Same Sex Marriage

Yesterday the California Supreme Court gave same-sex marrige a boost by determining that the ban on it in that State was unconstitutional. As I understand it, strenuous efforts will be made to persuade the California State legislature to overrule the Supreme Court decision, on the basis that the majority of the population of California is decidedly against same-sex marriage. California's governor says he is against same-sex marriage, but will not support any legislative move to overrule the Court's decision.

A while back I defended same-sex marriage and got a lot of negative feedback because of it. Today I just want to make two simple points. (1) The main reason I am in favor of same-sex marriage is because I believe marriage and family constitute the primary building block of societies worldwide. Marriage is a good thing; promiscuous sex outside of marriage is harmful. It is better for two people of the same sex to enter the covenant of marriage for precisely the same reasons it is better for two heterosexual people to do so. And (2) I'm always very wary of the majority, which is frequently dead wrong. The U.S. constitution was designed for the specific purpose of protecting minorities from the zealotry of majorities. Over and over again in American history -- think of slavery, think of the emancipation of women -- the majority has been sadly and badly mistaken. So I'm with Governor Schwarzenegger on this one.

Acts of God

I have heard from three friends in China about the horrendous earthquake that occurred earlier this week. One of them resides in the general area. Ten days ago Myanmar was devestated by a cyclone. In both cases tens of thousands of people have died, many of them children. Such events always problems for thinking Christians. Did God send these catastrophes? Did God merely allow them? Are they malicious acts of Satan? Or are they in some way the result of Adam's sin in the Garden of Evil? These questions raise difficult issues about the character and sovereignty of God. If God is loving and kind, how could he instigate or permit such evils? Perhaps he is loving and kind, but not all-powerful, and therefore could not prevent the evil. When it comes to the evil acts of human beings, the traditional answer is: God is all-good and all-powerful. But God has created human beings with free will. Therefore, though he is powerful enough to prevent evil, he chooses not to, in order to respect human free will. Whether or not that kind of reasoning satisfies you, it does not seem to be relevant when it comes to these horrific events likes earthquakes, cyclones, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. Yet perhaps free will is involved in these so-called "acts of God" also. Perhaps God has embedded a kind of free will into the very nature of the universe, so that it is free to be itself and even to make itself. And God respects that. But that raises the more serious question: But what about all the suffering, so much of it inflicted on innocent children? The answer to that can only be a retreat to what is called "the greater good" defense. That is, the suffering, as horrible as it seems to us, is nothing compared the greater good of the eternity of joy and blessedness that awaits us in the future. This defense is clearly affirmed by St. Paul in Romans 8. Yet for Christians this only raises a further question, for not all of these "innocents" are destined for an eternity of joy. If they are not Christians, an awful fate awaits them, surely, even an eternity of hell-fire torture. I am unable to believe this, and this is one of the reasons I think we have to consider seriously the concept of universal salvation. The "greater good" is that God has destined every member of the human race who has ever lived for final salvation. This too raises many questions, but they are not unresolvable. A perfectly good God who is also perfectly powerful is surely able to figure out how to save the very race he created, even while respecting free will. The same thing applies to natural evil, so-called Acts of God. God is also going to save the whole of creation by renewing it completely. Hence the "new heaven and new earth" Scripture foretells.

Roy

Roy Robertson, at far left in the group photo, and at left, died earlier today. He was in his mid-80s. Roy was the first Navigators missionary, sent out to China in 1948 when the outcome of the war between Mao DeZong and Chiang KaiShek was still moot. This summer the Navigators are planning to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their missionary effort. Roy, as the first Nav missionary, was to be the featured speaker. I was looking forward to seeing Roy again for the first time in a decade, though we had been corresponding regularly. In the group photo Roy is shown with the Asian team he had recruited and trained for evangelism at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. For 60 years Roy evangelized throughout all of Asia, not only in China, but in Japan and Taiwan and Hong Kong and Viet Nam and the Philippines and Singapore and Indonesia and India.
Roy specialized in large scale evangelistic outreaches, with a strong, sustained emphasis on follow up, and always with a view to training younger men. Roy was indefatigable, working right up to the end when, as I understand it (reports so far have been conflicting) he died peacefully seated on his front porch after mowing the lawn. I am sure he did not resist death. His wife, Phyllis, had gone to be with the Lord just a few months ago. I know that both of them were greeted in glory as heroes.
For several years Roy worked under my leadership. I used to jest that he was my ideal 19th century missionary. And indeed, in many ways he was a throwback to an earlier era, which made him something of a misfit in The Navigators after its founder, Dawson Trotman, drowned in 1956. Roy's vision of mission was formed in large measure by Trotman, but Dick Hillis was also a major shaper of Roy's strategies and methodology. Hillis was a China Inland Mission missionary who later founded Overseas Crusades. With my encouragement, Roy left the Navs to found his own mission, Training Evangelistic Leadership (TEL) in the 1970s. The mission grew steadily through the years. And just this year he formally handed over his leadership to a successor.
In his most recent note Roy assured me that he would be reading my book, What About the Cross? as he traveled to Singapore and back. He wrote, "I'm glad you're your own man and not someone else." Coming from Roy, that was a blessing.

Police Brutality

Rev. Al Sharpton led a half-dozen non-violent protests in New York City. The protesters were outraged over the acquittal of three police officers who shot a killed a bridegroom on the eve of his marriage. The officers were tried before a judge without a jury. The outrage is understandable -- 50 shots is a lot! At the same time, from my perspective, both the judge and the protesters overreacted. One of the police officers fired only one shot; a second fired four. The third officer, obviously out of control, fired the other 45 shots. In my judgment, the two officers should have been acquitted (there were ambiguities in the situation) but not the third. Meanwhile, down the road in Philadelphia, a dozen police officers jumped three men, suspected on drug dealing, threw them to the ground, beat them and kicked them unmercifully. And the whole thing was filmed and broadcast live to the public from a news helicopter that happened to be on the scene. Of course, the police chief apologized, but more than an apology is necessary. Real reforms in the mentality of cops on the street need to occur. Paterson, like New York City and Philadelphia, has a high minority population, yet its police officers are predominantly white and live outside our city. They do not identify with Paterson and slip easily into brutality.