Was Jesus gay?

It’s been a long time since Christmas, but it’s taken me this long to spot this lovely billboard outside a chuch in New Zealand:

It’s Christmas. It’s time for Jesus to come out.

Ah, clever. A nice subtle play on words…accompanied by a picture of Jesus with a rainbow halo. Not so subtle.

But not as controversial as everyone would like it to be; suggesting Jesus fancied men is hardly a 21st Century idea. In fact, Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus was ‘tempted in every way’ so suggesting he didn’t is probably more controversial from a Christian perspective. If we have to put Jesus in some sort of sexuality box, he’s probably best classed as bisexual.

But he was ‘without sin’. It’s not a sin to be tempted. “Being gay” isn’t a sin, just as “being straight” isn’t a sin, but lust is (something we’re all guilty of if we’re honest).

Are We Together? by R. C. Sproul

This book is intended to be a fair, factually accurate analysis of Roman Catholicism, with a specific focus on its differences when compared to protestantism, and whether these differences actually matter. It’s particularly aimed at correcting people who think (1) the differences aren’t important, or (2) they know about Roman Catholicism when actually they don’t. Each chapter takes one aspect of potential disagreement (e.g. Mary, papal infallibility), explains the true Roman Catholic position, and identifies anything that protestants should be concerned about.

It’s written clearly and carefully, quoting from important sources, and as someone who hasn’t really had that much exposure to Roman Catholicism it’s excellent at showing what they believe and why they believe it. It’s easily the best explanation of Roman Catholicism I’ve ever read.

That said, I’m not convinced it does exactly what it says on the tin. The introduction gives a bit of a warning that Roman catholics may be offended by the book, but it seems that from a desire not to offend far too much effort was put into explaining Roman Catholic doctrine over rebuking it. For most chapters I’d say about five sixths is explaining, and only one sixth is comparing.

So if you’re familiar with protestant theology and are looking for an explanation of Roman Catholicism, this is the book for you. If you think you know about it but couldn’t give any evidence for your position, this book is for you (you may be surprised about how wrong you are!). But if you’re looking for a breakdown of protestantism vs. Roman Catholicism I’d give this closer to three stars than five stars.

I got this book for free from Reformation Trust Publishing. I’m not required to give a positive review.

Female role models

Image via Wikipedia

I was talking to a friend of mine recently about being a Dad.

He’s not a Christian but is already a Dad, and I’m about to become one; he has a daughter, I’m going to have a son. His first comment when I told him?

Having a son’s easier than having a daughter because there are more good role models.

Of course he quickly clarified that he thought his wife was an excellent role model for his daughter, but the more I thought about it the more I had to actually think that, yes, there don’t seem to be many good female role models around outside of the church.

Any ideas?

The Virgin Mary

Image via Wikipedia

Right. For some reason I stumbled onto a Roman Catholic website the other day, and ended up finding this forum. Here’s the question that one R.C. user posed, based on Mark 6:3 (‘Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and Jude, and Simon? are not also his sisters here with us?’)

Mary was a virgin when she had Jesus, but had children by normal childbirth later. How can we pray to the virgin Mary when she did not remain one?

If you’re interested, have a click through the little discussion that ensues. If you’re not interested, here are my issues with this question and the assumptions behind it:

1. The R.C. church teaches that Mary was a virgin her entire life based not on anything concrete, but solely on something one pope said once, Pope Pius IX to be exact:

The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.

2. If Joseph and Mary were married but she died a virgin, this seems to be a bit of a miracle in itself.

3. The only concern the guy quoted above seems to have with Mary being a virgin is that he can’t pray to her any more. And what does the Bible say about praying to Mary? 1 Timothy 2:5:

there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Simple question, sorry to be patronising: if there is one mediator between God and men, and that one mediator is Jesus, why not speak directly to the one mediator? There being one mediator means that there are not two mediators, which means that Mary is not a mediator between God and men. By praying to Mary (or anyone else) we are either speaking to someone who can’t hear us, or someone who can’t speak to God – what a waste of time, and what an insult to Jesus and his completed work on our behalf.

FAQs

Image by Brett Jordan via Flickr

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, but there are questions, and there are questions. Everyone’s bound to ask questions at some point or other, and the Bible’s full of people asking questions, but some questions are good, and some are bad.

Take one miracle that’s seen a few times in Scripture: birth. Both Mary and Zechariah were told by Gabriel that they would have a child, but their situations were similar – Mary was a virgin, and Zechariah and Elizabeth, his wife, were old – Elizabeth was barren. Neither should be able to have a child, but the news came nonetheless.

Both Mary and Zechariah asked a question. Mary’s was ‘How will this be, since I am a virgin?’ (Luke 1:34) and was clearly a good question; it was rewarded with an answer. Zechariah’s was clearly a bad question however; his was rewarded with deafness: ‘How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.’ (Luke 1:18)

Both the questions were pretty much the same – ‘that sounds impossible!’ but the intent of the question was different. Mary was asking out of wonder at God’s mighty power, Zechariah was asking out of doubt.

I frequently find it tempting at times to ask questions, but I think it’s important to see what sort of questions I’m asking – am I asking a question, or a question?

By the way, thanks to Mark Galli for prompting these thoughts in his book God Wins.

Related articles

• How To Question God (via Mark Galli) (mgpcpastor.wordpress.com)