"Per the Bob Jones ruling... "
So I'm going to do a thread and then turn my notifications off. Buckle up.
So I'm going to do a thread and then turn my notifications off. Buckle up.
For those who don't know, the Bob Jones ruling refers to Bob Jones University losing tax exempt status b/c they prohibited interracial dating/marriage among students claiming it as a matter of religious liberty. This, after Loving vs. Virginia.
Their position wasn't uncommon in either southern church or southern culture. It was widely enough held that I grew up being told it as a "matter of conviction."
BJU lost tax exemption & kept policy until the year 2000. Yep, until 2000. By this time, however, marriage debates had shifted from interracial marriage to same-sex marriage.
In the public's eye, the two were & are essentially the same Q: People have a right to marry whomever they choose. Love is love is love, after all. They see conservative's historical resistance to interracial marriage as the same essential resistance to gay marriage.
So when did conservatives lose the debate on gay marriage? I contend that they lost it when they opposed interracial marriage & chose white supremacy over biblical theology of the imago Dei.
Conservatives, here's the damage of sheltering white supremacy in your morality: You lose it. You lose the very categories & mechanisms you need to argue for conservative sexual ethics.
Here's the damage of sheltering white supremacy in your theology of vocation: You lose it. You lose the very categories & mechanisms you need to protect your own work & business when it is challenged.
I grieve where we're at as a nation--the brokenness & division. But it's also entirely logical that we're here. It's entirely logical that the battleground for religious liberty is vocation & marriage.
When the church refused to protect the work & marriages of image bearers, when we salved our consciences that our prejudices were merely "convictions," we destroyed the very categories & doctrines that we now need.
I don't know what else to say except that these Qs are not isolated. We cannot shelter sin & not expect it to have consequences.
Also, I apologize, but I can't engage in convo about this today. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.
