It may seem I’ve strayed a bit
in discussing the whole issue of ‘church’ weddings, but the reason I bring it
up is because I think we have problem when we take ideas like marriage and
divorce which for us have theological meaning but also overlap with the
culture.
If the last segment seemed a
bit out of bounds to some readers, I’m afraid this section will seem even more
so.[i]
While unbelievers do not
partake of Baptism and the Supper, they do partake of marriage. It has a
cultural and legal element to it and I think many Christians are conflating
these ideas…the theological and civil elements. We’re trying to impose ideas on
the culture, but at the same time we’re allowing the culture to impose ideas
and define terms for us.
For example when is a person
married? Let’s say as a Christian I want to get married before the Church…meaning
the local congregation I gather with. So we meet in a park on Saturday
afternoon, and with no ‘minister’ acting as an agent of the state, say our vows
etc…
Are we married? Let’s say we
don’t make it down to the registrar’s office until the following Wednesday, or
even the following month. The state doesn’t recognize the marriage until we
have the piece of paper.
When were we married? Saturday
of course, but many would balk at that a bit. We don’t have the piece of paper
yet. Can we start living as husband and wife? Is it okay to start living
together even without the piece of paper?
I realize this isn’t an issue
for most who have the ‘pastor’ act as the agent of the state….he’s empowered to
do so by law… and thus can issue the license.
I cannot find any justification
for this in the Scripture. Am I being a legalist on this point? No. I’m not
binding anyone to this, but I am strenuously suggesting that few have even
given it thought and even fewer can make a case for the practice from
Scripture. Did Elders in the early Church act as agents for Rome in order to legally
legitimize the marriage? The very notion of it is patently ridiculous.
What am I suggesting then?
Again that marriage for Christians has a meaning entirely different than that
of the culture. We get married in our own context…the Church.
In terms of civil law, marriage
is not a Sacral building block, because we reject the whole Sacralist paradigm
to begin with. Civilly speaking, it’s a contract. We’re registering with the
state for reasons related to power of attorney, medical decisions and
qualification, child custody, tax filing etc…
What about divorce? That’s a
complicated topic that I don’t want to dive into at this time, but assume for a
moment that divorce is legitimate. I’m not going to elaborate my view at this
time, but assume my position for the sake of argument. The Scriptures frown on
divorce in all instances but permit it for reasons of adultery and abandonment.
Remarriage and all the associated issues are for another time.
My question is this…when is a
person divorced? When has the marriage ended? Are we defining that from the
Bible? (which I admit may be controversial and difficult)….or are we defining
it based on the piece of paper issued from the state?
My concern is that we start to
look to the state to define our categories. The state through legislation
begins to delineate and define these concepts.[ii]
The Sacralist wants this and
encourages this and thus at present is in a state of panic when the state
begins to deliberately abandon this.
If Sacralism is a false
paradigm their attempts to define these categories will also be false. So
again, this question, the issue of Sacralism must be wrestled with and
determined before you can really address these questions.[iii]
If the body of ideas associated with Sacralism represents an error, then to tie
in one’s theology with state legislation is to explicitly reject a Biblical
Worldview.
I’m not suggesting we simply
ignore the state. There are Christians who are advocating this. They would say
get married in the living room and don’t register with the state at all. Usually
they expand this and attach the same ideas to questions concerning Social
Security numbers and birth certificates. They equate it with ‘taking the mark
of the beast’ or something along those lines.
Some of this becomes sinful,
breaking the law without theological warrant. In the case of marriage, since
you’re not required to have a certificate in order to live with someone…I would
say fine, but you’re being unnecessarily foolish.
I’ve talked before about how
the Dominionist and the Pietist both view culture in Sacral terms.
The Dominionist says…we have to
conquer every cultural institution and make it ‘Christian’….whatever that
means.
The Pietist says…we’re
Christians and every cultural institution is polluted and so we can’t have any
contact with them unless they are explicitly Christian.
They’re both Sacralists, the
one thinks you can’t get your hands dirty and you need to live in a Christian
ghetto. The other thinks you have to go out and take over and won’t rest until
this is accomplished.
They’re both wrong. Culture isn’t
neutral, it’s a mix of blessing and curse, imperfect good and great evil. We’re
not called upon to conquer it or flee from it. We have to interact with wisdom
and it’s not easy. There’s much that we can take and much that we need to
leave.
