This morning, a man named Bruce Waltke came to Chapel as a guest speaker. He is - if I recall correctly - in his 80s; he has white hair; he has a slightly hunched stature; he mumbles a bit; he was there with his wife, and they are an adorable couple. He is also incredibly intelligent, incredibly scholarly, and very interesting to listen to. He was one of the translators of the NIV Bible, and has doctorates in both Hebrew and Greek. His knowledge of Scripture is incredible - as might be presumed - and it was a blessing to hear him speak.
At one point, he was explaining what goes into interpretation and why the struggle between loose and strict interpretation is so difficult. He talked a bit about inclusive language, and about the interpretation of words that don't exist in English. Then he began to explain the dangers of eisegesis and gave an example of the way today's Church seems to be letting culture take precedent over the authority of the Bible. What followed was a relatively nuanced, well-developed, and surprisingly lengthy schpeel about the wrongfulness of homosexuality. (Apparently a bunch of my friends all turned to each other to whisper that I'd be so pissed that I'd go talk to him about it afterward... Sigh. And I try so hard to improve my reputation.) I'm not going to pretend it's a flawless argument. I could give long speeches on all the holes in it and exactly why I disagree with the whole thing. But as far as arguments go, it's one of the better, cleaner ones I've seen built on the premise that gays can't reproduce.
I was genuinely excited after having heard it, and went up to him afterward to make sure I understood all his points well enough to reproduce them. We had a lovely conversation in which he explained his points, here brining in Kant as warrant for his argument. As he was finishing up, Nick came up and stood by me; Mrs. Imam was standing next to me and brought up the topic of college. Nick and I are going to Calvin College next year, and Calvin's famous for producing brilliant theologians and philosophers. (Namely, the Plantingas.) Mr. Waltke's advice to us was this: "Be good protestants." Always remember that you have no pope, and your authorities are not God. Read the Bible for yourself. Research for yourself. Interpret for yourself. And always feel free to disagree with me (to which Nick promptly replied, of course, "I refuse!" Mr. Waltke chuckled, but only after a moment's hesitation). I wonder how he'd have reacted if he knew exactly how fitting that conclusion was to my place in the conversation.
The following is his argument, reproduced directly after the above in the time I should have been using to do Algebra.
There are three stages to the process of accepting homosexuality:
1) Endure: the Church recognizes its existence as something plainly wrong and simply regards it as another of the many ways our sinful nature harms society.
2) Pity: members within the Church gradually develop sympathies, coming to understand more and feel sorry for people affected by this harm.
3) Accept: the Church outrightly affirms the benevolence of homosexuality in compliance with culture instead of the Bible.
Three reasons this progression is terrible:
a) Violation toward humanity
It's contrary to the survival of the human species to condone homosexuality from a Kantian framework because it's not sustainable (you can cx that to the other three points, it's all categorical imperative). If everyone - or even a majority - of people are gay, then the human race dies out. Thus, homosexuality violates a basic principle of humanity (survival) and cannot be natural.
b) Violation towards God
God is Life. He gives life, and he renews life. Anything we do that is fail to edify life dishonors God. Because it is impossible for a gay couple to reproduce and married relationships are holy, they don't honor God the way married relationships were intended to.
c) Violation toward soceity
Gay people are "parasitic" to soceity because they spend their whole childhood and young adulthood leeching the life and energy out of their parents, but then they don't complete the cycle by passing on that life to their children. So not only does homosexuality stunt humanity and insult God, but it also actively harms soceity by failing to provide a way for God's cycle of renewal to continue.
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