jrs2cents.com

This was a letter I wrote to Jon Meacham in response to an article he wrote in Newsweek. This article was written in May of 2002, my response was written and sent not long after that. I had come across this in my file cabinet and thought that it would be great to add to the blog. The original article can be found here: “Sex and the Church: A Case for Change”

Dear Jon,

My name is JR Griggs I attend Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale in South Florida Pastored by Bob Coy. I read your recent article in Newsweek magazine entitled “Sex and the Church: A Case for Change”. I was deeply disturbed by many of the things written. Please do not take this as an attack on you, as I do not know what you believe or how many of the things in the article were your opinions or others. I am writing this because I believe it is time that Christians speak up about the way the church is viewed and portrayed today. First off being the fact that there is a vast difference between Catholicism and Christianity, a fact that is not widely recognized in society. This separation has been around since the beginning of Catholicism. If you spend some time in the Bible teaching Christian churches such as, but not limited to the Calvary Chapels, you see an enormous difference in the appearance of the church the activities of the church, most importantly the teaching of the Word.

The Catholic church has not been known for its teaching of the Word, in fact they claim only the Pope and those ordained in the Catholic church, can interpret the Scriptures. They don’t allow the people to read for themselves. This would cause them to see the many contradictions between the Catholic doctrine and what’s actually written. It would take too long to discuss each of these differences but I will go through the things written in your article and point out some of those differences.

Celibacy

The issue of sexual abuse goes beyond homosexuality. Although I do agree that homosexuals commit the act of pedophilia more than heterosexuals, this is not the primary reason for these cases. It may be the cause of most of the pedophilia cases but not sexual corruption in general among Catholicism.

So before we can get into the issue of homosexuals we must look at the route cause of sexual corruption in the Catholic Church. These have dated back for years and are only being brought out in recent events. One of the key problems within the Catholic Church leadership is the rule of celibacy. This nonsense of forbidding to marry not only contradicts the gift of marriage that God gave us but also the many references to leaders in the Bible being married. It was also foretold by the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy ch.4:1-4, he tells us that the Spirit says: that false teachers will come and teach doctrines of the devil including: forbidding to marry and abstaining from meats (Good Friday). It astonishes me today that neither the Catholic Church nor its members see how this refers to them.

When we read the story of God’s creation, after everything He made He said “it was good”, only when He created man did He say it is not good (Gen. 2:18). He saw that it was not good for man to be alone and so He created a helper for him, a partner and being the all knowing God that He is, He created this helper – a woman, which we will look at later. Again I repeat the words directly from God “it is not good for man to be alone.” As we read through the Old Testament and into the new, the number of men who were married and were carrying out God’s work is overwhelming. In fact with the exception of only a few like Jesus and John the Baptist, we rarely see the men as being single.

Now I am not saying that all are to be married, clearly both Jesus and Paul reference the fact that some will not get married and will stay single (Matt. 19:12, 1 Cor. ch.7). I am only showing what a contradiction it is to forbid marriage. When Paul writes his instructions on a healthy church to Timothy and Titus he states that a Bishop or overseer, must be the man of one wife. Paul clearly indicates that those in leadership or in a pastoral position may be married. We see Moses, who lead the children of Israel, he had a wife (Ex. 2:21). Abraham, the father of the Jews had a wife (Gen. 11:29). Peter, who was referenced in your article as “probably” having a wife, undoubtedly had a wife, we read Matt. 8:14 and we see that Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. Furthermore we read that Paul in 1 Cor. 9:5 states that Peter has the right to bring along his “believing wife” in ministry. Surprising for the “first Pope”, isn’t it?

Sex and Christianity

In your article you also stated that dealing with sex is a problem in Christianity, again this is the difference between Christianity and Catholicism or many other churches. The Bible teaching churches have no problem addressing sex. There are many Christian books written about sex. Song of Solomon clearly speaks of that relationship between a husband and wife and sexual intimacy. I encourage you to listen to some of the teachings on sex by Pastor Bob Coy and other pastors in the Calvary Chapels across the country. You will hear things that you certainly won’t hear in a majority of Catholic churches. It’s Biblical and should be taught. A great book to read showing this openness to sex in the Christian church is “The Act of Marriage” written by Tim and Beverley LaHaye. This book includes tips on how to have great sex and to understand that it is a gift from God. Topics even include foreplay.

These natural sexual desires and desire to be married, (and I emphasize between a man and woman, husband and wife) are God given and should not be forbidden for anyone because they are serving God. This is part of the reason for these sexual abuse cases. This demand on the men serving in the Catholic Church cannot be met. This along with many other problems in the Catholic doctrine, have triggered these acts. Even Popes are recorded as committing sexual acts with women. As Dave Hunt wrote in “A Woman Rides the Beast” It’s amazing how many “celibate popes had celibate sons“. There are even reports of a tunnel being found connecting a women’s convent with the men’s and many other cases of such acts. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 7:9 that it is better to marry than to burn with lust.