Of course that makes everything
a bit more hazy and difficult. We don’t need to flee from the state, we need to
understand what it is and what its limitations are going to be. We need to
never confuse it with the Kingdom of God or think that it somehow helps us in
our task. The only help it provides is restraint and order. That order will
never be Christian because it is an order enforced by violence.
When we start letting the state
define our categories we’re becoming unsettled and disoriented. When we let the
state into the Church via ministers acting as agents of the state, or
registering our congregations for tax exemption…we’re multiplying the confusion.[iv]
We see further examples of this
in the push by many Christians for ‘Covenant Marriage’, which specifically
rejects the contractual view of marriage and applies religious meaning.
Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m
not suggesting our Christian marriages are mere contracts. For us they’re
something more and yet something less than an ecclesiastical ordinance or
sacrament.
But for the unbelievers, the
Babylonians in our midst, I would argue their marriages are indeed just
contracts. In terms of how Babylon recognizes our marriages…it can never be anything
beyond contractual.
Babylon (the state) cannot
grasp theological categories and we don’t want them to wade into those waters.[v]
While as Christians we may
indeed view our marriages within a Covenantal framework, to codify this with
the state I believe is a gross error. And then to try (as has been done on occasion)
to impose this on the unbeliever is an even greater folly if not once again a
case of sacrilege.[vi]
For years we’ve seen people
trying to push Covenant Marriage laws and many including Dobson have pushed for
mandatory pre-marital counseling. Now there are some in the secular counseling
industry who for pragmatic concerns also push this, but many Christians
specifically are trying (for Sacral reasons) to discourage divorce.
Statistically they believe that pre-marital counseling will reduce the divorce probability.
Again, I’m not in any way
celebrating divorce. Far from it. I want Babylon to be at peace and exhibit
order. There’s no doubt solid marriages and unbroken families are better for
society.
But for many Christians their
push, their emphasis on these issues is motivated by something other than
pragmatics.
I want unbelievers to have
happy marriages…but I do not believe their marriages will somehow make them
better in the eyes of God or prepare them to receive the Gospel. I don’t
believe marriage or any civil legislation serves a pedagogical purpose. Old
Testament law did, but the pedagogy wasn’t about good citizenship, it pointed
to Christ as the Redeemer or the Judge….something Washington, London, or Ottawa
can never do.
I don’t believe their marriages
will help the Kingdom. I don’t believe pagans can philosophically account for
marriage and from a secular worldview, there’s really no reason they should
embrace monogamy or stay together if there isn’t a mutual desire to do so.
I hope they do stay together
but all the reasons I would give them to do so begin with the exhortation to
repent.
Many Christians have attempted
to ‘soften’ people by appealing to things like ‘happiness’ meters and ‘free
from disease’ arguments. Again, if pragmatic concerns were the motivation I
could see arguing that way.
But if they’re trying once
again to contribute to a ‘Christian’ understanding of society and culture….To
argue that way is nothing less than a Social Gospel and a rejection or negation
of the Gospel’s specifically Redemptive categories. If religion is primarily an
issue of the heart, then these forms of Christian behaviouralism are not only
worthless but in the end work against the gospel. I would argue socially these
measures only result in a backlash…which is what we’re experiencing at present
in the United States.
If we can help build the
Kingdom by telling people to stay married…so they can be happy, fulfilled and
avoid herpes….we’ve got a twisted view of the Kingdom of God.
If you want to have a Christian
understanding of your marriage…Great! But don’t look to the state to elaborate
upon it or enforce it and do not try to force it upon others. If you think
pre-marital counseling is a good idea, then fine, pursue it. But I resent the
fact that Christians have pushed for marriage license fee reduction when you
can prove you’ve been counseled or for that matter the way many Churches go
about it.[vii]
‘We’re just trying to help society,’
I’ve heard many Christians say.
Really. As one pundit put it…you’re
doing a great job making the world safe for Mormons.
And that’s about it, except for
the fact that you antagonize and essentially end up persecuting the unbeliever.
We can’t evangelize them while we threaten them with violence.
