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Loin Girders

A passionate orthodox Christian man's occasional blog to support those who stand firm. Gird your loins, noble warriors for Christ.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007


Townhall.com::Anglican Agonies::By Bill Murchison

This tendency to make our problem in Anglicana a gay problem is exacerbated by the press, of course. Can we try to look at the problem differently. Is my sexual problem amenable to "it's just the way God made me" treatment. Can I indulge myself because "that's the way I am?"

posted by Unknown @ 5:55 PM  

5 Comments:

  • At 11:03 AM, May 03, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    There are desires that people experience for things in this life, some that lead toward God, some that lead away. Of the latter category, it is one of the results of original sin upon the world. We are not to blame for the temptation that we have particular predilections for, only in how we act upon them. Some desires may even have genetic roots... I often hear the argument "why would God allow someone to be born that way and have it be a sin?" in this domain of discussion (Usually, they mean "gay" for "that way"). This begs the question: really, why would God allow people to be born with a genetic predilection for food, or for alcoholism, or for that matter, with genetic diseases like Down's Syndrome, or Rhett's Syndrome?

    He allows it because, in the Fall, man chose to pursue his own desires over desire for God, and brought sin, death, sickness, and corruption into the world. Man is at fault for the crazy corruption that is present in creation. The genetic variants, to me, are very like the "sins of the fathers" referred to in scripture as being visited upon the generations. I must be careful to note, that even the OT scriptures say that while this happens, the guilt for the sin is not imputed to the subsequent generations, and that every righteous one is to be counted as such. We all have some of this genetic sort of sin, for "in sins did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 50) But, this is quite important, the Orthodox view of this corruption in the world does not involve "original guilt". This means that, in Orthodox theology, a newborn is actually free from sin (the personal action), although still suffers as a result of original sin (from his parents, and fore-parents back to the Fall) by being mortal and susceptible to many kinds of sickness (including genetic sickness) and so on.

    Some would disagree with me, some would site the story of the man blind from birth in John 8. When asked who sinned, this man or his father, Jesus answer was that neither. But that is less than the full story there, as well. The blind man He healed in John 8, (the only one mentioned as blind from birth) was blind not from specific sins of his father and mother, nor of specific sins he himself committed. This is, of course, not to say they were not sinners, just that the blindness was no result of that sin. Rather, the blindness was a result of of original sin, by which the entirety of creation was tainted. For, without original sin there would be not sickness or blindness or suffering of any kind.

    If this had been a result of personal sin, then the man healed would have had the results of his specific sin healed, but since it was not the result of specific sin, Christ was truly glorified because this healing shows that He has power even to heal corruption in the world caused by original sin! I would suspect many preachers in the last 2000 years have used this passage to remind us that anything at all can be healed by Christ our God - Rhett's syndrome, alcoholism, cancer, pedophiliac desires, and so on. This healing can be complete, or it can simply be the gift of God's grace to allow us to live with it... Think of Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians, in chapter 11: We all have our various thorns and must rely on our Lord who says "My grace is sufficient for you".

    This gives us such great hope for conquering our sins!

     

  • At 12:40 PM, May 03, 2007, Blogger Unknown said…

    Thoughtful, John. This is one of a lot of doctrinal issues that I believe to be unknowable, without additional help from Our Lord. Your analysis hints at a clear answer, but isn't fully. I was asking the question because it seems to me that the basis of "that's just who I am", begs forgiveness on no acceptable grounds. Of course that's who you are, and I, without the restraints of religious sensibility, would be a philanderer. It's just the way I am? Sorry, that's no excuse. As you point out, we're all flawed. But to this Jesus asks us all to be holy, as our Father is holy. Holiness is a higher standard than comfortable with myself.

     

  • At 1:35 PM, May 04, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It's just the way I am? Sorry, that's no excuse.

    I agree, 100%. How could that be the way our master, who says "be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect", would want us to live?

    I don't mean to mitigate blame. I tried to carefully differentiate being tempted versus acting on temptation. I only really addressed the former in the above... we aren't to blame for the temptation we experience, but if we give in to the temptation, even by dwelling on an intention to commit the sin (in essence, relishing the sin mentally), we are in sin -- no excuses.

    That said, it appears I'm heavily dwelling on sin, on the negative. I assure you, my model of though normally is more along the lines of trying to serve the Lord in love than in looking to condemn.

     

  • At 11:13 AM, May 06, 2007, Blogger Unknown said…

    If Father Neo posts his sermon today, look for it. He has his head completely screwed on right on the issue of how to BE a Christian. In it he pointed out in John 16:31, I think, that Judas was present for the foot washing and the sermon leading up to it. It is important to note that Judas was "loved" before he betrayed Jesus, as all of them were.

    I miss seeing you guys. The weather is getting nice. Maybe we can get up for a deck discussion again? It's still a little cool, but it won't be long.

    Kairos 10 South was awesome, it was my first team experience with Kairos. I've decided that I, like my Kairos brothers, am a Holy Spirit junky. You get to see the spirit work so tangibly that you get hooked, on Emmaus (or Cursillo). Then you hear Chrysallis is better; then you hear that Kairos is hard core. So, you go and you see the message of nearly every talk come out of the mouths of the participants, magically! You were told that we were just there to watch and serve and you see, again, that that is true.

    Praise the Lord.

    In His grip,

    Kevin

     

  • At 4:42 PM, May 09, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It is getting to be about time for another get-together, indeed!

    Kairos is definitely a cool experience. I'll look for Neo's sermon.

     

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