Rev. Calvin Robinson | Christianity SHOULD NOT allow gay marriage - 6/8 | Oxford Union

Well I guess I was wrong to assume we were all on the same page with this issue. For what it’s worth I’ll share my opinion but I’m not interested in starting an argument here. Online arguments rarely end well, even among friends.

This year I’ve been listening and reading along with the Bible In A Year podcast with Fr. Mike Shmitz. Right now we’re almost through Leviticus where God lays out a lot of rules and not a few on sexual relations. All of chapter 18 and half of 20 is about sex and marriage. One of the things Fr. Mike explains throughout the book of Leviticus is that God’s purpose behind many of these laws is to set the Israelites apart, to make them unique among the other peoples of the world. This is clear when God says to Moses in these verses:

You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes. My ordinances you shall observe and my statutes you shall keep, following them: I am the LORD your God.

God does not want us to just go along with the culture around us. He wants us to be different, and to follow him and his laws above all others. Simply by being a Christian in a non-Christian culture, we will stand out and we should stand out. If that means being the only religion in the world that stands against homosexual relationships, then so be it. At one point we were, and we may be again. We follow the will of God which is Truth, which does not change via popular opinion. As Saint Athanasius says, and as was quoted by Rev. Calvin in the video: if the world is against Truth, then I am against the world!

This is the center of the issue for me. Adherence to moral laws on sexuality is one of the major differences that set early Christians apart from the pagan Romans around them. Back then, when Christians were being thrown to lions, one of the things that would have made pagan Romans suspect you of being a Christian was your refusal to participate in orgies. No one is trying to force orgies on us. Yet. But we’re heading in some similar direction. If you refuse to date a so-called trans-woman, you are a bigot. If you refuse to celebrate the sin of pride for an entire month, you are seen as a hateful lunatic. Why don’t you want to take your kids to a parade where men dress in fetish gear and engage in sodomy on floats? Are you a bigot?

I think there are many similarities between Christians in pagan Rome, and Christians in the post-industrial West today. I think we again find ourselves in a pagan culture that worships a multitude of false gods, Including ourselves via the cult of self-invention. Christendom has fallen. Clearly the Church’s influence is at it’s lowest point. Now that the pagans surround us again, we are supposed to give up and adopt their ways?

We stand in empty churches while the pagans outside become increasingly hedonistic and antagonistic towards God. Some of us say, we need to do something to get people back in the church. We are apparently more concerned with the loss of Church buildings than the loss of souls. To get more money to save the buildings, we must accept the pagans as they are, some of us say. Actually, what they say is worse. They don’t just want to accept the pagans along with their hedonism, they want to ignore the clear intentions of God and reverse thousands of years of tradition and accept their hedonism as Truth! No, we can’t do it. Even if it did return people to the pews, the religion these people would be practicing would not be Christian. Beside that point, this tactic is already clearly failing. The only Churches gaining in membership today, Catholic or not, are the ones holding to tradition. If the Church of England (or God forbid, the Catholic Church) decides to start lying to people, telling them their sins are no longer sins, they will not return. They are not absent from Mass because they think God is mean. They are absent from Mass because they are not interested in God.

We must cleave to the will of God, as he has already made this abundantly clear to us. The temptation to reverse thousands of years of tradition because we desire more people in the pews is just that: a temptation. And a selfish one. For what purpose do we really want these people back in the pew? To save their souls or to get their money and keep the Church doors open? I say the former is infinitely more important than the latter. And to save their souls, they must repent of their sin. There is no other way. The faithful will cleave to the will of God, even if it means once again celebrating the Mass in secret, in our homes. Even if it means being thrown to the lions.

The Church is not a democracy. Her teachings reflect the unchanging Truth of the Logos. He is The LORD Our God. Jesus Christ is his son; the King of Kings; Lord of Lords. His Will reigns supreme, not ours. Refusing his Will is the sin of pride. To acknowledge His Will and refuse it, is to be in league with the devil. It is the same as saying we will create ourselves, we will make our own heaven, we will take the place of God. It is to say to God with defiance I will not serve! and to be cast into hell.

I beg of all my Christian brother and sisters who read this: resist the temptation. Turn your face away from sin and toward Jesus Christ, your savior. For in him only will you find eternal life, peace, and rest. It cannot be found in the fleeting pleasures of this world.

How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit. Isaiah 14:12-15