Ok, I’m not going political on you here. I found this on the Fox News web page today however and it spurred my thinking:
Mitt Romney delivered a commencement speech Saturday at Liberty University in which he focused largely on a message of faith, family, hard work and service, but he also addressed the emerging same-sex marriage issue by saying “marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.”
The remark drew a loud applause for the likely GOP presidential candidate who faces a big test in trying to win over tepid evangelical voters….
Romney, a Mormon, also delivered the speech at the largest Christian college in the world and the heart of conservative Virginia. It followed President Obama’s recent announcement that he personally supports gay marriage.
In the keynote speech at the Lynchburg, Va., school, founded by Baptist and TV evangelist Jerry Falwell, Romney appealed to the graduating class — along with their families and others — largely by sticking to the argument that he is the best candidate to improve the economy.
Read more: Romney addresses gay marriage issue at Liberty Univ, saying ‘one man and one woman’ [Internet Archive link] [Read the story below the video in the linked news story as the video doesn’t work. Although the linked story and Jeff Crippen’s quote aren’t identical, the news story is the same. Editors.]
Why does this bother me? No, I don’t believe in the current perversions of biblical marriage. Yes, I think we ought to oppose such wickedness. But there is something gnawing at me when I read articles like this that have a conservative political candidate — even if they aren’t a Mormon — being cheered on by a crowd of evangelical Christians. I think the following Scripture identifies what nags at me:
(Romans 2:3 ESV) Do you suppose, O man — you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself — that you will escape the judgment of God?
(1 Peter 4:17 ESV) For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
How many professing Christians sitting in that crowd, enthusiastically applauding their conservative candidate, opposed to the evils of homosexuality and gay marriage, are in fact wicked themselves? We know from our study of abuse that it is rampant in the church. We know, with increasing anxiety, that many, many power-hungry men are standing in pulpits, lording it over their congregations, refusing to render justice to the weak and innocent, perhaps even being abusers themselves. Judgment must begin at the household of God. God is not deceived. God is not mocked. Profess Jesus all he wants and do all kinds of church “stuff”, a man who practices evil will not escape the judgment of God
I think that the world sees the hypocrisy in Christendom. Electing a conservative candidate to the office of President is not going to solve much of anything. If God is against us, who can be for us?
[April 1, 2023: Editors’ notes:
—For some comments made prior to April 1, 2023 that quoted from the post, the text in the comment that was quoted from the post might no longer be an exact match.
—For some comments made prior to April 1, 2023 that quoted from the post, the text in the comment that was quoted from the post might no longer be found in the post.
If you would like to compare the text in the comments made prior to April 1, 2023 that quoted from the post to the post as it is now (April 1, 2023), click here [Internet Archive link] for the most recent Internet Archive copy of the post.]
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UPDATE Sept 2021: I have come to believe that Jeff Crippen does not practise what he preaches. He vilely persecuted an abuse victim and spiritually abused many other people in the Tillamook congregation. Go here to read the evidence. Jeff has not gone to the people that he spiritually and emotionally abused. He has not apologised to them, let alone asked for their forgiveness.
A Cry For Justice 
I absolutely agree with your position on this. This is common sense. Just as we long to promote integrity in the public square, are we looking at the splinter in the eyes of others, while failing to see the log in our own when it comes to the issue of abuse?
I have been speaking to local pastors this past week about my ministry and my desire to educate and serve women who may be trapped in the cycle of abuse. The responses ranged from an acceptance that abuse is one of those things that people don’t want to talk about, and since they don’t come forward, there’s nothing we can do….to….we already have a ministry to physical and sexual abuse victims. I felt a little odd confronting a pastor about the insidious nature of verbal and emotional abuse and the tendency of the church to see it as a lesser issue to address, knowing that abuse is a cancer that slowly kills the body of Christ from within.
We’ll just have to keep shining a light on it, and I have to believe a revival in this area is coming; a call for confrontation, repentance and restoration. Let it be so, Lord….
Thanks, Cindy. Yep, the log in our own eye. It seems that we still don’t want to connect the dots. We have been living with “scandals” of fallen church leaders for how many years now? Are we used to it? But the thing is interconnected with much deeper levels of abuse in our churches. I do think that Christians are at least starting to be just fed up with the state of things however, as indicated by the increasing number of spiritual abuse pages on the web along with other sites that are spotlighting domestic and sexual abuse within the camp.
How I wish I could forward your post to some of my conservative friends who keep sending me stuff on this sort of thing. I used to think that my reaction (one of discomfort) was due to my experience as a survivor, having suffered injustice and much more sensitive to double-standards. It is quite amazing that you would have that same disturbing feeling, but then again, you too have been victimized by members of your congregation.
The other thing that bothers me with that propaganda is that although it is true that children need a father and a mother, it is NOT true that having an abusive parent is better than not having one. Intentionally or not, people tend to extrapolate from research about children needing fathers and mothers, just to lecture divorced mothers about how their children are suffering from not having a father figure. Indeed my children are suffering, not because I have divorced, but because their father refuses to leave us alone!
When we come to an accurate awareness of abuse, we come to an awareness of sin. And we are enabled to see that sin functioning within Christendom. Once a person’s eyes are opened to it, many of these models we have erected come crumbling down. The “traditional family values will solve all of our problems” is one of them. We have been emphasizing in these things MORALISM rather than Christ, and it hasn’t helped us at all. Family, family, marriage, marriage, and on and on but are we any better off than we were 40 years ago? No. In fact, I think we are worse off. Of course we support one man, one woman biblical marriage. And of course we reject evil distortions of it. But if we make such things ends in themselves and fail to examine our hearts, facing up to our own sins and cleaning up the household of God, all is for naught. We are but whitewashed tombs full of rotting carcases.