Posted on 07/20/2015 9:06:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It’s by design. As I, and others, have repeatedly warned, the establishment of so-called “gay marriage” as a newfangled federal “right,” and the free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment simply cannot coexist in harmony. Things diametrically at odds cannot possibly occupy, with any coherence, the same time and space.
The secular left is tripping over itself right now to prove my point. In the wake of last month’s Obergefell v. Hodges opinion – an opinion that somehow divined a top secret “constitutional right” for Patrick Henry to “marry” Henry Patrick – liberals are now demanding, as both Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito predicted, that Christian university’s immediately abandon recognition of, and obedience to, God’s unequivocal natural sexual order, and adopt, instead, the new pagan orthodoxy.
In a July 14 article in The Atlantic headlined, “Gay Marriage and the Future of Evangelical Colleges,” University of Tampa professor David R. Wheeler asks, “Now that same-sex couples have the right to wed, will higher-ed institutions that condemn LGBT students still be eligible for federal funding?”
Wheeler is not alone in asking. “As cultural evolution on the issue of LGBT rights continues to accelerate, it’s inevitable that some Americans will start asking hard questions about whether it makes sense to allocate scarce public resources to institutions that are not only anti-gay, but proud of it,” opines anti-Christian bigot Barry Lynn, of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “For starters, can federally supported educational institutions bar married same-sex couples from living together in student housing? I doubt it,” he adds.
In other words, Christian universities must together embrace and facilitate homosexual sin, or lose, at once, both tax-exempt status and access to all students who choose to fund their education via federal loans and grants (which is most of them).
This presents quite a conundrum. It’s also a test. Christian universities must either obey God, disobey man and suffer unsavory temporal consequences, or obey man, sell their souls for mammon and suffer a-little-more-than-unsavory eternal consequence.
This is where faith comes in.
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a man who faced the gallows for faithfully opposing the Nazi Holocaust. He once wrote, “For faith is only real when there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.”
It’s really not that complicated. The Christian university that chooses the path of least resistance and conforms to the world – that is, disobeys God and adopts the world’s morally relative (read: unbiblical) standards (or lack thereof) on sex and sexuality – immediately becomes at enmity with God. The Christian university that intentionally turns a blind eye to sexual immorality of any kind, or otherwise allows and recognizes sin-based “same-sex marriage,” ceases to be a Christian university and, instead, becomes an apostate university – a university better identified as “Christian in name only.”
As Jesus admonished, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
Indeed, on the question of whether Christian universities will capitulate on sodomy-based “marriage,” the path of least resistance is the broad road that stems from the wide gate and leads to destruction.
By way of example, and to its shame, formerly Christian Baylor University, located in Waco, Texas, has chosen the path of least resistance. This hits especially close to home for me. I was born in Waco and my parents both attended Baylor. Two of my uncles graduated from Baylor Law, and my grandfather, J. Dell Barber, was a Baylor benefactor. In fact, he has a room in the law school named after him and, before he died, set up the Bertha J. Barber memorial scholarship fund in honor of my great grandmother.
Reports Baptist News Global: “Baptist-affiliated Baylor University has quietly removed a ban on ‘homosexual acts’ from its sexual conduct code. …”
“Lori Fogleman, assistant vice president for media communications, said the change is part of an ongoing review ‘to ensure that the university has the necessary policies and processes in place to comply with the many legal and ethical mandates to which universities are subject as institutions.’ She said a review of the sexual conduct policy was contemplated for a couple of years, because officials didn’t believe the language in the old policy ‘reflected Baylor’s caring community.’”
And so, under Baylor University’s new apostasy, it is somehow “caring” to affirm students, faculty and staff in a mortal sin that, in the absence of repentance, will lead them to eternal separation from God – to destruction.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.
It breaks my heart to be so closely affiliated with a Christian university that has so lost its way.
A colleague of mine once praised yet another for being a person who “applies biblical ethics in ways both faithful and nuanced, both orthodox and relevant.” I’m not exactly sure what that means, but, in my experience, and in the context of biblical exegesis, the term “nuanced” is usually invoked to rationalize some unbiblical behavior or otherwise cave on some fixed biblical principle.
“Nuance” is the bucket of dirt used to muddy crystal clear living waters.
