Standpunt van die Kerkraad van Ned Geref Gemeente Secunda-Goedehoop
Die Kerkraad is oortuig van die Skriftuurlike beginsel dat ‘n huwelik die lewenslange verbintenis tussen een man en een vrou is en niks anders kan hierby gevoeg word nie. Sodanige huwelik word volgens normale prosedures voltrek.
Die Kerkraad is oortuig van die Skriftuurlike voorskrifte dat alle seksuele verhoudinge buite die huwelik verkeerd is en dat die beoefening van homoseksualiteit teen God se wil en plan is soos alle ander sondes waaroor die Skrif praat. Vir al hierdie sondes is daar vergifnis en verlossing deur Jesus Christus.
Die gemeente wil liggaam van Christus in Secunda wees en daarom is enige persoon welkom om hul verbintenis met Christus hier te kom uitleef.
Die Kerkraad is oortuig van die Christelike tug as ‘n kenmerk van die ware kerk.
Wanneer ‘n persoon in enige openlike sonde volhard sal hul met deernis daarop gewys word en dit kan meebring dat lidmaatskapvoorregte in die gedrang kom.
Die Kerkraad sal steeds toesien dat ampsdraers ‘n hoë sedelike lewenspeil handhaaf en dat die beginsels soos onder andere in 1 Tim 3:2 en Titus 1:6 toegepas word.
Ons glo dat die onvervalste evangelie steeds die antwoord is vir ‘n stukkende en gebroke wêreld. Die Kerkraad aanvaar sy verantwoordelikheid om toe te sien dat hierdie Evangelie suiwer verkondig word om vir alle mense genade, vergifnis en heling te bring.
Die Kerkraad maak hierdie verklaring graag bekend.
KERKRAAD
NED GEREF GEMEENTE SECUNDA-GOEDEHOOP
alwynduplessis said:
My persoonlike oortuiging dat kerkrade wat die 2015 besluit nie aanvaar nie se reg is om so te besluit Dankie tog ek is nie lid van daardie gemeentes nie Hulle klink so liefdeloos en gevoelloos
hierstaanek said:
Alwyn
1Johannes 1:10 sê dat as ons ons sonde ontken, is die waarheid nie in ons nie en maak ons God tot leuenaar. Wanneer ons ons sonde ontken is ons verlore. Jy beweer dit is liefde om vir iemand te sê sy sonde is nie sonde nie. God sê in sy Woord jy is verkeerd.
Jy stuur mense in die naam van liefde hel toe. God gaan JOU daarvoor verantwoordelik hou.
Henrietta Klaasing said:
“Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves – they shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves!” ou Engelse Halleluja-lied. Prys die Here.
Alwyn du Plessis said:
NEE Geensins Ek wil niemand op my gewete he nie Nie my bedoeling nie. Ek het so ‘n vae idee dat 99% van kerkraadslede weet nie waaroor dit gaa nie, Miskien moet ons meer lees en die Bybel begin reg lees. Sal help om die onmin uit die weg te ruim
Homosexuality and the Bible – by Walter Wink
(Professor of Biblical Interpretation, Auburn Theological Seminary, New York)
Sexual issues are tearing our churches apart today as never before. The issue of homosexuality threatens to fracture whole denominations, as the issue of slavery did a hundred and fifty years ago. We naturally turn to the Bible for guidance, and find ourselves mired in interpretative quicksand. Is the Bible able to speak to our confusion on this issue?
The debate over homosexuality is a remarkable opportunity, because it raises in an especially acute way how we interpret the Bible, not in this case only, but in numerous others as well. The real issue here, then is not simply homosexuality, but how Scripture informs our lives today.
Some passages that have been advanced as pertinent to the issue of homosexuality are, in fact, irrelevant. One is the attempted gang rape in Sodom (Gen. 19: 1-29). That was a case of ostensibly heterosexual males intent on humiliating strangers by treating them “like women” , thus demasculinizing them. (This is also the case in a similar account in Judges 19 – 21. Their brutal behaviour has nothing to do with the problem of whether genuine love expressed between consenting adults of the same sex is legitimate or not. Likewise Deut. 23: 17-18 must be pruned from the the list, since it most likely refers to a heterosexual prostitute involved in Canaanite fertility rites that have infiltrated Jewish worship; the King James Version inaccurately labeled him a “sodomite”.
Several other texts are ambiguous. It is not clear whether 1 Cor. 6:9 and 1 Tim. 1:10 refer to the “passive” and “active” partners in homosexual relationships, or to homosexual and heterosexual male prostitutes. In short, it is unclear whether the issue is homosexuality alone, or promiscuity and “sex for hire”.
UNEQUIVOCAL CONDEMNATIONS
Putting these texts to the side, we are left with three references, all of which unequivocally condemn homosexual behaviour. Lev. 18:22 states the principle: “You [masculine] shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination”. (NRSV). The second (Lev. 20:13) adds the penalty: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them”.
Such an act was regarded as an “abomination” for several reasons. The Hebrew prescientific understanding was that male semen contained the whole of nascent life. With no knowledge of eggs or ovulation, it was assumed that the woman provided only the incubating space. Hence the spilling of semen for any nonprocreative purpose – in coitus interruptus (Gen. 38:1-11), male homosexual acts, or male masturbation – was considered tantamount to abortion or murder. (Female homosexual acts were consequently not so seriously regarded, and are not mentioned at all in the Old Testament – but see Romans 1:26). One can appreciate how a tribe struggling to populate a country in which its people were outnumbered would value procreation highly, but such values are rendered questionable in a world facing uncontrolled overpopulation.
