Insight on the News
Homosexuals—Equal Before God?
In the Australian state of Queensland, homosexual acts—even in private by consenting partners—are illegal. Recently, a major church group in that state came out strongly against such laws; they want homosexuality decriminalized.
According to the newspaper The Courier-Mail, this Joint Church Social Justice Group is made up of members of the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, and Uniting churches and Quakers (Society of Friends). Claiming that existing laws against homosexuals are based on ignorance and prejudice, the group stated: “Our support for this position is based on the belief that all people are equal before God and should be equal before the law. We believe a homosexual person is no more or less a human person than a heterosexual person.”
While it is true that all men are born equal, what is God’s view of homosexuality? In the Bible, all homosexual acts are condemned as unnatural and as meriting God’s disapproval, leading to death. This was true not only in ancient Israel but also in Christian times. (Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:26, 27) The condemnation is clear and needs no interpretation: “Neither fornicators, . . . nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men . . . will inherit God’s kingdom.”—1 Corinthians 6:9, 10.
Rather than clamoring for the decriminalizing of homosexuality, true Christians urge those enslaved to this God-dishonoring practice to break free of it by turning to God’s Word of truth.
Blood Risks Continue
A recent investigation revealed that hundreds of mistakes have been made by the American Red Cross in the handling of contaminated blood. Nearly half of the 12 million to 15 million units of blood used in the United States annually are supplied by the American Red Cross. When any units of blood get released that are found to be contaminated, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), an agency of the federal government, is to be notified. However, The New York Times states that a federal inspector contends that the Red Cross often failed to do this. He claims that a search of their records revealed 380 instances in which the mishandling of contaminated blood was never reported to the government. In addition, out of 228 cases of AIDS that may have been caused by blood transfusions, the inspector discovered that the Red Cross reported only 4 to the FDA.
While many still view it as lifesaving, transfused blood is responsible for the death of thousands each year. Yet, true worshipers of God, in obeying his laws with respect to blood, are at the same time protected from transfusion dangers. God commanded: “You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water . . . so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right.”—Deuteronomy 12:23-25, New International Version.
The Pope on Military Service
Last year the pope met with more than 7,000 military cadets at the Rome garrison of Cecchignola. At that time four young officers representing the garrison asked the pope whether military service is compatible with the Christian conscience. Specifically, according to the Vatican City newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, they asked: “Can one be a faithful Christian and, at the same time, a faithful soldier?” In response the pope said: “There is no basic difficulty or impossibility in uniting the Christian vocation with that of military service. If we look at the latter positively, it can be seen as a beautiful, worthy and fine thing.”
Is such a view, however, compatible with the neutrality maintained by early Christians? In his book An Historian’s Approach to Religion, Arnold Toynbee cites the case of Maximilianus, a third-century martyr who, when threatened with death by the Roman court for refusing recruitment into the military, said: “I won’t serve. You may behead me, but I won’t serve the powers of This World; I will serve my God.” Why, in the face of certain death, did he refuse participation in military service? Because he considered true followers of Jesus to be “no part of the world” just as Jesus was no part of the world. Moreover, he regarded the Christian’s warfare to be spiritual, in line with the apostle Paul’s words: “We do not wage warfare according to what we are in the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly.”—John 17:16; 2 Corinthians 10:3, 4.