God’s Way is the Best Way


I read in the newspaper this week that a petition is being circulated to place the legalization of homosexual marriage on the Ohio ballot – an item that was defeated ten years ago. If passed by the electorate, the meaning of the word “marriage”, the covenant union of a man and woman, would change. It would then mean the union of two caring persons.

There is a history lesson here – one that churches need to learn. Sexual permissiveness, including homosexual practice, was prevalent in ancient Greece and in the Roman Empire. And let’s admit it: the desire to redefine marriage is an attempt to make homosexual practice socially acceptable, with no regard for history.

Euthydemus recounts a story of Socrates discussing with a friend what kind of boy the friend finds arousing. Greek adult men took boys, some as young as twelve, for sexual purposes. This was socially acceptable. Now I understand that pederasty is not the objective of the Ohio petition – at least not this one. Not now. Give this movement time and we’ll see what develops. The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is an advocacy group that has as its goal to end “the extreme oppression of men and boys in mutually consensual relationships”. The San Diego Union Tribune in February 2005, in a story by Onell R. Soto, reported that NAMBLA is based in New York and San Francisco and holds an annual gathering New York City and monthly meetings around the country.

My concern is that if we discard the traditional definition and understanding of marriage to accommodate the militant homosexual agenda, a pandora’s box will be opened. All sorts of people with “alternative lifestyles” and militant agendas will attempt to justify and legitimize their perversions by claiming it is marriage. And if our only standard is “mutual consent”, then marriage means almost nothing.

In first century Rome there was social approval of homosexual relationships. The Romans even had a deity, Priapus, who was known for raping both males and females. This was the deity’s way of punishing those who violated his territory, and the legend served to legitimize the practice by humans. After all, if a god did it, it must be okay.

Well, no, it was not okay. So what force changed the attitudes and morals of the people? The church! Not through belligerence and outrage – and not through politics either, but through compassionate truth-telling. The Roman Emperor, seeing the wisdom of the church’s stand and seeing compassion (or repudiation if a person refused the truth), finally outlawed homosexuality (this was done under Emperor Justinian, 482-565 A.D.).

The Christians of that time were guided by the epistles of Romans and 1 Corinthians, chapters 1 and 6 respectively, to announce to the world that there is a better way to practice sex. God’s way. Polycarp, Justin Martyr and others spoke and wrote about homosexual practice, presenting it as against nature and destructive of the family and home, God’s design for security, love and propagation of the race. The practice of using boys and girls for sex was so widespread in the Roman Empire that in 305 A.D. leaders of churches in the empire met in Granada, Spain (The Council of Elvira) and passed resolutions against pederasty and the sex trade of children. Then later in the same century a leading church pastor named Basil of Caesarea wrote, “He who is guilty of unseemliness with males will be under discipline for the same time as adulterers.” This was a fifteen years banishment from the communion of the church– yes, you read it correctly, fifteen years – to give the person time to consider his practice in light of nature and revelation, and to change. The church people were there to help – but they could not give approval to the practice of homosexual sex (in particular with children – so they kept these people away from the kids). People did experience change then, as they can and as many do now.

During this time there was, of course, strong opposition to the church’s stance from those who advocated permissive sexual practices. The history lesson is that even though permissive sexual practices were widespread in Greece and Rome, when Christians presented God’s way, people accepted the message. They knew it was right.

They knew that the Christians were telling the truth. They also knew the Christians cared. The churches at this time were taking in children from the streets and discarded babies from the dump – the Roman form of “choice”. Christians opened their homes and adopted these abused and abandoned children, providing a safe environment where they would no longer be molested. They also counseled with adults who had engaged in promiscuity, whose lives were void of meaning – after all, what kind of life is it to live for the purpose of raw sensual satisfaction? And as for the church leaders, they stood against the deviancy of their times because they did genuinely care about family, home, human dignity and God’s design for each. They really did think that the phrase “Jesus is Lord” meant to live godly lives.

These leaders cared about others. They cared enough to share the truth. They cared enough to maintain a high standard for marriage. They knew …

God’s way is the best way.