In addition, when a man acted like a woman sexually, male dignity was compromised. It was a degradation, not only in regard to himself, but for every other male. The patriarchalism of Hebrew culture shows its hand in the very formulation of the commandment, since no similar stricture was formulated to forbid homosexual acts between females. And the repugnance felt toward homosexuality was not just that it was deemed unnatural but also that it was considered un-Jewish, representing yet one more incursion of pagan civilization into Jewish life. On top of that is the more universal repugnance heterosexuals tend to feel for acts and orientations foreign to them (Left-handedness has evoked something of the same response in many cultures).
Whatever the rationale for their formulation, however, the texts leave no room for manoevring. Persons committing homosexual acts are to be executed. This is the unambiguous command of Scripture. The meaning is clear: anyone who wishes to base his or her beliefs on the witness of the Old Testament must be completely consistent and demand the death penalty for everyone who performs homosexual acts. (That may seem extreme, but there actually are some Christians urging this very thing today). It is unlikely that any American court will ever again condemn a homosexual to death, even though Scripture clearly commands it.
Old Testament texts have to be weighed against the New. Consequently, Paul’s unambiguous condemnation of homosexual behaviour in Romans 1:26-27 must be the centrepiece of any discussion.
“For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error”.
No doubt Paul was unaware of the distinction between sexual orientation, over which one has apparently very little choice, and sexual behaviour, over which one does. He seemed to assume that those whom he condemned were heterosexuals who were acting contrary to nature, “leaving”, “giving up”, or “exchanging” their regular sexual orientation for that which was foreign to them. Paul knew nothing of the modern psychosexual understanding of homosexuals as persons whose orientation is fixed early in life, or perhaps even genetically in some cases. For such persons, having heterosexual relations would be acting contrary to nature, “leaving”, “giving up” or “exchanging” their natural sexual orientation for one that was unnatural to them.
In other words, Paul really thought that those whose behaviour he condemned were “straight”, and that they were behaving in ways that were unnatural to them. Paul believed that everyone was straight. He had no concept of homosexual orientation. The idea was not available in his world. There are people that are genuinely homosexual by nature (whether genetically or as a result of upbringing no one really knows, and it is irrelevant). For such a person it would be acting contrary to nature to have sexual relations with a person of the opposite sex.
Likewise, the relationships Paul describes are heavy with lust; they are not relationships between consenting adults who are committed to each other as faithfully and with as much integrity as any heterosexual couple. That was something Paul simply could not envision. Some people assume today that venereal disease and AIDS are divine punishment for homosexual behaviour; we know it as a risk involved in promiscuity of every stripe, homosexual and heterosexual. In fact, the vast majority of people with AIDS the world around are heterosexuals. We can scarcely label AIDS a divine punishment, since nonpromiscuous lesbians are at almost no risk.
And Paul believes that homosexual behaviour is contrary to nature, whereas we have learned that it is manifested by a wide variety of species, especially (but not solely) under the pressure of overpopulation. It would appear then to be a quite natural mechanism for preserving species. We cannot, of course, decide human ethical conduct solely on the basis of animal behaviour or the human sciences, but Paul here is arguing from nature, as he himself says, and new knowledge of what is “natural” is therefore relevant to the case.
HEBREW SEXUAL MORES
Nevertheless, the Bible quite clearly takes a negative view of homosexual activity, in those few instances where it is mentioned at all. But this conclusion does not solve the problem of how we are to interpret Scripture today. For there are other sexual attitudes, practices and restrictions which are normative in Scripture but which we no longer accept as normative:
1. Old Testament law strictly forbids sexual intercourse during the seven days of the menstrual period (Lev. 18:19; 15: 19-24), and anyone in violation was to be “extirpated” or “cut off from their people” (kareth, Lev. 18:29); a term referring to execution by stoning, burning, strangling, or to flogging or expulsion; Lev. 15:24 omits this penalty. Today many people on occasion have intercourse during menstruation and think nothing of it. Should they be “extirpated”? The Bible says they should.
2. The punishment for adultery was death by stoning for both the man and the woman. (Deut. 22:22), but here adultery is defined by the marital status of the woman. In the Old Testament, a man could not commit adultery against his own wife; he could only commit adultery against another man by sexually using the other’s wife. And a bride who is found not to be a virgin is to be stoned to death (Deut. 22: 13-21), but male virginity at marriage is never even mentioned. It is one of the curiosities of the current debate on sexuality that adultery, which creates far more social havoc, is considered less “sinful” than homosexual activity. Perhaps this is because there are far more adulterers in our churches. Yet no one, to my knowledge, is calling for their stoning, despite the clear command of Scripture. And we ordain adulterers.
3. Nudity, the characteristic of paradise, was regarded in Judaism as reprehensible (2 Sam. 6:20; 10:4; Isa. 20:2-4; 47:3). When one of Noah’s sons beheld his father naked, he was cursed (Gen. 9:20-27). To a great extent this nudity taboo probably even inhibited the sexual intimacy of husbands and wives (this is still true of a surprising number of people reared in the Judeo-Christian tradition). We may not be prepared for nude beaches, but are we prepared to regard nudity in the locker room or at the old swimming hole or in the privacy of one’s home as an accursed sin? The Bible does.