Again, these things are all
distractions. The Church is caught up in so many areas and yet there just doesn’t
seem to be a great emphasis on the Bible. ‘Biblical Worldview’ is tossed about,
but that usually seems to be a shibboleth, a code-word for cultural and
political engagement.
I guess living our lives and
being the best Christians we can be, showing love to our neighbours…just isn’t
very exciting. Sometimes I think it’s a problem with patience. Rather than
realize that sometimes you won’t ‘see’ change for generations, people feel the
desperate drive to push for it right away.
No doubt our culture has
contributed to this mindset. Previous generations were definitely more patient
and took a longer view. We see this everywhere in the Church….from the Willow
Creek/Church Growth movement to the employment of the ‘Jesus Film’ in the
mission field.
One thing I would say and this
may also sound strange. If the Sacralists ever did completely capture the
government and mandated pre-marital counseling for a license, or demanded
Covenant Marriage….
At that point I would advocate a withdrawal and just
getting married in a living room with no license at all. The more the
Sacralists take power, the more I would be driven into the underground.[viii]
Theologically a false theology represents a greater threat than a secular
hostility to religion.
If this was 1920 and we lived
in a time of social consensus, which even then was not as strong as some think…then
at that point we probably wouldn’t even be thinking about these issues. We
would just ‘do’ what everyone ‘does’.
In light of that, there is a
sense in which we can be thankful for the current social mess. These issues are
absolutely driving us to think through these issues. We need to learn once
again to think like pilgrims and exiles. The ‘Church’ lost this with the
Reformation when the Medieval Underground joined with the new establishment.
As Christians we view marriage
and all of life in theological terms. As Christians living in Babylon, I am
happy and perhaps would even prefer if the civil aspects of marriage were
delineated in purely contractual terms. This shouldn’t affect us adversely and
would guarantee a degree of freedom and equal protection for everyone else in
society.
I am not being naive. I realize
there are many complicated issues that arise. Adoption is probably the one that
weighs most heavily on me. And yet, several years before anyone even whispered
gay ‘marriage’ I was (even in this rural area) encountering homosexual couples
with children. We live in a fallen world.[ix]
There are a host of related
issues…fertility technology, poverty and many other realms in which I’m afraid
the Church has not always been clear or consistent on. And in some cases I
think has taken the wrong position.
There are issues with regard to
Christian businessmen and health benefits. Some of these issues are driven by
our national economic doctrines and the way we treat non-tangibles like health
care and education as commodities subject to market forces. For example our
access to health care is often tied in with our employment.
There are no good solutions to
these problems. The ones I would offer are I believe Biblically informed but
ultimately pragmatic solutions. Yet they are so radical vis-à-vis the status
quo that they are revolutionary rather than reformatory.
Rather than panic over the
current cultural trajectory I would encourage people to read more about the
ancient world which survived several centuries into the Christian era. It’s a
world very familiar with our own, in some ways far more wicked. The Church
survived and flourished in spite of rampant homosexual activity, concubinage,
and polygamy which historically have been very common. Even under Christendom
these things never went away. Instead a hypocritical society was created where
these things were hidden beneath a veneer.
The Bible tells us how to think
and to interpret the world around us. History is a tremendous aid in this task.
It won’t tell us the how or why but it does help us to see the ‘what’ and often
gives us some indication of what to expect in the future (the when).
In the short term things will
get worse in terms of degradation and sinfulness. If history is any precedent there
will eventually be a moral reaction. It may take a century to manifest itself.
It may come sooner. It may have nothing to do with Christianity. It might be
rooted in some kind of neo-ethic or some form of pragmatism.[x]
Who can say? But I am sure at some point there will be a reaction.
Currently we are enduring a
severe pendulum swing, one I think made worse by the political Church. [xi]
We live in interesting times.
My wife and I have often talked about how we remember Donahue in the 1980’s
pointing to a man sitting in a chair on the stage and saying:
“Jeff here has something to
tell you.”
Jeff (or whatever his name
was):
“I’m gay.”
(Gasps from the audience)
That world seems like a distant
dream. Recently (when we had access to television) I was thinking of this as I
saw some kind of weird homo-suggestive television commercial for cosmetics
featuring Ellen and Sofia Vergara the Columbian model. The times they are a
changin’!
All I can say is, strap
yourself in and hold on because in another thirty years it’s going to be a
different world.
