The right wing conservatives think it's a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made rewiring of a predisposition
Playing God, aw nah here we go
America the brave still fears what we don't know
And "God loves all his children" is somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago
Macklemore
And I command you today: Love God, your God. Walk in his ways. Keep his commandments, regulations, and rules so that you will live, really live, live exuberantly, blessed by God, your God...
Moses 1300BC
This objection really is three fold. 1) How can I be free with a book full of rules telling me what I can't do, hanging over my head. Why would I want that? 2) How do we know those are the right rules especially since they are written 3000 years ago. Shouldn't they adapt as time changes? 3) It is arrogant for Christians to tell me how to live, that their way is right. Let's try to develop all these.
First - the issue of freedom and rules. Isn't this the crux of the devil's argument with Eve way back in Genesis 3?
He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Notice what Satan was doing. He was saying, "You aren't really free. God is restricting your freedom and your fulfillment by making you follow rules." Eve and Adam both believed the lie. The truth was that they were the most free people in the whole history of mankind living under that rule. They were free from death, pain, shame, guilt, and sickness. And they were free to be in the presence of God without covering up. Once they came out from under that rule everything changed for the worst.
The fact is that freedom isn't the absence of rules but rather living under the correct ones. For example, at the age of 60, I have to restrict my eating habits. I hate exercise but I make myself do it everyday. Why? Because I want to be free to enjoy my body and health as long as physically possible. To have ultimate freedom I have to follow rules. The police force and governing bodies of my County have also established rules that I have to follow. Why? To restrict evil so me and my family can safely play outside and live without fear. This is why we have all the rules to follow as we board an airplane. They are a pain but they are made so we are free to land at our destination. Our kids are given rules all the time - don't play in the street, brush your teeth, go to bed, look both ways before crossing, don't go anywhere with a stranger, no more video games tonight..., all of which are so that they can enjoy freedom, safety, and a better life.
Freedom isn't the absence of rules but living under the right ones
As we look at the Genesis account, we see that when God had created everything the way He wanted, there was only one rule because God isn't into rules, God is into freedom. However, when that rule was broken and sin entered the world, the world became a dangerous place so God had to establish many more rules to protect our freedom and since we are now bent toward sin, God had to establish some boundaries for us to keep us from heading full force into these areas and let us know what those areas are. For example the laws on discharges, sores, sanitation, mildew, handling dead bodies, washing hands - all were meant to protect them from bacteria that they knew nothing about. The laws promoting monogamy not only were to keep them from relationships that were not how God had designed them but also to prevent them from 44 different sexually transmitted diseases. They allowed people, if they followed those laws to have the ultimate loving free relationship. The laws to separate themselves from the rest of the world were intended to keep them as far from sinful behavior as possible. God was saying, even though this now is a sinful world, here is how you can live a life in maximal freedom.
So once we establish that rules are necessary for ultimate freedom, the question is, how can Christians say that they have the right rules? First of all, our rules aren't that different from most cultures. C.S. Lewis, in The Abolition of Man, explored all major world religions and came up with eight laws that they all had in common
1. Don't harm others with word or deed
2. Honor your parents
3. Be kind to siblings and the elderly
4. Be honest in your dealing with others
5. Don't lie
6. Don't have sex with another person's spouse
7. Care for those who are weaker
8. Put others first
So if people struggle with these and blame Christians for putting their morality on other people, it is not just Christians that they are having issues with, it is every religion.
Secondly, Christians claim to worship the God that created humanity and therefore the designer knows what works best for His design. Not only that, if time began at a certain point and there must be a cause for every effect, there had to be someone outside of time, or eternal, to start it up. Therefore, His words or rules would transcend time and not change as society changes with time. And if that doesn't convince you, listen to the One who predicted His death and resurrection and pulled it off - Jesus! Jesus affirmed in His teaching the Ten Commandments. When defending Christianity to a polytheistic society not unlike ours, Paul says,
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else..."
I would expect that the owners manual of my car, though restrictively telling me that I must change the oil, I must rotate tires, I must not tow anything over a certain weight, I must use a certain type of oil, I must not use a certain type of gasoline, etc., would be accurate and be designed for maximum freedom and longevity, and enjoyment of my car. If there is a God who created us, as the Christians say, we believe that He gave us an instruction manual because He knows how we function best. If my Honda car breaks down, I probably would be better off taking it to a Honda garage than a Ford garage. If my IPOD breaks I take it in to Apple rather than Microsoft. Likewise, shouldn't we go to the One who made us to help us understand how to live according to our design.
Another objection would be that people see our God as saying, "Follow my rules or I will send you to Hell. That is not Christianity. Christianity is totally different from all other religions in this. Look at the intro to the Ten Commandments;
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me." (and so on with the other nine).
What people gloss over when they start looking at all the "Thou shalt nots" is the beginning part, "I am the Lord your God." You see, when we recognize that we are sinful, by faith we receive Christ's substitutionary death on the cross for our sins, we enter into a relationship with God. We become part of His family - He becomes our Father; He becomes our God. We don't obey the rules to get into a relationship with Him. Rather we get into a relationship with Him and then obey the rules because we love Him and like a good father, we know He has our best interests at heart. This is totally differtent than all other religions which believe we follow rules to get to Heaven. In Christianity we follow the rules out of love for God. We are never truly "free" when we are in love. However that lack of freedom we embrace willingly because what we have in love is so much better than the alternative. Watch this video by Ben Stuart.
"For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
14 For the love of Christ constraineth us..." 2Cor.5:13,14
"For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
14 For the love of Christ constraineth us..." 2Cor.5:13,14
Lastly, the final question is why do Christians force their morality on me? That is a loaded question and controversial among Christian ranks. The general rule is that in areas of personal choices, we as Christians expect non-Christians to behave in non-Christian ways and we have no right or need to change them. My brother in law who has terminal cancer had an interesting quote yesterday. I went to visit a friend of mine getting chemotherapy in a brand new, state of the art cancer facility. It was beautiful, friendly, spectacular view, serving fruit smoothies... I could have moved in. I told this to my brother - in- law who had received chemotherapy there and he said, "Yep, they sure know how to build beautiful facilities. Too bad they don't know how to cure cancer." This is how moral reformation works. We can get a person to quit living with his girlfriend and get married, yet if that person hasn't received spiritual transformation they are still headed for an eternal destiny separated from God.
The real question is what happens when their choices start affecting my freedoms and my children's freedoms? For example, as LGBT continues to fight for civil rights and make advances, it affects my children's safety in gender non specific bathrooms. It affects my church's ability to preach the whole of scripture or lose their tax exempt status or worse be prosecuted for "hate" speech. It affects my children as this lifestyle will be taught in their schools on equal footing with heterosexuality. It yesterday affected a whole state of North Carolina who won't have the NBA all-star game played there because of their stand on bathrooms. So do we put guardrails around us by fighting against these things or acknowledge that we as Christians were never promised ease here and our citizenship is in Heaven. Let the debates begin!
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