4. Polygamy (many wives) and concubinage (a woman living with a man to whom she is not married) were regularly practised in the Old Testament. Neither is ever condemned by the New Testament (with the questionable exceptions of 1 Tim. 3:2, 12 and Titus 1:6). Jesus’ teaching about marital union in Mark 10: 6-8 is no exception, since he quotes Gen. 2:24 as this authority (the man and the woman will become “one flesh”), and this text was never understood in Israel as excluding polygamy. A man could become “one flesh” with more than one woman, through the act of sexual intercourse. We know from Jewish sources that polygamy continued to be practised within Judaism for centuries following the New Testament period. So if the Bible allowed polygamy and concubinage, why don’t we?
5. A form of polygamy was the Levirate marriage. When a married man in Israel died childless, his widow was to have intercourse with each of his brothers in turn until she bore him a male heir. Jesus mentions this custom without criticism (Mark 12: 18-27). I am not aware of any Christians who still obey this unambiguous commandment of Scripture. Why is this law ignored, and the one against homosexual behaviour preserved?
6. The Old Testament nowhere explicitly prohibits sexual relations between unmarried consenting heterosexual adults, as long as the woman’s economic value (bride price) is not compromised, that is to say, as long as she is not a virgin. There are poems in the Song of Songs that eulogise a love affair between two unmarried persons, though commentators have often conspired to cover up the fact with heavy layers of allegorical interpretation. In various parts of the Christian world, quite different attitudes have prevailed about sexual intercourse before marriage. In some Christian communities, proof of fertility (that is, pregnancy) was required for marriage. This was especially the case in farming areas where the inability to produce children/workers could mean economic hardship. Today, many single adults, the widowed, and the divorced are reverting to “biblical” practice, while others believe that sexual intercourse belong only within marriage. Both views are scriptural. Which is right?
7. The Bible virtually lacks terms for the sexual organs, being content with such euphemisms as “foot” or “thigh” for the genitals, and using other euphemisms to describe coitus, such as “he knew her”. Today most of us regard such language as “puritanical” and contrary to a proper regard for the goodness of creation. In short, we don’t follow Biblical practice.
8. Semen and menstrual blood rendered all who touched them unclean (Lev. 15: 16-24). Intercourse rendered one unclean until sundown; menstruation rendered the woman unclean for seven days. Today most people would regard semen and menstrual fluid as completely natural and only at times “messy”, not “unclean”.
9. Social regulations regarding adultery, incest, rape and prostitution are, in the Old Testament, determined largely by considerations of the males’ property rights over women. Prostitution was considered quite natural and necessary as a safeguard of the virginity of the unmarried and the property rights of husbands (Gen. 38:12-19; Josh. 2: 1-7). A man was not guilty of sin for visiting a prostitute, though the prostitute herself was regarded as a sinner. Paul must appeal to reason in attacking prostitution (1 Cor. 6: 12-20); he cannot lump it in the category of adultery (vs 9). Today we are moving, with great social turbulence and at a high but necessary cost, toward a more equitable, non-patriarchal set of social arrangements in which women are no longer regarded as the chattel of men. We are also trying to move beyond the double standard. Love, fidelity and mutual respect replace property rights. We have, as yet, made very little progress in changing the double standard in regard to prostitution,. As we leave behind patriarchal gender relations, what will we do with the patriarchalism in the Bible?
10. Jews were supposed to practice endogamy – that is, marriage within the twelve tribes of Israel. Until recently a similar rule prevailed in the American South, in laws against interracial marriage (miscegenation). We have witnessed, within the lifetime of many of us, the nonviolent struggle to nullify state laws against intermarriage and the gradual change in social attitudes toward interracial relationships. Sexual mores can alter quite radically even in a single lifetime.
11. The law of Moses allowed for divorce (Deut. 24: 1-4); Jesus categorically forbids it (Mark 10:1-12; Matt. 19:9 softens his severity). Yet many Christians, in clear violation of a command of Jesus, have been divorced. Why, then, do some of these very people consider themselves eligible for baptism, church membership, communion, and ordination, but not homosexuals? What makes the one so much greater a sin than the other, especially considering the fact that Jesus never even mentioned homosexuality but explicitly condemned divorce? Yet we ordain divorcees. Why not homosexuals?
12. The Old Testament regarded celibacy as abnormal, and I Tim. 4 1-3 calls compulsory celibacy a heresy. Yet the Catholic Church has made it mandatory for priests and nuns. Some Christian ethicists demand celibacy of homosexuals, whether they have a vocation for celibacy or not. But this legislates celibacy by category, not by divine calling. Others argue that since God made men and women for each other in order to be fruitful and multiply, homosexuals reject God’s intent in Creation. But this would mean that childless couples, single persons, priests and nuns would be in violation of God’s intention in their creation. Those who argue thus must explain why the Apostle Paul never married. And are they prepared to charge Jesus with violating the will of God by remaining single? Certainly heterosexual marriage is normal, else the race would die out. But it is not normative. God can bless the world through people who are married and through people who are single, and it is false to generalise from the marriage of most people to the marriage of everyone. In 1 Cor 7:7, Paul goes so far as to call marriage a “charisma”, or divine gift, to which not everyone is called He preferred that people remain as he was – unmarried. In an age of overpopulation, perhaps a gay orientation is especially sound ecologically!