Sacralists will bemoan this as
will I but for different reasons. But
for the Church it will be a time of winnowing and re-thinking many issues. The
Sacralists will turn to flight and violence. We Christians must do what the
Sacralists are not doing….learn to think Biblically. And we’ll have to deal
with the fallout they generate.
For me at present I am much
more concerned about bombs and a Militaristic state that spends around a
trillion dollars a year on furthering its agenda.
I’m concerned that my country
accounts for around half the military spending on the planet and certainly
outspends the next twenty or so countries combined. In fact when you factor in
the CIA, the NSA and many of the other related ‘Defense’ industries the United
States spends more than the rest of the world combined.
It is economically breaking our
country and our news media will barely touch it. In this respect we are more
like Assyria than Rome. Speaking of praying for the peace of Babylon, if this
spending is not cut then domestic spending will have to be radically cut.
Many on the Right, especially the
‘peace-loving’ Christians in America want to increase the military budget. At
some point we will have the poor and minorities rioting, bursting forth from
shanty towns while America feeds billions to the defense contractors of the
military industrial complex.[xii]
I am far more concerned about
the pragmatics and even the morality of this then I am about two people of the
same sex acquiring a piece of paper that allows them to file taxes together and
co-sign a loan.
[i] While my tone may seem to indicate otherwise I do not claim to have all
the answers on this and related topics. They’re tough complicated issues, but a
long time ago I realized the need to completely re-think many of these issues.
I’m often left
struggling in casual conversation when some of these issues come up. My
thinking on social issues like this and most political issues is so outside
convention I have almost no point of contact with the person on the street.
I’m often left assessing
whether the remarks or inquiries they make are merely casual or are they
actually interested in discussing something. Usually the former is true, and at
that point my goal is not to lecture them or enter into some kind of debate
they weren’t looking for but to just drop a little seed of something. Most of
the time people don’t pick up on it but sometimes someone will ponder the way
you word something and then if you see them again they may ask what you meant
by it. That’s always encouraging.
[ii] For example, if a couple have been living apart for more than ten
years, can we call that a marriage…in Biblical terms? The state may still
recognize them as married, but should the Church?
Or in another instance I
know of a couple who have been separated for again about ten years and yet the
one party is strongly anti-divorce and so won’t even entertain the idea. I
would argue in terms of the Bible…they’ve been divorced for years but the one
party cannot get over the state proclamation of their marital status.
[iii] You’ll
be hard pressed to find very many people who have even thought about it. It
becomes all the more confusing when many Christians believe the Kingdom is
wholly futuristic and in no way applicable to the present. What then are they
trying to accomplish? Is it merely Christian Nationalism? That’s even worse. At
least Sacralists are trying to formulate a Kingdom-construct based off a
misreading of the Old Testament and its relation to the New.
But those who aren’t thinking in Kingdom terms are engaged in naked idolatry, worshipping a man-made institution.
[iv] Not to mention the state’s requirements concerning by-laws, appointing
Trustees etc…
The Church has no
business allowing the state in any way whatsoever to define or create
categories for us. And where are we mandated to define them for Babylon or
Rome?
Pay the taxes or for
that matter….as far as the government is concerned what Church? A group of
people meeting somewhere is a meeting and nothing more. We have the right of
assembly. The state doesn’t need to know anything about it. It’s only when you
start down the path of buildings, and property, bank accounts and all the rest…
creating dilemmas we shouldn’t have in the first place.
I realize of course that
many will scoff at this. How are we going to build substantial churches under
the model I suggest? You’re not. I think these people are asking the wrong
questions and have the wrong model. Substance and greatness in the Kingdom of
God has nothing to do with numbers or architecture.
[v] This
is of course fundamentally different than probably 90% or more of the American
Church and certainly a stark contrast from the opinions of everyone ranging
from Rick Santorum to RJ Rushdoony.
[vi] To
think the unbeliever can somehow please God is to overthrow and cast down the
Cross of Christ. It exhibits a low view of sin, of righteousness and of the
antithesis created by the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. It is to
treat the commandments of God as something base and common.
