sins in a time of evil.
This issue, along with the idea that women should not be accommodated in the workforce, are the current third rails in NZ society. Kerre Woodham expresses the current secular belief today.
Sue Moroney came back with a beauty of a rejoinder. People don’t always need retraining on their return to work, she said. Look at Stephen Donald. He kicked the winning goal in the Rugby World Cup – and he’d been away whitebaiting. Sue 1, Paul 0.
The reason so many people (not just women) took umbrage at the comments was that they reinforced the perception that business advocates are a bunch of hoary old misogynists.
The statement harked back to the Alasdair Thompson comments about women being more prone to taking sick leave and that some women suffered terribly once a month and that may be a reason they were paid 12 per cent less than men.
….
As an aside, a young friend of mine was green with pain when I visited her in her office one day. She was having a terrible period and I told her she should be home in bed. “I can’t!” she moaned through gritted teeth. “I keep thinking about Alasdair bloody Thompson.” So she soldiered on.
If Paul McKay had said “people” needed retraining on returning to the workforce, there wouldn’t have been such a fuss, but because business advocates have previously been tarred with the misogynist brush, offence will be taken where perhaps none was meant.
Moroney, of course, is wrong. Donald is a professional rugby player. He had about five weeks off — that means he was training between fishing (whitebait are small fish caught with nets… hard, physical fun). He was called back. He was still fit. Women ,may need more sick days… but men die earlier, in part because we work ourselves into a grave, in part because we are covering for the women who are either crippled in pain or looking after kids with fever. (As a solo Dad, I understand the second one — you use your sick leave not when you are feverish but when the kids are unwell).
But all this is hard to say in public. It would be easy to run away from this. To remain silent. It would also be easier to leave to to the church. But Jonah was not called to the church. He was called to save a nation. And he had no courage…
1Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2“Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” 3But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
4But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. 5Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. 6The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.”
7The sailors said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8Then they said to him, “Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9“I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.
11Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quieten down for us?” For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. 12He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quieten down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.” 13Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. 14Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. 16Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah;
There is no issue that Ninevah was a good city. It was not. It was one of the sinful cities of its time. So Jonah tries to get to the other end of the Mediterranean, In the end, his fear of having to confront men leads to men throwing him off a boat into a raging storm, placing his very life at risk.
We have a duty, as the church, to stand and say what is right. It does not matter if we are called rude or dinosaurs. Among ourselves there is a means by which we can sort our disputes.
15“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. 16But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Now, this does not stop all arguments. At times, the church falls into error, as it has been by casting out those who tell the truth from the Scottish Kirk, For the Church of Scotland is a confessional church, and they are not following their own creeds, as it took an Anglican to point out...
The Westminster Confession remains the ‘subordinate standard’ of doctrine in the Church of Scotland, and it states rather unequivocally in Chapter XXIV: “Marriage is to be between one man and one woman…”. Now, this is as ‘bigoted’ and redolent of the ‘Dark Ages’ as the canonical positions of the churches of England and Rome. Since CofS law has not been amended (and there being no plans to do so), this is what should be taught from its pulpits and advocated by its leadership. The curious thing is that on neither the C4M petition nor the Scotland4Marriage petition has any senior representative of the Church of Scotland reiterated the orthodox position of their Church
One can say these things privately. I have, and I do. We can say them in assembly: in fact (in New Zealand) this issue comes up repetatively. Most of us are tired of it. We would rather get on and help people. But we need to stand and correct. as Mark Keown notes.
On the other hand, we continue to be tied up as a church on the matter of ordination and homosexuality. We had three motions seeking to overturn previous legislation to block practising homosexuals and those in de facto relationships from ordained ministry. One was based on liberty in non-fundamental matters, arguing that the issue is not of the essence of the faith, and so should not be legislated. The second argued that where 2/3 of a congregation wanted a particular minister whatever their sexuality, they should be free to do so whether gay or not. The third proposed that the PCANZ remove all discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. Although many agree with liberty on non-essentials and utterly repudiate discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, each was rejected by about 65 to 35%.
The first of these likely failed because the majority of the Assembly believed marriage and sexuality are fundamental issues to human life and existence, and to Christian faith. I would think this is right with heterosexual marriage essential to image bearing and creation, the Mosaic law, Jesus’ teaching and Paul’s teaching. The second based on a 2/3 majority I found somewhat ironical. On the one hand, those supporting homosexual ordination believe that 1/3 of the whole church wanting gay ordination should cause the whole church to drop the legislation. Yet at a local church level where 1/3 oppose an ordination, it is not seen as sufficient to stop the ordination.
Now, what we have in the kiwi resolution is a more balanced approach. There are two sexual positions you can have and lead: you can be in a faithful marriage or you can be celibate. The church allows those who have divorced and remarried to serve (remarriage is allowed in the Westminster confession) but does not allow de facto, unmarried couples to lead. Regardless of orientation.
The man or woman with attraction to the same sex (what the Catholics correctly call same sex attraction) is honoured in their celibacy. And those who find themselves single (including me) are encouraged to be faithful to that calling, or remarry.
I am sure Kerre Woodham would say that this is crude, obnoxious, old fashioned, patriarchal and out of tune with this modern age.She would say I am rude and backward.
However, this age will fall. I would rather be rude than not be struggling with this, continuing to attempt to be righteous.
Because she misses the other part of the gospel. We all fail. We all need correction. We need to have standards so we know where we need to reform.
For the Presbyterians should never be beautiful or trendy. That role is given to the Orthodox and Catholic who have beautiful music and vestments, and to the Anglicans and Methodists, who are trendy. We are the Jonah. We are cross grained and awkward nerds. And our role in the greater church is to remind everyone that we to continually examine and reform ourselves and our church.