Today's blog entry is a lot longer than what I usually write, but it's
about topics that merit the length...
The Sunday, December 16, 2007 Washington Post Book World section featured reviews of several books about religion.
I enjoy reading the book reviews in the Post each Sunday as they're well written and often the reviews are done by authors of the same genre. I often borrow books from my local library based on the reviews. Sometimes, the review is more interesting than the actual book itself!
This week the Post reviewed several books that I'll probably borrow from the library including:
The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Birth by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan.
The review says of the authors, "They begin by discussing the 'very different' versions of Jesus's birth in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, not to point out contradictions, 'as debunkers of the stories often do,' but to get the readers to focus on the details and understand what they meant in the 1st century." I'm intrigued by this as I always like to learn about the historical context of Biblical events.
For example, my Pastor, Dr. Lucius M. Dalton, discussed the birth of Christ this past Sunday and told us about the three stages of Biblical marriage:
1. An engagement, typically arranged by the families, often when the future bride and groom were children.
2) A betrothal period of one year. This is basically a covenant relationship where they are contractually bound to each other. The couple would have been considered married, but would not consummate the relationship until after the actual wedding ceremony.
[Today, preacher John MacArthur, on his radio program Grace to You,discusses this betrothal stage as a time when the woman would demonstrate her virginity by remaining a virgin until after the marriage ceremony. MacArthur also gives some of the Hebrew terms for these various stages of Biblical marriage that I'll have to listen to again and write down.]
3) The last stage Pastor Dalton mentioned was the marriage ceremony itself, which made them husband and wife.
I learned something new as a result of what Pastor Dalton said, so I'll be sure to research more about Biblical marriages.
The other book I will check out, based on a Washington Post review, is The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News by Peter J. Gomes.
Okay, I have to fess up that I had never heard of this man before and I didn't know he was a brother (a fellow Black man) and I didn't know he was gay until I read a recent description about him on Tavis Smiley's talk show Web site: "Ordained as a Baptist minister, he's served at Harvard University's Memorial Church since '70. He's also a best-selling author of such books as Sermons and, his latest, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus. In '91, Gomes shook up the university and the church when he revealed that he was gay. He has since become an advocate for wider acceptance of homosexuality in U.S. society."
Wow! I'll have to read more about Gomes because I cannot understand how a gay man can justify preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ when the Bible clearly does not endorse this! Jesus would likely forgive a gay person of their sins, if they repented, but would tell them to, "sin no more," as he told the adulterous woman in John 8:2-11.
The Washington Post review of Gomes' book begins with, "This book is by the American Baptist minister of Memorial Church at Harvard. His message is, don't ask 'What would Jesus do?' Ask, 'What would Jesus have me do?'"
The reviewer goes on to say about Gomes, "He is not as interested in sin and salvation as he is rethinking Jesus's message, and he delights in the notion of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable."
The fact that Gomes is gay, may explain his notion of rethinking Jesus' message. I'm glad Tavis Smiley's Web site mentioned that Gomes is gay as he didn't do so in his recent interview with Gomes and the Post didn't do so in its review--which I think is important as his homosexuality contradicts the Gospel he professes to preach.
I'll still check out Gomes book and do some more research on him, but I cannot accept him as a gay preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To paraphrase something my pastor said about premarital sex, but applying it to Gomes, "Some may say it is unrealistic for some preachers not to be gay, but we, as believers, must say that it is not Biblical."
Have a blessed day by telling someone what Jesus has done for you.
Your Brother in Christ,
Steve Kendall
P.S. Check out my other blog,http://biblestudycafedotcom.blogspot.com/,
for an entry about sermons on the birth of Christ.
