[Vision2020] "Chris Witmer is advocating ..."

[keely emerinemix]

I'm heartsick about this, but I respond to it as someone who has sinned often and greatly in her life and walks free from condemnation only by the grace of Christ.  I apologize in advance -- not for the tone, but for the vocabulary.

Those who call for the implementation in a religiously plural system of the Mosaic code in Leviticus and Deuteronomy surely understand that while the Old Testament doesn't directly condemn lesbianism, the book of Romans appears to equally with male behavior and all sorts of other sexual and non-sexual behaviors.  So, if we're going to be roped in by the pre-Christian wooden literal sense of righteous living in a 21st century  unrighteous world, and if we're going to insist on maintaining an old covenant set aside by Christ in the new, let's ask some questions. And are we supposed to breathe a sigh of relief that at least lesbians
will be safe under a Witmer theocracy?  Which lesbians?  Covenant or non-covenant lesbians?  Shall we mandate that private
homosexual conduct between men be indeed private -- without two
witnesses -- so as to avoid having to exile or stone them?  Should we encourage a weird kind of integrity that urges homosexual men to have sex with a couple of witnesses so as to enable their prosecution?  In 21st Century America, would legally unprosecutable lesbian behavior outside of marriage be acceptable?  Is there an age of consent?  How might a covenant father be legally responsible?  

How about rape?  It rarely happens in the presence of witnesses -- do we let it go, even in the face of other forensic evidence?   Would a rapist be guilty of adultery or of something else?  Can it be adultery if there's no marriage vow broken, as in the case of unmarried pedophiles?  Or would we presume that the lesbian woman raped by a man would then be required to be married to him?  Would he still be a rapist?  An adulterer?  Or, if keeps taking her but in the confines of marriage, is he a faithful federal husband?   If one of the witnesses to unlawful sexual contact is one of the participants, does that matter?  One of the victims?  If a husband forces his wife to perform something she finds objectionable, has he raped her?  As she sinned by being non-submissive? If a woman has sex with a woman from another tribe or religion, can you prosecute that?  What if there's no penetration?  Or penetration of the woman by a device, not by a man? Too tough to think about?  Are you exhausted yet?  Too bad.  If you're going to be a vigilante and an administer of Divine wrath, a degree of consistency would be indicated.  
There is another option.  It forces us to ask a question.  Should we read the book of Romans correctly, as a divine indictment against all sinful behavior -- the kind that we ALL commit and we ALL tend to judge?  Should we realize that Christ, the One who came not to abolish but to fulfill the law, has done so in his atonement, freeing us to live under a covenant of grace in response to his outpouring of justice and mercy?  Should we judge crime by the standard of the civil code and sin by the standard of God's righteous command that we love one another, seek to live in peace, and submit graciously ONE to ANOTHER?  Is the law meant for death, a death no longer necessary because of the Spirit who brings grace?

With my whole heart, in Christ Jesus, I say yes.  

keely




From: carlwestberg846 at hotmail.com
To: joekc at adelphia.net; vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 10:17:36 -0800
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] "Chris Witmer is advocating ..."








Well, C.D., since you felt compelled to instruct Moscow on how to vote Tuesday on the levy election, and since you did explain your "trinitarian test oath" bizarreness to us, how about giving us the dirt on this topic?  Carl Westberg Jr.


> Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 06:41:38 -0800
> From: joekc at adelphia.net
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] "Chris Witmer is advocating ..."
> 
> The below is quoted from Dale Courney's blog.
> 
> Second, with regard to homosexual acts: these are always sinful, but something can be prosecuted as a crime only if there are at least two witnesses. The Bible most certainly does not tell us that homosexuality should be thought of differently according to the cultural context, which is what your correspondent seems to be saying. For the record, it needs to be pointed out that the Bible never required the death penalty for lesbian acts, but it did for male homosexual acts (sodomy), provided there were at least two witnesses. So the Bible makes a distinction between the sins of men and the sins of women in this area. Also for the record: the Bible condemns vigilante justice, so of course it follows that the death penalty for homosexual crimes could only have been administered by the civil magistrate, and not by a few rednecks with a rope and a tall tree branch. And one more for the record: I most definitely look forward to the day when society changes its laws to be more in l!
>  ine with the Bible's teaching, so that homosexual crimes can be once again be legally punishable by death or exile. So next time someone says, "No one is advocating that homosexuals be stoned or run out of town," you can reply, "Chris Witmer is advocating that the civil magistrate should stone or exile men who commit homosexual acts in cases where those crimes can be established by at least two witnesses."
> 
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet, 
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
>                http://www.fsr.net                       
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================

Peek-a-boo FREE Tricks & Treats for You! Get 'em!

_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live Hotmail and Microsoft Office Outlook – together at last.  Get it now.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102225181033.aspx?pid=CL100626971033
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20071111/056ccc94/attachment.html