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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Joe,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Thanks for the challenge! <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>You wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>“Is it possible to argue that "homosexuality is part of our
sin condition"<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>without having as a consequence that being a slave owner is not
necessarily part of our sin condition? In other words, can one use the bible to
"prove"<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>that gay/lesbian sex relations are wrong without also suggesting that
slavery is sometimes OK? Because if you can't, then appeal to the bible for
moral claims is VERY problematic. And if not an appeal to the bible, what is
the basis for the suggestion that "homosexuality is part of our sin
condition"?”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Me:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>First let me say that this was a sincere question; I’m still not
sure how Keely would answer this question, and still would be interested to
know.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>As for the challenge; to me, this is actually a very insightful
analysis. This is actually why <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place>
wrote the slavery booklet to begin with. Consider:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> Preacher Boy says “homosexuality is wrong.” Erudite
Secularist objects: “what about slavery?” Preacher Boy looks down
to the ground, shrugs his shoulders, and says, Ah shucks, let’s just
forget about it and be friends. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Its not fun to go against the absolutes of political correctness (for
anyone), but for a bible belt, white skinned, big bellied fundamentalist,
preaching on the sins of the Sodomite no doubt feels pretty good (not many
handsome men would be interested anyways!). <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place> didn’t want the temptation to be
a possibility (the shrugging part), so he condemned himself on purpose beforehand
by stating what he thought the bible said about slavery--and in writing. (I
doubt he planned the plagiarism! Although that surely helped the overall
strategy). <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>With that said, I don’t think there is any real incoherence,
double standard, hypocrisy, or moral problem here. I was present at the Town
Hall Meeting a couple years ago (or whenever it was), and I didn’t detect
any fallacious reasoning on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place>’s
part at all. The answer seems straight-forward: Yes, slavery ANYTHING is part
of the sin problem. But the solution is Christ Crucified; he came to set the
entire world free. Slavery is a common metaphor for sin in the New Testament.
The gospel goes out and repentant sinners begin changing there affections,
goals, desires, and behaviors. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed; it
is like leaven in a loaf of bread. The world will be saved by the sacraments
(and they are sitting all over the world waiting for whosoever will), not by
statist bloodshed. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I don’t want to take us too far a field, but at the moment the
double standard appears to be on the other side of the discussion. Just as we
don’t want to start killing our homosexual neighbors, so we would ask you
to let us free our slaves in our own time and in our own way, a way that we
think will ultimately be better for them; please don’t come into our
homes and kill us over it. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Now, this southern argument that is thrown around might be a bit over
simplistic, and it might even be factually wrong. Maybe most slave owners were
primarily proud, violent men, who loved to have power over black people.
Perhaps the truth in somewhere in-between. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>(From the little reading I’ve done, Wilkins seems to make some
good points; my own family lineage has a southern plantation in it, and I
believe it was my great, great grandfather who wrote the book I have on my
shelf about his return to it; he left at the close of the 19<sup>th</sup>
century and returned 40 years later. I just opened it up for the first time
tonight. He writes about the culture of his Negro employees: “I do not
consider his philosophy inferior to ours; it is just different. As a matter of
fact, we labor that we may enjoy. The Negro knows the high art of getting joy
out of life itself, while we (often vainly) try to get joy out of the money we make
by spending our lives in toil. *When I say the Negro, I mean the one I know
best*—the black man of the hinterlands of the Deep South, of the farms,
the lonely seashores, the plantations, the wildwoods….there are about
seventy-five of my dusky friends living either on or very Near Hampton. They
are the descendants of the old slaves of the place, and if they ever heard of
Emancipation, that word certainly did not inspire them to move away from
home.”)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>But in principle, the point of our southern-sympathetic friends is a
good one; at the very least it does not seem incoherent. One can fight for the
eradication of slavery on God’s terms while also apposing a bloody
invasion into their homeland. As for placing both homosexuality and slavery
under the ‘sin category,’ I think my bible does just fine on both
points, and I know I need to be just as offended with myself when I’m
unkind to my children as I am when I see two guys making out; in fact, I should
probably be far more offended with myself, since it is 1) myself, and 2) the
guys making out are at least expressing some Trinitarian affection. But I think
it would be good for Joe to fill out more of his criticism so that I could
better respond to it. So ball in your court now Joe.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Thanks,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Michael Metzler <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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