13, In many other ways we have developed different norms from those explicitly laid down by the Bible. For example, “If men get into a fight with one another, and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, you shall cut off her hand; show no pity” (Deut. 25:11f). We, on the contrary, might very well applaud her for trying to save her husband’s life!
14. The Old and New Testaments both regarded slavery as normal and nowhere categorically condemned it. Part of that heritage was the use of female slaves, concubines and captives as sexual toys, breeding machines, or involuntary wives by their male owners, which 2 Sam. 5:13, Judges 19-21 and Num 31:18 permitted – and as many American slave owners did some 150 years ago, citing these and numerous other Scripture passages as their justification.
THE PROBLEM OF AUTHORITY
These cases are relevant to our attitude toward the authority of Scripture. They are not cultic prohibitions from the Holiness Code that are clearly superseded in Christianity, such as rules about eating shellfish or wearing clothes made of two different material. They are rules concerning sexual behaviour, and they fall among the moral commandments of Scripture. Clearly we regard certain rules, especially in the Old Testament, as no longer binding. Other things we regard as binding, including legislation in the Old Testament that is not mentioned at all in the New. What is our principle of selection here?
For example, virtually all modern readers would agree with the Bible in rejecting:
incest
rape
adultery
intercourse with animals
But we disagree with the Bible on most other sexual mores. The Bible condemned the following behaviour which we generally allow:
intercourse during menstruation
celibacy
exogamy (marriage with non-Jews)
naming sexual organs
nudity (under certain conditions)
masturbation (some Christians still condemn this)
birth control (some Christians still forbid this)
And the Bible regarded semen and menstrual blood as unclean, which most of us do not. Likewise, the Bible permitted behaviours that we today condemn:
prostitution
polygamy
levirate marriage
sex with slaves
concubinage
treatment of women as property
very early marriage for the girl i.e. age 11 to 13
And while the Old Testament accepted divorce, Jesus forbade it. In short, of the sexual mores mentioned here, we only agree with the Bible on four of them, and disagree with it on sixteen!
Surely no one today would recommend reviving the Levirate marriage. So why do we appeal to proof texts in Scripture in the case of homosexuality alone, when we feel perfectly free to disagree with Scripture regarding most other sexual practices? Obviously many of our choices in these matters are arbitrary. Mormon polygamy was outlawed in this country, despite the constitutional protection of freedom of religion, because it violated the sensibilities of the dominant Christian culture. Yet no explicit biblical prohibition against polygamy exists.
If we insist on placing ourselves under the old law, as Paul reminds us, we are obligated to keep every commandment of the law (Gal. 5:3). But if Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4), if we have been discharged from the law to serve, not under the old written code but in the new ife of the Spirit (Rom. 7:6), then all of these biblical sexual mores come under the authority of the Spirit. We cannot then take even what Paul himself says as a new Law. Christians reserve the right to pick and choose which sexual mores they will observe, though they seldom admit to doing just that. And this is as true of evangelicals and fundamentalists as it is of liberals and mainliners.
JUDGE FOR YOURSELVES
The crux of the matter, it seems to me, is simply that the Bible has no sexual ethic. There is no Biblical sex ethic. Instead, it exhibits a variety of sexual mores, some of which changed over the thousand year span of biblical history. Mores are unreflective customs accepted by a given community. Many of the practices that the Bible prohibits, we allow, and many that it allows, we prohibit. The Bible knows only a love ethic, which is constantly being brought to bear on whatever sexual mores are dominant in any given country, or culture, or period.
The very notion of a “sex ethic” reflects the materialism and splitness of modern life, in which we increasingly define our identity sexually. Sexuality cannot be separated off from the rest of life. No sex act is “ethical” in and of itself, without reference to the rest of a person’s life, the patterns of the culture, the special circumstances faced, and the will of God. What we have are simply sexual mores, which change, sometimes with startling rapidity, creating bewildering dilemmas. Just within one lifetime we have witnessed the shift from the ideal of preserving one’s virginity until marriage, to couples living together for several years before getting married. The response of many Christians is merely to long for the hypocrisies of an earlier era.
I agree that rules and norms are necessary; that is what sexual mores are. But rules and norms also tend to be impressed into the service of the Domination system, and to serve as a form of crowd control rather than to enhance the fullness of human potential. So we must critique the sexual mores of any given time and clime by the love ethic exemplified by Jesus. Defining such a love ethic is not complicated. It is non-exploitative (hence no sexual exploitation of children, no using of another to their loss), it does not dominate (hence no patriarchal treatment of women as chattel), it is responsible, mutual, caring, and loving. Augustine already dealt with this in his inspired phrase, “Love God, and do as you please”.
Our moral task, then, is to apply Jesus’ love ethic to whatever sexual mores are prevalent in a given culture. This doesn’t mean everything goes. It means that everything is to be critiqued by Jesus’ love commandment. We might address younger teens, not with laws and commandments whose violation is a sin, but rather with the sad experiences of so many of our own children who find too much early sexual intimacy overwhelming, and who react by voluntary celibacy and even the refusal to date. We can offer reasons, not empty and unenforceable orders. We can challenge both gays and straights to question their behaviour in the light of love and the requirement of fidelity, honesty, responsibility, and genuine concern for the best interests of the other and of society as a whole.
