May 21, 2010
From Jill Carroll, Houston religion expert and author
This weeks' news brought us the story of a Catholic elementary school rescinding the acceptance of a child because his parents are lesbians. The bishop in the area defended the decision, saying it reflected a pastoral concern for the child. He also added, however, that Catholic schools accept students from all walks of life and vowed to help the lesbian parents find another Catholic school for their son.
I find the bishop's statements on this a bit contradictory, but perhaps that's to be expected. Overall, with rare exception, the bulk of Christianity's myriad denominations are completely inconsistent on issues of marriage and who's "in" and who's "out" of the community of faith because of it.
Traditional Christianity - both Catholic and Protestant alike - rejects homosexuality outright as inconsistent with biblical teachings. Thus, most Christian denominations are on record rejecting gay marriage, civil unions and, in many cases, even basic civil rights for gay people. Why? Because the Bible says it's wrong.
Fine. But, what about Jesus' teaching on divorce and remarriage? Jesus instructs in the gospels of Matthew and Mark that whoever divorces and remarries commits adultery. That seems fairly straightforward. And, these are the "words of Jesus in red" - unlike all those passages in Leviticus, the bulk of which most Christians ignore anyway because, well, they're Christians, not Orthodox Jews.
Why pick on the homosexuals alone? Why do the adulterers get a pass on this? Most mainline Christian denominations welcome practicing adulterers into full membership in the church, allow them to serve on committees, teach Sunday School, and more. In some cases, practicing adulterers are even allowed to be ordained to serve as deacons, pastors and priests. Indeed, practicing adulterers fill our nation's churches every week without a word of condemnation from the pulpit. Far from it, the churches are happy to accept their tithes every month to keep the lights on.
At the end of the day, Christian churches - like all other religious groups in this country - are private clubs that can accept or reject anyone they want on any basis they want. That's the way we do it in this country, and I personally think it's the best way.
A little consistency would be nice, though.
Does it escape anyone's notice that Jehovah's Witnesses maintain this consistency regarding divorce and remarriage? They do.
