Where does sexual anarchy lead? Look to Europe's incest & polygamy legislative initiatives

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CATHOLIC SCHOOL FIRES TEACHER OVER SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, I want to take you to a story out of LifeSite News. It emanates from Saint Peter and Paul Catholic School in Miami. A first-grade teacher, Jocelyn Morffi, decided she would go off one weekend and marry her lesbian partner. When she returned to school the following week, she was immediately fired.

Harry, is this a story of discrimination or is this a story of a church standing up for its tenets and its beliefs?

DR. REEDER: Well, what we have here is a Roman Catholic school that’s under the Roman Catholic Church that is governed by Roman Catholic teaching and Roman Catholic teaching, at this point in time, continues to confirm historic and Biblical ethics concerning sexuality — that, namely, sex is a gift from God and it is to be exercised in the context of a marriage and marriage is between one man and one woman, a covenantal relationship for life.

SCHOOLS MAKE CONTRACT CLAUSES THAT DICTATE SEXUAL MORALITY

As a Roman Catholic church, they are saying that their teachers must abide by the Roman Catholic teaching because you not only teach with what you say, but you teach by what you do and how you live and that is important in terms of those who are mentoring children at an impressionable age.

Therefore, they have taken certain positions and one of those is you sign in your contract an agreement that you will abide by the Roman Catholic teaching. The bishop over the diocese, two years ago I believe it was, had issued an order of clarification — or a communication of clarification — in light of the Obergefell Decision that they will continue to hold to their morals clause in your contract.

It will be immediate dismissal if sexual promiscuity — that is, heterosexual practice outside of a marriage — or homosexual practice — the unnatural acts of homosexuality — even though there is the right to marry someone that, if you engage in a same-sex marriage or in same-sex relationships — that that is all grounds for dismissal so they made that abundantly clear.

WHEN TEACHERS DEFY THOSE CLAUSES, PARENTS AND STUDENTS ARE CAUGHT IN MIDDLE

For whatever reason, this teacher decided to challenge that and then went to social media — so it was all out, “What is the Roman Catholic Church going to do?” Well, immediately, they said, “We have stated very clearly that, when these violations occur, there will be an immediate dismissal,” and so they dismissed the teacher and communicated that to the parents.

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, the response from the parents was mixed. Some were upset that she was let go, while others thought that it was a wise choice. One father of a student says, “What she does in the privacy of her home is her business and should not affect her employment.”

DR. REEDER: The patent absurdity of that statement is just overwhelming. It wouldn’t take long to analyze it. I could name, off the top of my head, about five things she might be doing in the privacy of her home and he would say, “Oh my goodness, if she’s doing that, she can’t teach my child.”

It’s just that, the violation of Biblical sexuality or a sexual ethic that preserves the sanctity of sex within a marriage between a man and a woman, he thinks that’s up for grabs. People say things like that because that’s the bumper sticker statement that you say. The drive of the cultural elite is to take us back to the pagan days of barbarianism where there are no boundaries of sexuality and, therefore, sexuality is a matter of one’s personal gratification.

EUROPE SHOWS THAT POLYAMORY AND POLYGAMY LOGICALLY FOLLLOW

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, there’s not only a slippery slope — we’re halfway down the slope. There was an article in Christianity Today this week by David Robertson: “Polyamory and Polygamy — the Next Big Social Change.”

DR. REEDER: Europe — and England in particular — who, when they went to same-sex marriage some time ago, said, “Now, listen, our commitment to redefining marriage, that it’s same-sex…” And it’s absurd because marriage is a covenantal, heterosexual, monogamous, conjugal relationship that’s within the bounds of a covenant. Same-sex marriage cannot meet those definitions of marriage, so they said, “Well, we’re going to redefine marriage as, basically, a social contract. We don’t want to stand in the way of people fulfilling their love desires.”

IS GOD LOVE OR IS “LOVE” A FALSE GOD?

The glorious truth is that God is love, but the despicable perversion of that is that LOVE is God — that is, “Whatever I think is love becomes the god of my life and I do what I want to in the name of that love.”

Well, the reality is that you cannot do what you want to without experiencing the consequences. And one of the consequences is, once you take the Biblical definition of love that emanates from God and that is laid down in the parameters of Biblical sexuality as a part of true love, then what happens is you go to that slippery slope. When you move to same-sex marriage, you’re not only on a slippery slope, you’re putting the water on the slippery slope.

Sure enough, what they said would never happen is now being promoted by legislative action, being contemplated — legislative action that is also considering the fact of removing incest. In other words, if it is two consenting adults, whether they are familialy related or not should not matter in the new redefinition.

“Why get in the way of someone wanting to gratify themselves with a close relative in the context of family? Why get in the way of that?” And polyamory and polygamy and all of that, obviously, comes with such notions. There is Europe, there is England and, of course, American culture seems to follow on a 10 to 15-year trajectory right behind it.

EVANGELICAL CHURCH LOSING TRACTION, NEEDS TO ARISE

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, where is the evangelical church on this slippery slope?

DR. REEDER: Well, it’s absent in Europe — it has lost its voice, it has lost its commitment to teach and preach the whole counsel of God, it has lost its ability to enter into the public square except for wonderful examples as David Robertson, whom you were quoting, and his response to this movement.

And, by the way, as he noted, the Scottish parliament is leading the way. My goodness, the nation that has known so many revivals is now so empty of a Christian witness that it is leading the way. It’s even further down the slope of sexual anarchy than England, itself, and so he is raising the voice.

However, the reality is, whether it’s in Europe or whether it’s in America, the church of Jesus Christ has lost its ability, first of all, to infiltrate such a society with the witness of Biblical Christianity that is both verbally proclaimed, calling men and women away from sin to Christ.

Our Christianity today is calling men and women to Jesus, “Your drive to make it all about yourself is misplaced. Come to Jesus and he’ll make it all about you.” No, Jesus calls you to Himself to die to yourself and there is your joy that He becomes your joy. And, when you then die to yourself so that it’s not all about you, but all about Him, that actually becomes the life that is worth living, the life that brings joy.

And that witness then moves into a community as salt and light — salt to penetrate the community, light which dispels the darkness of evil including sexual evil, sexual anarchy, sexual perversion, sexual promiscuity. And the church then begins to present a witness, a humble but bold witness, a clear but compassionate witness, a courageous but gentle witness that moves into society and that’s what we are in need of again today.

This is the inevitable trajectory of men and women born with a sin nature unless the grace of God intervenes through redeeming grace that converts and transforms sinners into those who are on the path of growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ and common grace that restrains and retards the sinfulness of men and women even if they haven’t come to Christ.

Therefore, church of Jesus Christ, again arise, again have done with lesser things, again extol with courage and compassion the glorious message of the King of Kings.

COMING UP WEDNESDAY: TEENAGE GENDER IDENTITY CRISIS EXPLODING

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, on Wednesday’s edition of Today in Perspective, I want to take you to a report that was published February the 5th in the Journal of Pediatrics that found that nearly 3 percent of Minnesota teens in 2016 said they were transgender, gender-queer, gender-fluid or unsure about their gender identity.

DR. REEDER: Which is an exponential explosion over such statistics just five years ago. Let’s see why that’s true and consider that from a Christian world and life view.

Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin, editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.