Same Sex Marriage and Homosexuality
Same sex marriage and homosexuality arrived with undo emphasis in the present world and unmasked the folly of dividing scripture into primary and secondary issues. Christian history is not replete with ranking doctrines — the opposite — but when it does separate essentials from so-called non-essentials, it never mentions same sex marriage. Those tasked with keeping together a large coalition, the biggest ecumenical tent, have used the secondary issue arrangement to minimize reasons for separation. Institutional gatekeepers assign the changing status for what’s primary or secondary, not God or scripture.
I now hear that mode of baptism, worship music style and worship, dress standards, eschatology, church government, and systems of interpretation, among other things, are not primary issues. Among a great many other issues one might mention cessationism and either soft or hard continuationism with the non-essential. Some of this says, you just can’t surely know what passages of the Bible mean or especially how to apply them.
The Point of Ranking Doctrines
Very seldom do I hear an advocate give a single reason for arranging scriptural and doctrinal issues into various gradations between primary and secondary. Instead, the adherents speak with an authoritative tone with something like the following: “Of course the Trinity is a major doctrine — of course — and others like mode of baptism and all the various eschatological positions are minor in comparison.” Someone must say this with a complete air of confidence, nodding with his own self in agreement.
It Makes Sense to Men
What is the point of ranking doctrines and so carve out primary doctrines and secondary doctrines? Scripture doesn’t do this, so God doesn’t do this, but why are men, professing Christian men, doing this? First, it makes sense to men to rank doctrines. People do rank doctrines in the Bible, but the adherents are the Pharisees, the religious leaders who reject Jesus Christ. Their reason for arranging doctrines in an order of importance, making some non-essential, is so that they can arbitrarily fulfill what God said when they actually don’t fulfill what He said. It makes sense to do this when men rely on themselves to fulfill what God said.
The Pharisees minimized the harder things and maximized what they saw as easier things. Even with easy things, they would make them even easier by reinterpreting them into something easier or possible to keep, like Sabbath keeping. Ranking doctrines became a regular feature of Pharisaical religious discussion. They come to Jesus and ask, “What is the greatest commandment of the law?” They still can’t keep the greatest commandment, but they discuss this for the purpose of not keeping the lesser commandments.
Faux Unity
Second, as implied in a previous paragraph, the primary reason for ranking doctrines is to enable a faux unity among Christians or even non-Christians and Christians, depending on how extreme the proponents rank doctrines. This unity comes from minimizing doctrine, reducing the number of doctrines that might break unity with people.
I like to compare the unity that proceeds from ranking doctrines to what often occurs at family reunions. Everyone gets along as long as they require the reduction of subject-matter to the non-controversial, something like weather and sports. Or maybe just weather. You’ve heard this before: no religion or politics.
The Spread
The reducing of beliefs spread from religion, denominations, or churches to other organizations. At one time, no one accepted same sex marriage. Do you remember when President Bill Clinton authorized the ‘don’t ask-don’t tell’ policy in the United States military? This was before same-sex marriage, but when homosexuals could stay in the military as long as no one asked them about their homosexuality or no one would tell. Almost everyone might know, but they would believe a convenient lie to allow a homosexual in the barracks.
The same sex marriage issue, I’ve witnessed where I live and serve, is a sort of deal breaker within denominations. For instance, some American Baptist churches are leaving the national and world organization, but staying in state American Baptist church associations, practicing some form of separation. Also, parachurch American Baptist organizations, like camps, are considering independence to leave this American Baptist umbrella of same-sex marriage acceptance. What was a non-issue has become a primary issue.
Core or Center Values
The discussion for awhile was gospel unity, which some described as a core or center issue rather than a boundary one. Men focused on the attraction of the gospel, bringing people together without excluding anyone. The offense of a boundary was the exclusion, so boundaries were not mentioned. Now, everyone will find boundaries anyway. What happens again is an arbitrary exclusion based on the personal or the political.
Some organizations, “gospel centered” ones, would exclude over eschatology and Calvinism, but without saying. Men would know they were not included, but with no explanation. Sometimes they added complementarianism versus egalitarianism, or covenant theology versus dispensationalism. In recent days some churches exclude for Trump support or for Trump opposition. This is what happens when churches move away from everything the Bible teaches to some lesser standard as their basis of unity.
Development of Argument
I was motivated to write this post because of a theological podcast with the title, “This Isn’t a Secondary Issue.” They just assumed secondary issues. The point of the entire episode was that same sex marriage was not a secondary issue. Many others were. They were proud of a long list of secondary issues with same sex marriage not one of them. I would say they provided no reasons, but they did refer to scripture — 1 Corinthians 6:9-10:
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
They made the argument that stealing wasn’t a secondary issue, adultery wasn’t, and neither was idolatry. I can agree with that. This is a new argument in the primary/secondary debate. I would have a question though. Is “effeminate” a primary issue? That’s in there too. Will they require organizations, as a primary doctrine, to separate from effeminate men? Think about it.
When you look at church websites today, they’re overall shrinking those statements. Rather than include a doctrinal statement, now they will state their “core values.’ They don’t want to lose people over doctrine, so they hide the doctrinal statement for a very short list of what will bring their church together. It’s not all of scripture. Instead, it’s core values.
Oddity
In my title, I called same sex marriage an “oddity” as “not” a secondary issue. This is an oddity in the era of ranking doctrines. It is a recent add to the list and it doesn’t fit into the very short list. Consider the oddity of a list that sounds something like the following: Trinity, Deity of Christ, Salvation by Grace Alone, Same Sex Marriage. One of these is very different than the others and it has a way of undermining the entire system of ranking doctrines. It reminds us that this is a vacillating, capricious list, not in stone, characterizing contemporary Christianity.