Rev. Susan Russell…

…demonstrates for a warm and willing NPR what I call the semi-permeable membrane of the various Protestantisms (also used often by ignorant or rebellious Catholics too). Quoth she:

“Jesus never said a single word about anything even remotely connected to homosexuality,” she says.

Ahem:

1.If a thing is condemned by the Church but permitted by the Protestant (say, gay marriage), the demand is for an explicit text forbidding it. (“Show me where Jesus said one word about not allowing gay marriage! That’s just the Church imposing its purely human ideas on what Jesus came to say.”)

2.Conversely, if a thing is allowed by the Church but condemned by the Protestant, the demand is for an explicit text commanding it. (“Where in the Bible do you find anyone asking us to pray to dead people? That’s just the Church imposing it’s purely human ideas on what Jesus came to say.”)

Note how the terms of the argument shift to suit the “Heads I win, tails the Church loses” agenda.

I hate being right all the time.

Here’s reality. Jesus recognizes only one thing as marriage: the indissoluble union of one man and one woman (Matthew 19). The Church follows suit. Period. Attempts to torque anything else out of the New Testament or the Christian tradition are ignorant or dishonest. Usually dishonest.