Christian morality, after all, is not an iron chastity belt for repressing urges, but a way of expressing the integrity of our relationship with God. It is the attempt to discover a manner of living that is consistent with who God created us to be. For those of same-sex orientation, as for heterosexuals, being moral means rejecting sexual mores that violate their own integrity and that of others, and attempting to discover what it would mean to live by the love ethic of Jesus.
Morton Kelsey goes so far as to argue that homosexual orientation has nothing to do with morality, any more than left handedness. It is simply the way some people’s sexuality is configured. Morality enters the picture when that predisposition is enacted. If we saw it as a God given gift to those for whom it is normal, we could get beyond the acrimony and brutality that have so often characterised the unchristian behaviour of Christians toward gays.
Approached from the point of view of love rather than that of law, the issue is at once transformed. Now the question is not “What is permitted?” but rather “What does it mean to love my homosexual neighbour?” Approached from the point of view of faith rather than works, the question ceases to be “What constitutes a breach of divine law in the sexual realm?” and becomes instead, “What constitutes integrity before the God revealed in the cosmic lover, Jesus Christ?” Approached from the point of view of the Spirit rather than the letter, the question ceases to be “What does Scripture command?” and becomes “What is the Word that the Spirit speaks to the churches, now, in the light of Scripture, tradition, theology, and, yes, psychology, genetics, anthropology, and biology?” We can’t continue to build ethics on the basis of bad science.
In a little-remembered statement, Jesus said “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12:57 NRSV). Such sovereign freedom strikes terror in the hearts of many Christians; they would rather be under law and be told what is right. Yet Paul himself echoes Jesus’ sentiment when he says, “Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, matters pertaining to this life!” (1 Cor. 6:3 RSV). The last thing Paul would want is for people to respond to this ethical advice as a new law engraved on tablets of stone. He is himself trying to “judge for himself what is right”. If now new evidence is in on the phenomenon of homosexuality, are we not obligated – no, free – to re-evaluate the whole issue in the light of all the available data and decide what is right, under God, for ourselves? Is this not the radical freedom for obedience in which the Gospel establishes us?
Where the Bible mentions homosexual behaviour at all, it clearly condemns it. I freely grant that. The issue is precisely whether that Biblical judgment is correct. The Bible sanctioned slavery as well, and nowhere attacked it as unjust. Are we prepared to argue today that slavery is biblically justified? One hundred and fifty years ago, when the debate over slavery was raging, the Bible seemed to be clearly on the slaveholders’ side. Abolitionists were hard pressed to justify their opposition to slavery on Biblical grounds. Yet today, if you were to ask Christians in the South whether the Bible sanctions slavery, virtually everyone would agree that it does not. How do we account for such a monumental shift?
What happened is that the churches were finally driven to penetrate beyond the legal tenor of Scripture to an even deeper tenor, articulated by Israel out of the experience of the Exodus and the prophets and brought to sublime embodiment in Jesus’ identification with harlots, tax collectors, the diseased and maimed and outcast and poor. It is that God sides the the powerless. God liberates the oppressed. God suffers with the suffering and groans toward the reconciliation of all things. In the light of that supernal compassion, whatever our position on gays, the gospel’s imperative to love, care for, and be identified with their sufferings is unmistakably clear.
In the same way, women are pressing us to acknowledge the sexism and patriarchalism that pervades Scripture and has alienated so many women from the church. The way out, however, is not to deny the sexism in Scripture, but to develop an interpretive theory that judges even Scripture in the light of the revelation in Jesus. What Jesus gives us is a critique of domination in all its forms, a critique that can be turned on the Bible itself. The Bible thus contains the principles of its own correction. We are freed from Bibliolatry, the worship of the Bible. It is restored to its proper place as witness to the Word of God. And that Word is a Person, not a book.
With the interpretive grid provided by a critique of domination, we are able to filter out the sexism, patriarchalism, violence, and homophobia that are very much a part of the Bible, thus liberating it to reveal to us in fresh ways the inbreaking, in our time, of God’s domination free order.
AN APPEAL FOR TOLERANCE
What most saddens me in this whole raucous debate in the churches is how sub-Christian most of it has been. It is characteristic of our time that the issues most difficult to assess, and which have generated the greatest degree of animosity, are issues on which the Bible can be interpreted as supporting either side. I am referring to abortion and homosexuality.
We need to take a few steps back and be honest with ourselves. I am deeply convinced of the rightness of what I have said in this essay. But I must acknowledge that it is not an air tight case. You can find weaknesses in it, just as I can in others’. The truth is, we are not given unequivocal guidance in either area, abortion or homosexuality. Rather than tearing at each others’ throats, therefore, we should humbly admit our limitation. How do I know I am correctly interpreting God’s word for us today? How do you? Wouldn’t it be wiser for Christians to lower the decibels by 95 percent and quietly present our beliefs, knowing full well that we might be wrong?
I know of a couple, both well known Christian authors their own right, who have both spoken out on the issue of homosexuality. She supports gays, passionately; he opposes their behaviour, strenuously. So far as I can tell, this couple still enjoy each other’s company eat at the same table, and for all I know, sleep in the same bed.
