Middle Tennessee Votes No on B

The anti-equality forces mobilized in Middle Tennessee Presbytery today, defeating B, 95-139 compared to 95-118 last time. Those hoping for a flip received a sober slap in the face. Let us learn from this.

Equality is not automatic.

Alan Wisdom of the IRD writes in After the Vote:

There is a larger “progressive” narrative operating here. Our liberal friends are convinced that history is on a steady leftward course: towards greater individual moral autonomy, greater freedom in entering and exiting sexual relationships, and reduced relevance of traditions or authorities that might restrain individual autonomy and freedom. (If they are religious, our friends hail these trends as the will of an “inclusive” God.)

Progressives see themselves as “prophetic.” History will vindicate them, they are sure, and they will become the majority and sweep us conservatives into the dustbin. If they don’t win a vote today, they will win it tomorrow. And if society goes their way, then the Church must surely follow.

This “progressive” myth has many obvious problems. The Church does not always follow the culture. Sometimes it resists the culture. Sometimes it changes the culture. Christians in past generations have taken stands against dueling, abandonment of unwanted infants, and polygamy—all common in their day, and all rare today.

Did you get that? Wisdom compares LGBT equality with "dueling, abandonment of unwanted infants, and polygamy." He had to dig deep into the recesses of his phobias to find those comparisons.

But Wisdom does have a point. Equality and justice are not automatic. The culture of empire that the IRD represents and the deity that it worships is well-funded, full of fear, and overflowing with falsehoods. Remember what happened to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Have you read Jeff Sharlet's The Family yet? You really should. Just don't read it alone at night.

We should celebrate what has happened in our New England states, but without vigilance and action, rights and freedoms can be taken away just as quickly (ie. California).

People think that the younger generation is more accepting of gay and lesbian folks. Yes, but...young people can be turned into fundamentalists too as they are educated in their home schools and churches that Adam and Eve (not Adam and Steve) hung out with the dinosaurs.

Things can change for the worse. All it takes is a prolonged economic downturn and a smooth-talking theocrat steps in to save the day with a scapegoat at hand.

Niebuhr warned us not to rely on "progress." Justice is not automatic.