[vii] Not
every couple needs to pry into every detail from the past. Not every couple
wants to discuss their pre-conversion lives. Not every couple needs to sit down
and submit their finances to a Church officer who in many cases may know
nothing about their circumstances. Not every Church officer has the ability to
discern these matters. Many Church officers and/or Counselors (Bible
reference?) have a very conventional view of finances. What if you reject the
social status quo? Are you going to let them tell you that you can’t afford to
get married because you won’t have the money to afford the right house, the two
cars, enough money for kid’s tuition and retirement?
And regarding a topic
for another time, I am quite hostile at attempts to employ psychological
testing and evaluation methodologies to determine things like compatibility.
If a Church wishes to
offer these ‘services’ then that’s one thing. But to mandate it? Does the
Church have that authority? If two people have credible professions and they
can answer some basic questions their elders might ask them concerning faith
and compatibility…can they be denied?
Again, there’s no hard
and fast rule. Two thirty year olds are going to be different than two eighteen
year olds. The elders can offer assistance, suggest, warn… but do they have the
power to forbid? If the two eighteen year old Christians wed….have they done
something wrong? They may be foolish…but is it sinful if they didn’t get the ‘approval’
of the elders?
[viii] And they are desperate to push these ideas. This is a crisis moment. I’ve
talked about this elsewhere, but I strongly believe they have arrived at the
make or break point. The younger generation is not on a Sacralist trajectory.
The older generation, the Falwell’s, D James Kennedy’s, and the Colson’s are
all dying off. They have plenty of adherents among the middle-aged population
but the youth is a different story. When I’m a senior citizen and the
Millennials are reaching middle age…then this whole Christian Right project
will be on the brink of collapse. The Boomers are now reaching the Senior
Citizen threshold. Their children (my generation) are less conservative and it
keeps going downhill with each generation.
The Sacralist Project is
going to fail. The demographics tell the story. That is unless they can pull
off a reversal…right now. This is their last chance. They’ve got to start
turning the tide and they know the time is short. They’ve maybe got a decade or
so to turn the politics around and to engage Generations X and Y in this whole
project or none of their activity is going matter.
Realizing this was also
an impetus for me to start writing. Thinkers like Colson realized this crisis
back in the 1990’s and for the past twenty years they have literally taken over
the Church in America. Transformationalism is the new orthodoxy. But they’re
frustrated because…
1.
So many of the
Church members don’t seem to get it and aren’t willing to engage with zeal.
And,
2.
They’re so far
behind the power curve when it comes to the culture that they know they’re in
trouble.
More than ever,
especially with all the new media possibilities they are pushing this agenda.
It’s on full throttle. I wanted to write to maybe reach a few people and help
to combat this pernicious error in whatever way I can.
[ix] And
our present economic collapse will also mean social workers will be less
empowered to harass and pursue our families. Sadly with the social downgrade
there are many domestic tragedies and while I never want to see children
removed…sometimes I must confess I don’t know what the answer is? Communities?
Our entire legal code would have to be changed for communities to be once more
empowered to intervene in lieu of social services. But considering the state of
people in general and our communities….do we want even that? In our area,
people think we’re pretty strange. I’m not sure I would want them to be legally
empowered to determine when to intervene. I don’t wear beer t-shirts and my
wife doesn’t walk around in shorts and a tank-top. We homeschool and my wife
stays home. We’re oddities, we’ve been labeled as ‘religious’ people. Do I want
these folks to be empowered? The fact that my kids don’t have mobile phones
probably indicates child abuse to many people.
In some ways the state
protects me from the community.
[x] There’s a tremendous growth in the realm of sexual abstinence taking
place in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Have the people suddenly rejected
fornication and adultery? Some do, but many are learning to control themselves
simply because AIDS is killing them. It’s not moral, it’s practical.
Fallen man can formulate
ideas of dignity and purity and shroud them in nationalism or whatever is convenient.
The possibilities are almost endless but none of these things last. Dynamism is
the only static principle when it comes to sociology.
[xi] If you're interested in seeing how homosexuals look at all this...this link has received quite a bit of attention. We can't agree with them, perhaps not even sympathize with them. But, like it or not, this is the way the Church is perceived and this is the message being conveyed.
[xii] Rightly called by some…welfare for the rich. Type in ‘list of United States Defense Contractors’ on Google or Wikipedia. It is an impressive list… and then consider how many people are invested in these companies.