A Christian minister condemns same-sex sex and abortion as being sinful. Cue outrage. Bigoted and hateful says the supposed Catholic Premier of Victoria. “I send my kids to Catholic schools. My faith is important to me. It guides me every day…It also guides me in my sense of what is right and what is wrong, and if I can just say with utmost respect, calling out homophobia is not the problem. Homophobia is the problem.”
If by homophobia Daniel Andrews means treating homosexuals badly, then he is right. Societal discrimination against, and ill-treatment of, consenting adults engaging in fornication, in extra-marital sex in other words, is wrong. But that’s not the issue. The Church on a Hill was not condemning the sinner. Judge not etc. It was condemning the sin. And, for the avoidance of doubt, so does the Bible upon which Christianity springs and is anchored.
Christianity is inconvenient. No doubt about that. It takes an unequivocal stand against a range of fleshly and venal temptations. The unmarried youthful St Augustine highlighted the difficulty, make me chaste but not yet. In other words, the sermons which cause so much problem for Essendon Football Club and the Premier and others, were essentially unexceptional. Standard Christianity as proclaimed through the ages.
Some Christians have a straight-down-the-line view that abortion is wrong, full stop. Some have a more nuanced view. My own view is that killing an unborn baby, a separate and distinct human being growing in the womb, can be justified or excused in particular dire circumstances. That said, the number of abortions these days go far beyond what could ever be justified or excused. This is only possible because euphemistic and deceptive wording has replaced accurate descriptions.
Abortion has become a matter of reproductive health. A woman must be in control of her own body, it’s said. Reproductive health is important. And yes, women should be in charge of their bodies as should men (including in matters of forced vaccination). But an abortion involves a separate human life which is being taken away. Unless this is acknowledged, the light of the truth is hidden away. Darkness and lies prevail. Evil flourishes.
While abortion is not mentioned in the Bible, implied and explicit references to the sanctity of human life abound. Christian churches objecting to the killing of unborn babies is therefore also unexceptional. Standard Christianity.
So, there it is. Christian church makes unexceptional statements in line with scripture and all hell breaks loose. It’s patently a post-Christian age in Australia; or very near to. Even senior clerics in the Anglican and Catholic churches steered clear of the Bible when asking for tolerance for those holding Christian views. Whatever you do, don’t mention the Bible. The Archbishop of Canterbury might have mentioned it once or twice in the distant past but he’s woke enough to have gotten away with it.
And after Australia and other Western countries have dumped Christianity? Then what? Hold onto your hats. The world was a much nastier place before Christianity moulded free, tolerant and prosperous Western societies. And it can be again. Ask Iranian and the Afghani women; ask homosexuals in Muslim countries; ask the Uyghurs; ask children mining cobalt in the Congo.
Leave a Reply