2 Cents

As a Christian in a culture that is morally declining more and more each day it seems, it is now more crucial than ever for us to seek to see culture events through the eyes of God. This means understanding long-term moral consequences of decisions made today. This week I read about two such decisions and the moral ramifications are frightening.

This past week an article printed in The Columbus Dispatch announced that the Student Council at Ohio State University wants to prohibit religious groups on campus (such as campus ministries) from excluding homosexuals from leadership positions. Here’s a quote from the article…

“This week, an advisory council that includes representatives of the undergraduate, professional and graduate student governments will ask Javaune Adams-Gaston, vice president for Student Life, to drop an exemption that allows certain groups to deny membership to those who don't share their ‘sincerely held religious beliefs.’”

What this means is that if someone who openly practiced homosexuality wanted to be a leader in your organization and you excluded them from that position on the basis of sexual orientation alone your group would be punished by the University. This is extremely disheartening on multiple levels.

First the University itself is acting discriminatory if they enforce this decision because they are essentially saying only groups who have no leadership qualifications regarding morals can be University organizations. Caitly Nestleroth, president of OSU’s Christian Legal Society wisely noted that forcing a group to allow anyone to lead would be like forcing “College Democrats to accept Republican members or allowing a carnivore to lead a group of vegetarians.”

The second reason this is disheartening is brought forth in the second decision I read about.
This week on his blog, Al Mohler wrote a story about a couple in Great Britain who own a bed and breakfast. Here’s a quote from his blog on the situation…

“Peter and Hazelmary Bull own a bed and breakfast hotel in Cornwall. In September of 2008, a homosexual couple requested a single bed and was denied that accommodation by the Bulls. The couple sued, and this week a judge found the Bulls guilty of discrimination under Britain’s Equality Act of 2007.”

This situation is very similar to that of the decision forthcoming at OSU. Only this time the judgment has been made, and the comments of Judge Andrew Rutherford are very concerning.

“These laws have come into being because of changes in social attitudes.” He continues, “It is a very clear example of how social attitudes have changed over the years for it is not so very long ago that these beliefs of the defendants (the Bulls) would have been those accepted as normal by society at large. Now it is the other way around.”

What scares me about these comments is the idea that it’s perfectly acceptable to change established laws simply because culture changes their “social attitudes.” So if culture slowly decides to morally accept murder, as they have homosexuality and gay marriage, laws will change accordingly to allow murder! Don’t believe me? It’s already happened with abortion. It is very sad that the following things are happening right now in our culture (with no sign of turning back)…

1. All morals are becoming relative – there’s no outside standard (like the Bible) to say what is wrong or right
2. Government is basing their laws not on what is right or wrong, but on what culture decides

This is an extremely scary one-two punch that we must fight as Christians.