Saturday, November 22, 2008

Kicking Against The Goads

So, after the Proposition 8 vote, apparently some Christians were praying and singing, and some gay* folk attacked them.

Here is the Video.

Here is the Narrative.

Here is the Anchoress's take.

...and here is mine:

Some Gays In SanFran Find It Hard To Kick Against The Goads

Christianity offers a solution to those who have examined themselves (and human beings generally) sufficiently closely to understand that they have a problem in need of solving.

Humans often fail to do the good they know they should (or even wish they could) do. And humans often do the evil they know they shouldn't do, or wish they could avoid doing. That is the problem.

Now, Christ offers the solution...but He has absolutely nothing to say to those who don't yet know they have the problem. The antiquated way of saying it is that Original Sin permeates mankind, and that the insight that one is a sinner is a prerequisite to understanding the Gospel.

What, then, about homosexuals?

Well, just like the rest of us sinners, some know they have a problem, and others do not. And Christianity has absolutely nothing to say to those who don't know they have a problem.

But here we have some folks praying and singing, and the result is...what? How did this mere sight and sound affect gay onlookers?

Some (not all) gays felt compelled, by something within them, to kick, punch, molest, and steal from these folks who were singing and praying.

That's quite a reaction. What compelled it?

Sign Of Contradiction

The singers and prayers were being what Christians call "A Sign of Contradiction." Where Christianity makes itself noticed and its counter-cultural nature is revealed, it gets kicked.

The excuses used to justify the kicking differ in every age, and I understand well what they are in this age, but they are only excuses, and not the foundation of this rage. The foundation, the motivation to violence, is simple: It is fallen humanity's exasperation that, no matter how long one pushes back against the Truth of God, it adamantly refuses to go away, refuses to change for our convenience, refuses to stay out of sight. It keeps popping up in front of us, to our frustration, like a bubble of air under freshly-applied wallpaper.

As a man named Paul (earlier called Saul) might ruefully tell us: "It is hard to kick against the goads." (Another translation says, "against the pricks," but this leads to unfortunate misunderstandings....)

Some gays have not given in to the emotional urge to express their opposition to Christianity as physically as these described by Malkin and shown in the video. Some have managed to keep their cool, and perhaps as a result they still don't know they have a problem.

But what of those who saw this knot of folk praying and singing, and reacted violently? With jeers? With grabbing at body parts and pulling at clothing? With hurled insults and thrown punches?

With kicks?

They're probably discovering that it's hard to kick against the goads. They expressed what was truly inside them; and now that they have done so, do they like what they see? Do they know they have a problem?

Finding Out You Have A Problem

I think some of them do, now. So perhaps we need more street-corner singing and praying. It's quaint and unintellectual, sure. But one more easily sees that something is crooked by pushing it up against something that is straight. (The pun is unintentional; I don't mean sexually "straight," but morally straight, even logically consistent.)

When homosexuals encounter Christ, they encounter a Sign of Contradiction. They will kick against the goads. And they will find it hard. And if they look, they'll find something crooked in themselves. Not just their sexual problem; that's almost a symptom or manifestation. The something crooked is their fallen-ness.

And only then will Christ have anything more to say to them.

* Note: in the course of this post, I refer both to "gays" and to "homosexuals." In each case, I am referring to people who experience sexual attraction to persons of the same gender, which I hold to not be a sin per se, but a disordered personality trait and a temptation to sin. In no case am I using the term "gay" or "homosexual" as an epithet. Tone-of-voice is difficult to convey in writing but I ask readers to assume that my attitude is one of careful analysis without animosity.

9 Comments:

At 6:50 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

 
At 11:24 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Do you have copy writer for so good articles? If so please give me contacts, because this really rocks! :)

 
At 11:29 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Appreciate it all on your amazing and informative comments so
far. Much foodstuff intended for imagined. Some
inciteful ideas as well as opinions throughout. I won't express that Certainly with everything else that you simply declare however if i didnrrrt understand this legitamecy within your publish I would possibly be uninformed to the knowledge.
My web site - Online Vehicle Insurance

 
At 2:40 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Deb… A figures My partner and i noticed lately were being slightly different… (can’t keep in
mind where I personally spotted these.)
Also visit my webpage ; Genital Wart Cream

 
At 4:23 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow! Thank you! I want to create in my blog something like that.
Am i able to such as a fragment of one's publish in order to my site?
My webpage Genital Warts Remedies

 
At 3:06 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Heya i'm for the first time here. I came across this board and I find It truly useful & it helped me out much. I hope to give something back and aid others like you aided me.

Look into my blog :: how to get a house loan with bad credit
My website > working from home online jobs

 
At 10:44 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Howdy, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one
and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam responses?
If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can
suggest? I get so much lately it's driving me mad so any help is very much appreciated.

Also visit my homepage relevant site

 
At 9:58 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up!
I'll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back in the future. Many thanks

My site ... Email Console

 
At 11:37 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It's pretty worth enough for me.
In my view, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did, the
net will be a lot more useful than ever before.

Also visit my web site ... sizegenetics review

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home