Carrie Underwood, who sees herself as devoutly
Christian, has officially spoken out in support of gay marriage.
Joseph Farah is a syndicated columnist and not a
theologian[1],
but his comments place him head and shoulders above the run-of-the-mill
theologians of our day. (JLO)
Pop star Carrie Underwood should take her own advice,
which she provided in one of her top hits, and let “Jesus Take the Wheel.”
Here’s some of what she
had to say about that:
•
“I
don’t know what it’s like to be told I can’t marry somebody I love, and want to
marry. … I can’t imagine how that must feel. I definitely think we should all
have the right to love, and love publicly, the people that we want to love.”
•
She said she attends a “gay friendly” church and
doesn’t believe she has the right to judge anyone.
•
“Above all, God wanted us to love others. It’s
not about setting rules, or [saying] ‘everyone has to be like me.’ No. We’re
all different. That’s what makes us special. We have to love each other and get
on with each other. It’s not up to me to judge anybody.”
Now, I don’t mean to pick
on a young celebrity who has obviously devoted most of her life to music and
may have missed out on some key Bible studies.
In fact, what Underwood
has to say here is actually indicative of a growing biblical illiteracy within
what passes for the Body of Christ in America today – even among the clergy.
Here’s the bottom line:
You can’t be a follower of Jesus and condone what He Himself describes as sin.
Neither can you truly love
others by purposely not confronting their sin – and allowing them to be
comfortable with their sin.
That’s not love.
It’s not about feelings,
because, as the Bible explains, “every imagination of the thoughts of man’s
heart is only evil continually.” The Bible doesn’t make this point once or
twice – it’s a recurrent theme!
Followers of Jesus are not
to be governed by their feelings. They are to be governed by the teachings of
their Lord.
As far as “loving” others,
we are commanded to do it – even our enemies. But the biblical view of love is
not having sex with them – it’s sharing the gospel.
What is a “gay friendly”
church? Is it one that affirms people in their sin? Or is it one that welcomes
sinners and confronts them with it to bring them to the saving knowledge of
Jesus? I suspect Carrie Underwood attends a church that does the former rather
than the latter.
We’re all sinners, and we
all need to be confronted with our sin to bring about repentance. To make
people comfortable with their sin is the least loving thing we can do for them
because we are facilitating their descent into hell for an eternity. How is
that loving?
Carrie Underwood suggests
God did not set rules. Yes, He did. The Ten Commandments are not suggestions.
They represent the difference between life and death.
She says, “It’s not up to
me to judge anybody.” This has become something of a mantra in the apostate
church. But it is a misunderstanding of what Jesus meant when He said, “Judge
not, that ye be not judged.” The context of that sermon makes it clear that
Jesus meant to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Others are
not to be judged unfairly. He didn’t mean we aren’t supposed to confront people
with their sin so they could be brought to repentance, because He Himself commanded
us to do just that.
God did warn us not to
profane His holy name.
I don’t think that just
means misusing His name as a curse word. I think we do that when we represent
ourselves as followers of God but betray His Word.
That’s blasphemy – and
there’s just too much of it coming from people claiming to be Christians.
[1] Begging to differ with the
boss, Mr. Farah is a theologian, many of those claiming to be are not. SMILE