We in the Church need to get our priorities straight. We have not reached a consensus about who is right on the issue of homosexuality. But what is clear, utterly clear, is that we are commanded to love one another. Love no just our gay sisters and brothers who are often sitting beside us, unacknowledged, in church, but all of us who are involved in this debate. These are issues about which we should amiably agree to disagree. We don’t have to tear whole denominations to shreds in order to air our differences on this point. If that couple I mentioned can continue to embrace across this divide, surely we can do so as well.
hierstaanek said:
Alwyn moet asb nie weer hele boeke hierin katenpyst nie.
Ek gaan dit los tot more en dan verwyder.
Ek kan elkeen van die punte antwoord.
Maar die groot en oonoorbrugbare kloof is hoe ons die Bybel sien. Hierdie boek wat jy hier ingeplak het pleeg postmoderne dekonstruksie van die Bybel.
“Genre” kan definieer word as ‘n teks se interne hermeneutiese reëls waarvolgens die teks uitgelê moet word. Jy sal nie poësie uitlê as ‘n wetenskaplike verhandeling nie, sal jy? Net soos genre, is ‘n teks se interne epistemologie ook ‘n stel hermeneutiese reëls vir die uitleg van die teks. Jy kan nie met n eksterne epistemologie na ‘n teks gaan nie.
Jy kan nie die Bybel postmodern dekonstrueer nie, jy pleeg geweld teen die teks.
Petrus said:
Om aan te sluit by Wynand, Alwyn hoop jy kan hiedie lees en sien tot watter ekstreme die liberales sal gaan om God se woord te verdraai..
hierstaanek said:
Dankie Petrus, dit is baie waardevol. Dit is skrikwekkend hoeveel NG teoloê op dié kar is.
koosvannermerwe said:
Alwyn, ek sal graag wil reageer op hierdie slim professor se woorde…
Hy begin redelik vroeg met die volgende vraag:”The real issue here, then is not simply homosexuality, but how Scripture informs our lives today.”
En ek stem honder persent met hierdie stelling saam… Kierkegaard het die volgende gesê:”The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any word in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. ‘My God,’ you will say, ‘if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world?’ Here in lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.” – Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Søren Kierkegaard, ed. Charles E. Moore (Farmington, PA: Plough, 2002), p.201.
Hier is die hoof punt van sy hele betoog. As ons in die finale instansie op grond van ons eie insig besluit watter dele van die Bybel ons sal aanvaar en wat ons gaan verwerp, dan het ons in effek onsself bo God geplaas… ek sal self besluit wat ek gaan gehoorsaam en wat ek sal glo. Dit is nie die uitgangspunt van myself doelbewus aan die Woord van God te onderwerp met die ingesteldheid dat ek gehoorsaam sal wees, of ek nou daarvan hou of nie.
Net ‘n paar verdere opmerkings:
“Likewise Deut. 23: 17-18 must be pruned from the the list, since it most likely refers to a heterosexual prostitute involved in Canaanite fertility rites that have infiltrated Jewish worship; the King James Version inaccurately labeled him a “sodomite”.” En vir hierdie hele siening is daar nie ‘n enkele stukkie getuienis nie. Waarom sal dit dan nou juis ‘n heteroseksuele prostituut wees wat verkies om aan homoseksuele dade deel te neem? Dat dit deel was van die Kanaänitiese godsdiens geld wel, maar hulle het ook hul kinders geoffer vir hulle gode en vroulike tempel-prostitute gehad… wat net so skerp veroordeel word in die Torah. M.a.w. dit is verkeerd, of dit nou gekoppel is aan die Kanaänietiese godsdiens of nie (dink maar aan aborsie op aanvraag vandag).
“Such an act was regarded as an “abomination” for several reasons.” Die redes waarom die Israeliete dit as ‘n gruwel sou beskou is irrelevant tot die punt of God dit as ‘n gruwel beskou. En weereens word dit nêrens in die Skrif gesê dat dit die redes sou wees waarom dit verkeerd is nie. ” coitus interruptus (Gen. 38:1-11), male homosexual acts, or male masturbation – was considered tantamount to abortion or murder” – En weereens is daar geen Skriftuurlike bewys vir hierdie stelling nie. Masturbasie word nêrens in die Bybel direk aangespreek nie. En coitus interruptus word nie aangespreek in Genesis 38 nie; eerder die feit dat die broer onwillig was om ‘n erfgenaam vir sy broer te verwek soos wat sy plig was.
“No doubt Paul was unaware of the distinction between sexual orientation, over which one has apparently very little choice, and sexual behaviour, over which one does.” Dit lyk juis nie vir my so nie…. want iemand wat oorgegee is aan “degrading passions” impliseer juis dat die persoon hom-/haarself nie langer kan help nie. En terloops, dit is ook waar vir vele ander sondes, soos pornografie-verslawing of alkoholisme. Dat alkoholisme nêrens in die Bybel as sulks aangespreek word nie, maar alleen die daad van dronk word, beteken nie dat alkoholisme nou reg is nie. Ek kan presies dieselfde argumente gebruik as wat hier en elders gebruik word om te sê dat die “dronk word van wyn” van die Bybel nie oor alkoholisme gaan nie. ‘n Alkoholis word so gebore of het minstens genetiese faktore wat ‘n rol speel daarin dat iemand verslaaf raak aan drank… maak dit dit nou skielik reg?
