Tim Kaine’s Willful Ignorance

Last Saturday night, Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate, Tim Kaine addressed a 4,000-person audience at the 20th Annual Human Rights Campaign National Dinner. This dinner has little to do with fighting for human rights, it’s not really about fighting anything at all—it’s a celebration of gay rights. Although Senator Kaine is a self-proclaimed “devout catholic,” he opined during his speech that he believes the Roman Catholic Church will change their stance on same-sex marriage. Here are his words:

I think it’s going to change because my church also teaches me about a creator who, in the first chapter of Genesis, surveyed the entire world, including mankind, and said, “It is very good.”

He went on to say:

Who am I to challenge God for the beautiful diversity of the human family? I think we’re supposed to celebrate it, not challenge it.

Willful Ignorance

I think it would be misleading and unfair to call his comments absurd or irrational. There are people who have absurd and irrational ideas about what the Bible says and yet, have actually read the Bible. I’m not sure what word to use to explain his remarks. Is there an idea that reflects the act of speaking on an issue that one has no right to speak on? Willfully ignorant? Tim Kaine’s comments are willfully ignorant. Tim Kaine is not stupid. He is a very smart and successful man. His comments, however, show that he has not actually ever read his bible or at least not past the second chapter. If he has, he remembers nothing of it.

If I were to make an assertive statement or observation to my friend about why his car was leaking oil, it would be willfully ignorant. Why? Because I know nothing about cars. I know nothing about oil leaks. If I offered to a 4,000-person audience the reason why my friend’s car has an oil leak, my comments would rightly be called “willfully ignorant.” It would be ignorant because I know nothing about cars or oil leaks. It would be willful because I know that I know nothing about cars or oil leaks.

Likewise, Tim Kaine must know, as a “devout Catholic,” that Scripture is comprised of more than one chapter. Yet, he has chosen to ignore the remaining 1,188 chapters in order to support his self-serving ideological agenda. Therefore, his usage of Genesis 1:31 is willful and it is ignorant.

The problem with his argument

He conveniently referred to Genesis 1:31 where it says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” This is a giant statement! The sovereign and good God of the universe has just created everything out of nothing. And it is good! Chapter two is a more detailed description of what happened on the sixth day of creation, namely the creation of male and female. At the end of chapter two, God gives a command to Adam and Eve:

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed (Genesis 2:24-25).

This means, very literally, chronologically, theologically, and historically, that when God said “It was very good,” there were no homosexual relationships, acts or marriages. There was one man and one woman… and that’s it.

Chapter three is where it all goes wrong. The serpent (Satan) tempts Adam and Eve to eat from the one tree they were told not to eat from. God had warned Adam that if they ate of this tree, they would surely die. Not just physical death, but spiritual death—a separation from God. That is exactly what happened. The serpent deceives the man and woman and they eat from this tree and their eyes are open to their nakedness and they feel shame. Sin has NOW entered the world.

Chapter four begins with a radical example of the sin that had NOW entered the world. One of Adam and Eve’s children murdering the other.

After reading just the first four chapters of the Bible one could rightly conclude that everything was good before the events of chapter three took place. Every human action that took place from the first verse of chapter four onward, was tainted and drenched in human sin. This, therefore, means that Kaine’s argument that God saw that the whole world was good, including same-sex marriages, is a willfully ignorant assessment. It’s a view that is formulated without even a cursory reading of the first three chapters of the Bible or one made by a person with major chronological challenges.

If for some reason it weren’t enough to cite the first three biblical chapters in chronological order, there is further evidence that deems the Senator’s comments incorrect. In the first chapter of Romans, the Apostle Paul ties homosexuality and lesbianism not to the good creation of Genesis one, but to the fall of man:

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error (Romans 1:24-27).

The Worst Part

This is a great example of a politician thinking politically about theology instead of thinking theologically about politics.

Senator Kaine displayed no shame when he asked, “Who am I to challenge God for the beautiful diversity of the human family?” It’s appalling that he would ask such a condescending question that completely distorts the biblical teaching of God’s perfect creation.

The worst part—the most dangerous part, is that many people who heard a man who calls himself a “devout Catholic,” will believe the utter fabrication that came out of his mouth.