Homosexuality – Ben Clapton

Over the weekend, the Salvation Army in Australia was involved in a bit of controversy. One of the Salvo’s PR guys did an interview on Joy FM in Melbourne. You can read about the controversy here, as well as listen to the interview in full.

When I read about this, I was angry. What was said does not line up with my understanding of the scripture, or Salvation Army beliefs. The Salvation Army fairly quickly put out an apology and clarification over the comments. However there are still a lot of bad and angry comments on The Salvation Army Australia’s Facebook page, such as this one:

No more donations from me. You homophobic, hypocritical, judgement bigots don’t deserve anyone’s time or money. Time to find a charity that practises, not preaches TRUE values.

And this one:

don’t come knocking on my door looking for donations. your a bunch of homophobic, ignorant bigots.

There are also some less hateful ones, such as this extract from a longer comment:

I have carefully listened to the interview and read the transcript. It is my view that JOY FM interviewers, Serena Ryan and, to a lesser extent, Pete Dillon, displayed an appalling lack of journalistic integrity and were bullying and manipulative in their questions to the Major. Serena Ryan, particularly, demonstrated in my view that she was pursuing a personal agenda and refused to allow the Major opportunities to clarify his position on matters relating to supposed “death calls” for homosexuals.

I submit that the document issued by the Salvation Army and found at [http://salvos.org.au/about-us/media-centre/documents/ResponseJOYFMqusFINAL.pdf] should be published and read aloud on that radio station in order to show fairness in debate. I submit further that Serena Ryan and Pete Dillon should be censured for their conduct.

I’ve been wanting to write on this for a while, but struggling with what to write. I could go into an exploration of the Romans text in question, performing a full exegesis to look at what Paul was actually saying. I could point out that the Greek word used can mean both a physical or a spiritual death, which clouds the issue. I could point out the ways in which the Salvation Army actually embraces LGBTI people, and does not discriminate in any way. But none of that would be helpful at this time.

Instead, as a member of the Salvation Army, I wanted to work out what I could do, in my own small way, that might be helpful. As such, I put the following out as a personal statement.

I’m Salvo, and I’m Sorry. I’m sorry that you were hurt by what was said. I’m sorry that you were offended by what was said. I cannot speak for the Salvation Army as a whole, I cannot change our policies or positional statements. But I can say Sorry, and I can say that personally, I will work as hard as ever to show love and compassion to everyone, no matter who they are, because I believe that God’s love is non-exclusive, and because God loved the whole world, therefore I should love the whole world too.

I know that this, and the apology statement linked above, do not make up for what was said. I know that the damage has been done, and it will take some time for us to regain the trust that we had. But I hope that through our actions, you will see that we truly do love all who come to us.

The views, comments, statements and opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the official position of The Salvation Army.

I’m straying into difficult territory here, but I need to share my thoughts on this issue, and hopefully my thoughts will make some sort of sense. Especially as I’m talking about using logic in an argument, I hope that my thoughts are logical as well.

I read yesterday an article from the Sydney Morning Herald titled “Gay marriage ridicule ‘damages youths'”. In it, I read this quote from Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce.

Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce told the rally his four daughters would be affected if same-sex marriage was allowed.

“We know that the best protection for those girls is that they get themselves into a secure relationship with a loving husband, and I want that to happen for them.

“I don’t want any legislator to take that right away from me.”

Wait, what?

According to Mr Joyce, by allowing Same-sex couples to marry each other, his daughters (who I’m assuming are unmarried heterosexuals with a loving set of heterosexual parents) would be affected. I’m sorry Barnaby, but I’m not quite following your logic here.

I’m not certain that there are many girls out there in the apparent situation that Barnaby’s daughters are apparently in. The only way that I can see that his daughters would be affected by this proposition is if they had told their father “I’m homosexual, but I know I need to be married. As I can’t marry a woman, I’ll marry a man instead.” I’m not sure how common a situation that would be.

I’ve been married almost a year now, and I absolutely still believe that marriage is a wonderful, wonderful thing. I also believe that marriage is something that should be treated with respect, and should not be entered into lightly.

Marriage is a sacred bond between two people. That’s it. For me and my wife, it is between me and her, and God. The only people who can affect our marriage and the sacredness of this bond are those who are involved in it – God, Liesl and myself. Britney Spears had a 55 hour marriage. Does that make my marriage any less special? No – because she is not involved in my marriage. Two homosexual men want to get married, does it affect my marriage? No, because they are not involved in it. Even if a rock wanted to marry a tree, it would not affect my marriage one iota, as the rock and tree are not involved in the sacred bond I made with my wife.

The only people who are affected by allowing homosexual people to marry are homosexual people. Mr Joyce claiming that his (presumably Heterosexual) daughters would be affected defies all logic.

I read an article on same-sex marriage recently. It didn’t take a stand either way. Instead, it called for those in power (White, Male, living in a first world country, those who are never discriminated against, except at “one of those “women-only” gyms”) to take a step back, to be quiet, and listen to others. Just “Shut up and listen.”

I think Mr Joyce should take this advice, and shut up and listen.