“Likewise, the relationships Paul describes are heavy with lust; they are not relationships between consenting adults who are committed to each other as faithfully and with as much integrity as any heterosexual couple.” Weereens ‘n stelling sonder enige getuienis. Die verhouding tussen Alexander die Grote en sy beste vriend Hephaestion (wat deur baie geskiedskrywers as homoseksueel beskou word) was ook een van “consenting adults who are committed to each other” en sulke lang-termyn homoseksuele verhoudings was welbekend in Paulus se tyd.
“And Paul believes that homosexual behaviour is contrary to nature, whereas we have learned that it is manifested by a wide variety of species, especially (but not solely) under the pressure of overpopulation.” Maar Paulus verwys na die natuur van die mens. Daar was nooit ‘n siening dat die gedrag van ander spesies (wat in elk geval nie iets soos die huwelik het nie) enigsins ter sprake is nie.
“Today many people on occasion have intercourse during menstruation and think nothing of it. Should they be “extirpated”? The Bible says they should.” Dat baie mense dit doen maak dit nog nie reg nie. Meer nog, die wette oor reineid was spesifiek van toepassing i.v.m. die tempeldiens, die kom in die teenwoordigheid van God by die fisiese tempel, iets wat verbode was tydens tye van onreinheid. Dit het niks met sonde te doen nie. “And we ordain adulterers.” Iemand wat in egbreuk voortleef kan onmoontlik nie geördineer word nie. Dit vertel eerder vir my hoe ver die Westerse kerk agteruit gegaan het as om enige morele regverdiging vir egbreuk te vorm.
“but are we prepared to regard nudity in the locker room or at the old swimming hole or in the privacy of one’s home as an accursed sin? The Bible does.” Nee, dit doen nie! Dit word nêrens verbied nie. Dit was bloot ‘n kulturele sienswyse van die Hebreërs, maar word nêrens in die Bybel as “an accursed sin” beskryf nie!
“So if the Bible allowed polygamy and concubinage, why don’t we?” Dit is bloot ‘n kulturele siening van ons kultuur. Ek sien bv. geen rede waarom die Bybel se leer sou beteken dat iemand wat uit ‘n swart kultuur tot bekering sou kom en meer as een vrou had, na sy bekering enige van sy vrouens hoef te skei nie. Dit word wel gestel dat iemand met meer as een vrou nie in leierskap-posisies in die kerk toegelaat word nie.
“his widow was to have intercourse with each of his brothers in turn until she bore him a male heir”… Nee en nee! Sy moes dan trou met een van die broers (nie met elke broer om die beurt nie)! En die kind sou dan die erfgenaam van die broer wat gesterf het, wees. Dit hou spesifiek verband met die land van Israel en die erf van die grondgebied. So daar is geen manier waarop dit op Christene toegepas kan word nie (tensy ons dan ook almal moet emigreer na die land van Israel).
“There are poems in the Song of Songs that eulogise a love affair between two unmarried persons”… Hooglied gebruik spesifiek die terme “bruid” en “bruidegom”, so hoe hy by die “love affair between two unmarried persons” uitkom asof dit losbandigheid sou goedpraat, weet ek nie.
“Today most of us regard such language as “puritanical” and contrary to a proper regard for the goodness of creation. In short, we don’t follow Biblical practice.” Weereens gaan dit oor die Israelitiese kultuur van die tyd eerder as oor enige Bybelse opdrag. En dit is natuurlik glad nie te sê dat ons eie kulturele gebruike enigsins beter is nie!
“Social regulations regarding adultery, incest, rape and prostitution are, in the Old Testament, determined largely by considerations of the males’ property rights over women.” As dit waar is, waarom was daar dan juis die opdrag dat beide die man en die vrou gestenig moes word as hulle seksueel oortree het? “Prostitution was considered quite natural and necessary as a safeguard of the virginity of the unmarried and the property rights of husbands (Gen. 38:12-19; Josh. 2: 1-7)” Regtig?? Gen.38:26 “Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I”. Nêrens in die Bybel word prostitusie toegelaat of goedgepraat nie. Dat Ragab die prostituut/hoer deel van Israel kon word, het te doen met haar geloof in die God van Israel wat hulle die oorwinning sou gee (en daarom het sy die verspieders weggesteek) eerder as enige goedkeuring van prostitusie as sulks. Inteendeel, prostitusie deur die Israeliete word juis verbied (Lev.19:29).
“Yet we ordain divorcees. Why not homosexuals?” Weereens maak die feit dat ons as kerk Jesus se opdragte oortree, dit hoegenaamd nie reg nie. Daar is die bykomende faktor dat die geskeide sy sonde kan bely en laat staan (net soos die homoseksueel), maar dat hy nie kan voortleef in egbreuk en dan nog in die bediening kan staan nie.
“Part of that heritage was the use of female slaves, concubines and captives as sexual toys, breeding machines, or involuntary wives by their male owners”. Ja? “…om … met Gíbea-Benjamin te handel volgens die skanddaad wat hy in Israel begaan het.” (Rigt.20:10). Dit word hoegenaamd nie goedgepraat of aanvaar nie!
