Posted on 06/30/2015 5:03:09 PM PDT by markomalley
Having read scores of essays, op-eds, and blog posts about the Obergefell decision, I keep coming back to this outstanding piece by Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s commission on ethics and religious liberty. Moore drives home the point that marriage will endure, and the Church will endure, because both are established by God, who is not subject to the velleities of Supreme Court justices.
That does not mean the cultural change wrought by last week’s decision will be painless, Moore warns; on the contrary. But in the end, “the Gospel doesn’t need ‘family values’ to flourish." More fundamentally, Moore says: “The Supreme Court can do many things, but the Supreme Court cannot get Jesus back in that tomb.” Amen.
The Baptist leader suggests that in the troubled times that lie ahead, the Church should be a guide and a haven for healthy families. He notes: “Permanent, stable marriages with families with both a mother and a father may well make us seem freakish in 21st-century culture.”
Pray that the Synod of Bishops gets that vital message! Yes, by all means, reach out to people in irregular unions. But the top priority for the Church must be to help ordinary families stay intact, at a time when so many forces batter against them.
Russell Moore makes another important point that should be discussed at the October meeting of the Synod. Family breakdown doesn’t “just happen;” in the real world (as opposed to the court of law) there’s no such thing as no-fault divorce. Individuals are responsible, and Church leaders should hold them accountable. Moore writes:
Too often we’ve neglected church discipline in the cases of those who have unrepentantly destroyed their marriages. We must repent of our failings and picture to the world what marriage is meant to be, and keep the light lit to the old paths.
G-d will decide.
Has the church NOT been articulating what it believes on marriage?
We must not only speak Christian truths; we must speak with a Christian accent.
I'm sorry, what is a "christian" accent? If this is "church-speak" and lingo used only on campus, we might do well to drop it. People want real-talk, straight up, not feel-good, lukewarm chatter.
Finally, I do not approve of his use of "freakish." The nuclear family with a mother and father is part of God's plan - it's not "freakish" even if culture shifts away from it (Sodom and Gomorrah).
THIS Catholic says: I’ve heard Russell Moore speak several times and he is wise, thoughtful, forceful and a very able witness for Christ.
I think he’d be a great guy to speak in my parish. Or to advise my bishop.
Not too bad for a non-catholic, eh?? :)
Excellent, truly excellent.
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