And how does the faithful, Bible-believing Christian remain “both orthodox and relevant”? How can a Christian be both in the world and of the world? To the world, biblical orthodoxy is, in every way imaginable, irrelevant. Biblical orthodoxy represents absolute truth, who is Christ, and the world denies that Truth.
It hates Him in fact.
Pastor Brian Houston, founder of the popular Hillsong movement, recently said, “It can be challenging for churches to stay relevant. … Many mainstream churches upheld what they would believe is the long established view of what the Bible says about homosexuality. But the world has changed around and about them. …
“So the world’s changing and we want to stay relevant as a church,” he continued. “So that’s a vexing thing. You think, ‘How do we not become a pariah?’”
Pastor Houston, respectfully, you have it exactly backwards. We, as Christians, are obliged to become pariahs. We must pick up our cross and follow Christ, the ultimate pariah – the one and only God-man who was such a pariah, in fact, that he was scourged, mocked, spat upon and tortured to death on a tree so that all who are willing to become pariahs right along with him, might have eternal life.
No, to remain faithful, Christian universities must abandon efforts to become “nuanced” and “relevant.”
It’s a fool’s errand.
If Christian universities wish to remain faithful, they must, instead, become pariahs.
They must obey God.
At first I thought the Christian schools would all stand together.
Now, I’m predicting 80 to 90% of them are going to fold right away.
That will leave the remaining 10 to 20% weak and appearing as extremists. That will make it easy for them to be closed down.
RE: At first I thought the Christian schools would all stand together.
Now, I’m predicting 80 to 90% of them are going to fold right away.
______________________
Look under the cover... how many of them receive government money?
I am so glad the author brought up Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He is a beloved hero of mine.
The thousands of “Christian” pastors and teachers who capitulated to the Nazis have been swallowed up by history.
But Bonhoeffer and a precious few others’ names continue to shine like stars in the firmament.
If America turns on her Christians, I pray I will have what it takes to Stand For Jesus.
Most will worship at the altar of the federal government. And so will most of the churches.
Another example of the problem with BIG GOVERNMENT dictating our daily life as THEY see fit, not as WE see fit. The funneling of OUR money by bureaucrats to selected winners and the persecution of selected losers should remain in the hands of THE PEOPLE. Personal Responsibility is what the Constitution is all about. Big Government has made that impossible and is the reason for the U S decline. “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesars, and unto God, that which is God’s.” My heart and soul belong to God, not to the state. That is the choice open to me and the only one I can make.
Grove City College is standing firm. Here’s their “The Center for Vision & Values,” (think tank) page. There are several articles here warning against the demise of the family. My daughter attends this college, and she and most of her friends have not wavered in their Biblical beliefs of God’s plan for marriage and family.
http://www.visionandvalues.org/category/faith-and-society/
Also, Grove City takes no government funds or pell grants.
RE: Grove City College is standing firm.
Well, it just so happens that Grove City College is one of a handful of colleges that has REFUSED to accept any form of government aid or financing in order to be independent. They’ve stood firm on this for the longest time.
As I said in a previous post -— LOOK UNDER THE COVERS of these Christian Colleges that are capitulating... how much government finance are they receiving?
They need to untether themselves from public funds. That is step one. Other schools do it. Now is the time.
Ya mean like Notre Dame?
Notre Dame jumped the sharked long before the SCOTUS legalized same sex marriage for the nation.
This is a “Catholic” (NOTE THE QUOTES) University that wanted to give Obama (the one legislator in Illinois who refused to support the born-alive Babies act, the one whose administration is litigating against the Sisters of the Poor to force them to pay for abortifacients and contraceptives ) an honorary Ph.D.
SEE HERE:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-04-10-obama-honorary-degrees_N.htm
>>But Bonhoeffer and a precious few others’ names continue to shine like stars in the firmament.
As these last few years have unfolded, I think of Bonhoeffer a lot and the similarities to the corruption of the German Church. Who will stand up and tell the corrupt churches “no!” Even if it costs him dearly?
Go, and make for yourself institutions of higher learning, and be like the heathen that seek for understanding just how meaningless life is without stature and prestige and a job with insurance and an a retirement account..And tenure if you can get it.
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