I noted on Facebook on Thanksgiving that Macy’s pre-show for their annual Thanksgiving Day Parade (featuring Santa Claus kids!) included a lesbian kiss. Later I discovered this was not an accident. The show was a vignette of a broadway musical about a high school prom in rural Indiana that refused to allow two girls to attend as a couple. The couple was a same-sex couple, not just two girls who couldn’t get dates. So the story went that the whole community got involved. The School Board refused while the Community pushed to allow the girls to attend as a couple. If you have more information about this case, please comment below. Regardless, the musical, based on this story, featured prominently in Macy’s pre-show, and by some necessity included the two stars, the actresses playing the two girls, sharing a kiss.
I commented on Facebook that this was inappropriate for this time slot and for the expectations of both adults and children, especially the children. This was my chief gripe about the incident, not necessarily a statement about the moral value of the kiss itself. It seems to me that Macy’s could have picked any of 100 shows in New York that could be featured in this way. They didn’t have to pick any shows at all. The other show that I saw given some of this spotlight was “My Fair Lady”. I have yet to hear Macy’s give an apology for the kiss, so that tells me that the whole thing was intentional. My objection is to the appropriateness of the “kiss” in its time slot for an event likely watched by prepubescent children. I didn’t think such “inclusion” was necessary for this age group, a likely demographic for the parade, which included giant balloons of carton characters.
But now I have been accused of poking the bear, and that two girls ought to allowed to kiss. This is a free country, and two girls have as much right to kiss as any other two consenting adults. I must be the one in the wrong for pointing this out and I ought to be ashamed of putting shame on the love of two young people. Really? I don’t have as much right to freedom of expression as two lesbians in downtown New York? They offended me.
One attempt to discredit my accusation is that we have had to put up with plenty of Christianity over the centuries, what difference does one kiss make? To which I could reply, “I have eaten plenty of healthy meals in my life. What difference does one drop of poison make?” This attempt makes the assumption of moral equivalence which simply doesn’t apply here.
Biblical Christianity espouses a culture of morality and ethics. I use the phrase “biblical Christianity” with intent, since there are many kinds of Christianity and not all of them are good. Pointing back to the Bible seems to me to be the best option. You may not agree but Christianity as practiced has done far more for morality, ethics, business and government than any other theory of human behavior. Biblical Christianity agrees with observed (not theoretical) science, every time it’s tried. Biblical Christianity assumes that all people are lost before they accept a Savior. Biblical Christianity does a far better job explaining why people do bad things than anything put forth by Freud, et. al. Biblical Christianity as a moral framework, especially as it is taught in the New Testament, has done far more good than anything man has devised. And Biblical Christianity advocates for the unity and preservation of families, which is where it directly opposes Gay culture.
What has homosexual culture given us? Now there are many individual homosexuals that have given us fantastic drama, art and music. I have no argument with that. Others I have no doubt have given us inventions and other significant social contributions. All good. But what has the culture given us? When two men come together, or two women, what happens to the world around them? Before modern times, the two had to hide. They may have been married, or in ministry, or had some high public office. But the threat of being outed forced them to a form of blackmail if they were ever discovered. Tell me, what kinds of bad decisions could possibly come from this? And what about these:
Homosexual culture can result in Child Predation/ Molestation
Tell me that the inclusion of homosexual priests in the Catholic church hasn’t been a bad idea. Tell me that a whole generation of Catholics hasn’t been soiled in abuse, a church whose reputation hasn’t been marred, or individual Catholics who have stopped trusting the Church’s judgment. Suffice to say that placed in such positions, these self-confessed homosexuals have not been able to handle the temptations involved and have destroyed many children in the satisfaction of their lusts. (Biblical Christianity respects the boundaries of sexual behavior as that between a committed husband and wife in a marriage (Heb 13:4). All other sex is forbidden)
Homosexual culture promotes Slavery
If I may define slavery for just a moment. Slavery is compulsory work done by an individual without his consent. That may be a narrow definition, but if you can order someone to work for you who does not want to, and they no choice but to do it, then that is slavery. Consider the bakers and florists who are confronted by homosexual couples and ordered to bake a cake or arrange flowers for their wedding. The bakers and the florists are now presented with a choice, if they are Christians, of either being forced to do the job against their conscience, or to quit being a baker or a florist because it is too expensive to defend themselves in court and still keep their business. There are numerous cases like this now. (While Biblical Christianity acknowledges slavery as a reality, it never promotes it or advocates for it. Rather it says that if a person who is a slave can be free, he ought to pursue freedom (1 Cor 7:21).)
Homosexual Culture promotes the Abolition of Free Speech
And what about free speech? If a person says anything about gays that isn’t politically correct, doesn’t that person get ostracized? A person can’t even comment about two women kissing without getting shoved aside and called “judgmental”. (Biblical Christianity actually promotes the idea that Christians ought to expose the “deeds done in darkness” (Eph 5:11) and to expel immorality from its midst. (1 Cor 5:11))
Homosexual Culture promotes the destruction of the Traditional Family
Since coming out isn’t a big deal anymore, tell about the families who discovered that Daddy won’t be coming home anymore, because Daddy has a boyfriend. Tell about the wives who feel cheated, if not devastated. Tell me about the husbands whose wives have gone off to live with another woman. Tell me they haven’t been affected in the least. Tell me that there hasn’t been any collateral damage because a person “ought to be free to live their dream!” Individual homosexuals may have left bright contributions to the world, but homosexual culture is one of broken relationships and broken families. Every homosexual has a context, two parents, brothers, sisters, some even spouses and children. Going off and coupling with the same sex causes division within families, questions about whose “side” you’re on, uncomfortable dinner conversation. And to be homosexual is not a hard and fast rule, since many go from straight to homosexual relationships and back again. It becomes very fluid and very confusing. (Biblical Christianity present a family as a trinity, with a Husband, a Wife, and children, with rules for each in interaction with each other (Eph 5:21-6:4). The Bible also condemns any sex outside of the marriage relationship, and does not accommodate people’s sins for their happiness.)
So to say that Christian culture and homosexual culture are morally equivalent displays a horrible lack of understanding of the issue. What difference does one kiss make? By itself, very little. But this issue isn’t about a single same-sex kiss shared on a street and viewed by millions on television. This is about a culture of people who claim moral equivalence for a lifestyle that has proven over and again to be destructive both to individuals and to American Culture, which has its foundation in Biblical Christianity.
You will rightly note that Christianity has been guilty of some of the most horrendous crimes in history. I don’t argue with that. Many churches today are guilty of psychological abuse, financial abuse and outright deception. But that doesn’t mean that the Bible is wrong. To quote G.K. Chesterton, “Christianity hasn’t been tried and found wanting. It has never truly been tried.” Many have tried Biblical Christianity and found it to be completely satisfying, and many well-adjusted people have come from it.
I may come off to you as judgmental. That’s ok. This was not intended to take a “middle-or-the-road” approach. You may be offended. That’s ok too. That’s what the comments are for. But I want you to know that I see homosexual culture as preeminently destructive. I’ve met too many to find it any different. I also find that many homosexuals get very defensive with this kind of talk. No doubt many will read this and say that I’m wrong, and that homosexuality is a very fulfilling lifestyle. I can’t prove that it’s not. All I can point to is the damage it has caused for the sake of happiness. A lot of other’s happiness has been damaged or destroyed for the sake of the one. Do we have the right to be happy in this life? Well, that’s the subject of another blog post.
God bless you today.
Meritt Musings 