CNSnews.com | Terence P. Jeffrey | Mar. 3, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) told a crowd at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio, Sunday that he believes the Sermon on the Mount justifies his support for legal recognition of same-sex unions. He also told the crowd that his position in favor of legalized abortion does not make him “less Christian.”
“I don’t think it [a same-sex union] should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state,” said Obama. “If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.” St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans condemns homosexual acts as unnatural and sinful.
Obama’s mention of the Sermon on the Mount in justifying legal recognition of same-sex unions may have been a reference to the Golden Rule: “Do to others what you would have them do to you.” Or it may have been a reference to another famous line: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”
The Sermon, recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, includes the Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes, an endorsement of scriptural moral commandments (“anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven”), and condemnations of murder, divorce and adultery. It also includes a warning: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”
The passage from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, which Obama dismissed as “obscure,” discusses people who knew God but turned against him.
“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised,” wrote St. Paul. “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”
On the topic of abortion, Obama said his support for keeping it legal does not trespass on his Christian faith.
“I think that the bottom line is that in the end, I think women, in consultation with their pastors, and their doctors, and their family, are in a better position to make these decisions than some bureaucrat in Washington. That’s my view,” Obama said about abortion. “Again, I respect people who may disagree, but I certainly don’t think it makes me less Christian. Okay.”
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I don’t know the mind of Obama, but I think it’s erroneous to suggest that he was asserting that the “Sermon justifies same-sex unions”. Instead, I think what he meant is that he finds the general spirit of the Sermon and the words of Christ Himself to be more central to the Christian faith than some of St. Paul’s words.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t the Orthodox also reject some Pauline theology such as the predestination of the elect which is formulated in Romans 8:28-30? There’s a Scriptural case for it, but it is not generally one of the primary tenets of Orthodoxy as it is with the Reformed sects.
In any rate, we’ve hashed this out before, but I don’t think all civil legislation needs to conform to Scriptural ideals: we don’t allow divorce only in the case of adultery, and we don’t criminalize the profaning of the Lord’s day by forbidding retail stores from remaining open on those days. This doesn’t make one a bad Christian, although I think valid constitutional and legal cases can be made for criminalizing abortion.
James K. #1 writes:
I don’t know the mind of Obama, but I think it’s erroneous to suggest that he was asserting that the “Sermon justifies same-sex unions”.
Why ever would he mention that a reading of the Sermon on the Mount would indicate that advocation of same-sex unions should not be controversial? He was clearly implying that the passage implies that the legality of same-sex unions should not be disputed, and therefore the practice should be approved. He goes on to disregard St. Paul’s identification of homosexuality as a sin, which indicates that he recognizes the contradiction between the Pauline passage and his interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount. Again, this must mean that Obama believes that the Sermon on the Mount justifies not only same-sex unions, but homosexuality in general.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t the Orthodox also reject some Pauline theology such as the predestination of the elect which is formulated in Romans 8:28-30?
No. The Orthodox reject none of the Pauline passages or doctrines. They do, however, reject Reformed theology and Reformed interpretations of those passages. This is simple, really, so don’t make it complicated. Just because you might read those passages and interpret them one way, does not mean that the Church rejects those passages if it doesn’t agree with your (or Calvin’s) interpretation.
Whatever Obama’s qualifications may be for President, he is certainly quite deficient as an exegete. As Mr. Jeffrey points out Matthew 5:17-19 “Do not suppose that I have come to weaken the law or the prophets; I have come not to weaken, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, Until heaven and earth pass away, not even a yoth or a dash shall pass away from the law until all of it is fulfilled. Whoever therefore tries to weaken even one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but anyone who observes and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” clearly refutes Obama’s position.
It is also an incredible arrogance to call St. Paul’s letter to the Romans “obscure”.
The mercy of God is to confront our sin, surrender it to Him and be healed, not to ignore and excuse sin.
It is another example of utopian delusion on Obama’s part.