Obama: Gay marriage and the Sermon on the Mount

With all the talk about Barack Obama’s Muslim roots and his involvement in a church whose pastor considers Louis Farrakhan a role model, it should be no surprise that Obama’s take on Christianity would be liberal at the very least.

But on Sunday, Obama demonstrated just how far from traditional Christian belief he is willing to wander.

In response to a question, Obama told a Hocking College crowd in Nelsonville, Ohio, that he believes Jesus was endorsing homosexuality in the Sermon on the Mount, and that a lengthy and explicit passage in Romans against homosexuality was “obscure” and irrelevant:

“I don’t think it should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state. 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.”

Obama didn’t explain what part of the Sermon on the Mount he thinks gives the OK to gay relationships, though one might guess it would be the part about “Do to others what you would have them do to you,” or the passage most often abused by liberals, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”

Liberals like to use the Sermon on the Mount as an admonishment to their political enemies to shut up, but those passages do not command Christians to turn a blind eye to wrongdoing. Rather, they instruct Christians to purify themselves first before worrying about the sins of others:

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.“

Contrary to what Obama and many liberals may wish, the Sermon on the Mount calls Christians to bear witness to the truth, even when it is opposed by the sinful majority:

“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

The admonishment is not to be understood as “be nice to others so that they will be nice to you,” rather it is to behave in a Christian manner despite the way the world behaves toward Christians. Christians are expected to show the world the right path, even when the world rejects them because of it:

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

And:

“Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you  and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. …

“Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. “

The Bible is clear in many passages that homosexuality is a sin. The “obscure” passage in Romans that Obama refers to minces no words on the subject. It refers to 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. 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.”

As our society veers further and further from biblical principles in favor of a nihilistic, “feels good” PC morality, all manner of activities that would have been condemned by previous generations raise nary an eyebrow these days. It’s one thing to live in a free society wherein the secular government protects people’s rights to engage in whatever sort of bedroom relations they like. It’s quite another for someone seeking the command of that secular government to endorse overturning the norms of hundreds of years and beliefs of hundreds of thousands of people in this country and using the law to force the radical beliefs of a small minority upon the unwilling majority.

If Sen. Obama ever does trouble himself with a closer reading of the Sermon on the Mount, he should pay special attention to the parts about false teachers:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 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, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.