The sexual corruption in the Catholic Church goes far beyond these recent events. Reform? Reform has been needed dating back to the beginning of Catholicism and even when there were those who wanted reform, they were excommunicated and some murdered by the Catholic Church.

Homosexuality and the Bible

Dealing with the homosexual situation with in the Catholic Church, you referenced in your article that the Scriptures are not quite so clear on homosexuality and that the verses that are there can be explained away when read in context. I challenge you to read these verses in context. There is absolutely no way to say that these can be explained away in context. First off God did make them “male and female” as I mentioned earlier He gave Adam a helper and it was a woman. Throughout the bible you will never find reference to a man’s husband or a woman’s wife. In fact whenever marriage is mentioned it is male and female.

We do have the first recorded case of homosexuality in Genesis ch.19 in Sodom where the men wanted to rape the angels. This was explained as a hospitality problem not a homosexual problem in your article. Can we really believe that? Bad hospitality made this city so wicked that God massively destroyed it? Come on! The best way to study scripture is to compare it to other scripture. For example if bad hospitality deserved such a punishment, we should find strong condemnations in the Scripture for such an act, yet we don’t. We do find Scriptures condemning homosexuality though. Leviticus 18:22 tells us that if a man lies with another man as a woman it is an abomination. This is stated again in Lev. 20:13 this time attaching a punishment of death.

You mentioned in your article the possibility of homosexuality being natural. Paul clearly tells us in Romans 1:26-27, that men and woman have given up the natural and given in to the unnatural sleeping with the same sex. No matter how you read it backwards or forward it is “unnatural”. Do we have any solid evidence that homosexuality is a gene? No! None! No evidence that it is something you’re born with. If you put a handful of homosexuals in a lab to conduct this study, they will prove it’s natural. You put a handful of heterosexuals in a lab (especially those who do not agree it’s natural) and they will prove it’s not.

Homosexuality a gene?

In the beginning of your article it started off with a reference to a priest who openly admits that he is gay. He goes on to say “But it’s not the only thing I am. So I’m gay and the priest next door is Polish – so what? What matters is, am I faithful, creative, godly?” The reference to the next priest being Polish is an example of this misunderstanding that people have about homosexuals, it is not a race or nationality and should not be compared as such. Later there was a reference to not being able to control homosexuality as related to not being able to control color, again it is not a race or nationality. We have genes that are passed on to us through our parents, such as color, height and appearance. Yet there is no “homosexual gene”. Why is it that heterosexual parents have homosexual kids and homosexual parents can have heterosexual kids? If it were genetic certainly we would have far more cases of it actually being passed down. Keeping in mind that if my father likes football I may grow up to like football. Not a matter of genes but a matter of growing up with him and being around that atmosphere.

Can someone say that they were born a murderer, therefore justifying their acts of murder. No! That is their own choice and we’ve even labeled many murderers to be sick and in need of mental help. Just like stealing, lying and adultery, homosexuality is clearly in violation of God’s Word. Not all homosexuals disagree with pedophilia but many of them do. Isn’t pedophilia a sexual behavior just like homosexuality? Why isn’t this being stated as something you’re born with? Or how about bestiality or rape? The fact is that this is a lifestyle that is chosen not born with. This is proven by the countless heterosexuals who thought they were homosexuals yet weren’t. Or those who start off heterosexual but then choose the homosexual lifestyle. To this day I have never struggled with whether I am white or black, male or female, 5’9 or 6’5, these were things I was born with, they don’t change and I don’t have to determine which of them apply to me.

Homosexuality and Pedophilia

Dealing with the fact that homosexuals are more likely to commit acts of pedophilia, I present these facts. According to an April 29, 2002 article on WorldNetDaily.com entitled “Report: Pedophilia more common among gays.” By Jon Dougherty, he writes that pedophilia is far more common among gays than heterosexuals. In this article is a quote from Dr. Judith Reisman stating that “The rate of homosexual versus heterosexual child sexual abuse is staggering”. She listed a statistic that shows undoubtedly that this is true: “150.2 boys abused per male homosexual offender finds no equal (yet) in heterosexual violations of 19.8 girls”. This is almost 8 times the rate with girls. I do admit there are those heterosexuals who are involved in child pornography and many cases of men raping young girls, but as we see from not only this statistic but many others I have researched, there is no comparison to that of the homosexual society.

In closing I would like to answer the question on the cover of your story, “What Would Jesus Do?” I can only think of when He walked in to the House of God and saw the defilement and overturned the tables and chased out those who defiled it. Jesus made a very serious statement in Matt. 18:6 “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

Why My Kids Do Not Believe In Santa