“But we disagree with the Bible on most other sexual mores. The Bible condemned the following behaviour which we generally allow:
intercourse during menstruation – Is ons reg as ons dit toelaat?
celibacy – Word nie in die Bybel verbied nie, al wat verbied word is wette wat mense verbied om te trou.
exogamy (marriage with non-Jews) – En trou met nie-gelowiges word wel nog verbied in die Nuwe Testament
naming sexual organs – Geen wet nie, bloot die Bybelse kulturele gebruik
nudity (under certain conditions) – Word nie verbied nie, is wel as ‘n skande beskou
masturbation (some Christians still condemn this) – Word nêrens direk in die Bybel genoem nie
birth control (some Christians still forbid this) – Word nêrens in die Bybel genoem nie”
“And the Bible regarded semen and menstrual blood as unclean, which most of us do not. (Nie van toepassing nie, want ons hoef nie rein te wees vir ‘n aardse tempeldiens nie). Likewise, the Bible permitted behaviours that we today condemn:
prostitution – Word verbied in die Bybel ten spyte van wat hy hier sê
polygamy – Is bloot ons kulturele vooroordeel (en landswette), maar is nie noodwendig ontoelaatbaar nie.
levirate marriage – Gaan oor erfreg van die land Israel, so bloot nie van toepassing nie
sex with slaves – Nie van toepassing nie. As ‘n Israeliet met ‘n slavin seks sou hê, moes hy met haar trou en volledig as sy vrou behandel.
concubinage – Weereens bloot ‘n kulturele gebruik wat met erfreg te doen had (die byvrou se kinders sou nie volle erfreg hê soos ‘n “regte” vrou nie).
treatment of women as property – Dit is uiters betwisbaar dat vrouens as eiendom beskou is, en is eerder ‘n lees in die teks van vooropgestelde idees.
very early marriage for the girl i.e. age 11 to 13 – Weereens moontlik ‘n kulturele gebruik van die tyd, maar nie iets wat die Bybel uitdruklik aanspreek nie; inteendeel nêrens in die Bybel word ouderdomme van 11 tot 13 genoem nie…”
“The crux of the matter, it seems to me, is simply that the Bible has no sexual ethic.” Nou moet ek eerlik sê dat dit ‘n uiters selektiewe lees van die Bybel kos om tot só ‘n gevolgtrekking te kom. As Paulus sê (1 Kor.6:10-11): “Moenie dwaal nie! Geen hoereerders of afgodedienaars of egbrekers of wellustelinge of sodomiete of diewe of gierigaards of dronkaards of kwaadsprekers of rowers sal die koninkryk van God beërwe nie. En dit was sommige van julle; maar julle het jul laat afwas, maar julle is geheilig, maar julle is geregverdig in die Naam van die Here Jesus en deur die Gees van onse God.” dan is 4 uit die 10 tipes sondes wat hy noem, juis seksueel van aard. Om dus te beweer dat die Bybel geen seksuele etiek het nie, is om in effek te beweer dat die Bybel geen etiek het nie, geen reg en verkeerd nie. En dít is nie wat ons in die Bybel vind nie. Jesus se boodskap (en die van sy volgelinge) was juis “Bekeer julle en glo die goeie nuus” (Mark.1:15), “bekering en vergifnis van sondes” (Luk.24:47). So, as daar geen sondes was om van te bekeer of wat vergewe hoef te word nie, waarom is Hy dan Jesus genoem (wat Sy volk van hulle sondes sou verlos) (Matt.1:21)? Wat was daar dan om van verlos te word en vergewe te word?
“Just within one lifetime we have witnessed the shift from the ideal of preserving one’s virginity until marriage, to couples living together for several years before getting married.” En maak dit dit enigsins reg omdat dit is wat nou in ons kultuur aanvaarbaar is? Het God se wil verander? Het God verander? Om Jesus dan totaal buite konteks aan te haal asof Hy bedoel het dat ons maar self kan besluit wat reg en verkeerd is, is bloot moedswillig.
Nee, Alwyn, Walter Wink het reeds besluit dat ons die reg het om te besluit tot watter mate ons die Here sal gehoorsaam. Soos die Fariseërs en Rabbis het hy reeds uitgewerk hoe ons die opdragte van die Here kan omseil. Om voor te gee dat liefde nie mense met hul eie sondigheid sal konfronteer nie, ontken hy basies die grondbeginsels van die evangelie. Hierdie is nie maar net ‘n klein verskilletjie in opinie of Skrif-interpretasie nie. Hy self erken dat homoseksuele dade uitdruklik verbied word deur die Skrif. Maar dan doen hy sy bes om te probeer wys waarom ons nie na die Skrif hoef te luister nie. “Where the Bible mentions homosexual behaviour at all, it clearly condemns it. I freely grant that. The issue is precisely whether that Biblical judgment is correct.” As ons aanvaar dat dit God self was wat die Woord geïnspireer het, dan is daar net een antwoord hierop: natuurlik onderwerp ek myself aan wat Hy sê in die Bybel. As ek inteendeel besluit dat ek self kan kies en keur watter dele van die Bybel ek gaan aanvaar en wat nie, waarom dan nog die moeite doen om myself ‘n volgeling van Jesus Christus te noem?
hierstaanek said:
Dankie Koos
Die goed is so ooglopend twak mens is nie eers lus om kommentaar te lewer nie. Kierkegaard is spot on.
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