Franklin Graham has proven himself infinitely more faithful to speak out on important cultural issues than his father, who was always conscientious of winning the support of the religious establishment, whether liberal or conservative. The younger Graham has made himself a friend of Jesus and an enemy of the world by repeatedly standing up for the Word of God in the public marketplace. Graham recently made the news for informing the South Bend mayor – who called himself a “gay Christian” – that “sin is something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted.” Joining the chorus of the LGBT whiners and complainers is Friar James Martin, who rebuked Graham for his bluntness and sided with the sodomites.
First, it really ought to be absurd that a Christian minister makes the news for telling a homosexual to repent of that abominable behavior. Even though the world is in disagreement (approving of something as gross as sodomy pretty much means whatever straight people do is automatically okay), it should hardly be surprising that Bible preachers believe the Bible. Nonetheless, the outrage was palpable.
What’s not expected is that a Jesuit priest, Friar Martin, would take the side of the sodomites.
Martin tweeted:
“Being gay isn’t a sin. It’s the way God made some people. And be careful about biblical literalism…”
Friar Martin is of the Jesuit order, that part of the Roman Catholic church that was tasked with hunting down and persecuting Protestants, who have their largest influence now in the West.
While Martin warns us against the “literal” reading of the Bible, one wonders what the metaphoric reading of Leviticus 18:6. What does, “Thou shalt not lie with a man, like thou lieth with a woman” means symbolically.
I’m thinking it means, “Don’t sleep with dudes.” I suspect Friar doesn’t really have an alternate interpretation of a Text that doesn’t really need interpretation, but that he just wishes to avoid it.
Martin also makes a stab at several Biblical patriarchs who practiced polygamy. Ironically, in each case – Abraham, Moses, and David – the “other women” all caused shockingly tragic results in their lives. Without grasping the progressiveness of God’s revelation or that just maybe polygamy, while not allowed in this dispensation and not the design of God, is not as distasteful to God as sodomy.
It seems there are as many divergent views on human sexuality among Catholics as there are among Protestants…which is strange, considering they have a Pope.
