Miley Cyrus recently got a tattoo on her finger that shows her support for same-sex marriage, and on her Twitter account she said "All love is equal" (story here). She went on to say, "Where does it say in the bible to judge others? Oh right. It doesn't. GOD is the only judge honey. 'GOD is love.'"
Well, where do you start to unpack and unpick all this confusion? Firstly, does she believe all love is equal? Does she believe that adulterous love, polygamous love, paedophiles' love, bestial love, etc. is all equal? Let's hope not. So what she wanted to say, probably, is the love of a same-sex couple is equal to the love of a heterosexual couple. But of course, that's hardly the point. Even if that is the case that their love is equal, the question is this, is the relationship equal? Does a same-sex union confer the same benefits to society as traditional marriage, and therefore does it deserve equal status and benefits to be conferred upon it? Now to me the answer is obvious - of course not. The reality is, if there were no same-sex unions society would function without a hiccup, but if there were no traditional marriages society would fall apart, (as can be seen by the fact that the instability of marriage in society has a massive disintegrating effect on society). This is not bigotry, it's just the truth - they are not the same and should not be treated as if they were. And at this point we haven't even got into what God has to say about the matter.
What God says about the matter of same-sex unions is pretty clear (e.g. Leviticus 18 v 22; Romans 1 v 26-28; 1Corinthians 6 v 9-11; 1Timothy 1 v 8-10), yet Miley Cyrus thinks the fact that God is love means He doesn't disapprove of anything. Let's take her reasoning and see where it lands us - why are people judging this guy who shot all those people in Norway? God is the only judge - God is love! Why do people get so upset about rapists and paedophiles? These people are so judgmental! God is the only judge - God is love! I don't think I need to go any further to show that her statements take her far further than she wants to go. The fact is God has revealed His moral standard, in our conscience (Romans 2 v 15) and in His Word. He is the only judge, and He has told us we are all guilty (Romans 3 v 19). We are all sinners, and no sin is to be celebrated, God calls us to repentance, and when we change our attitude to our sin and turn to Christ there is mercy and forgiveness and freedom available (Acts 26 v 18).
The second story involves a singer called Morrissey. Morrissey has told us that mass murder on a scale exceeding the Norway massacre occurs day and daily at the hands of meat eaters (story here).
This man is a staunch vegetarian and he equates the killing of humans with the killing of animals, he said:
If you quite rightly feel horrified at the Norway killings, then it surely naturally follows that you feel horror at the murder of ANY innocent being. You cannot ignore animal suffering simply because animals 'are not us'.Again, there's some pretty tangled thinking in here. The first thing I'll say is that he imports morality into the animal kingdom and says that animals are innocent beings. This is just a confusion of catagories, animals are not moral agents, and as such are neither innocent or guilty. In fact, if animals were moral agents then they would pretty much all be guilty because the vast majority of animals engage in behaviour that humans generally regard as immoral - theft, robbery, cruelty, torture, rape, murder, racism, bullying etc. But of course it is nonsense to charge animals with these crimes - they are amoral beings, but if Morrissey wants to make them moral agents, then we can say about most of them, if not all of them, that they are actually guilty of multiple crimes and should be locked up or executed!
Furthermore, why should it naturally follow that because we are horrified at the murder of innocent human beings we should likewise feel horror at animals being killed? It only follows if you do not see humans beings as distinct from animals, but the fact that we feel revulsion over certain behaviours is one of the very proofs that we are not merely animals - we are moral beings, made in God's image. Does Morrissey feel horrified at every fly squashed on the windscreen of his car? Does he mourn the deaths of the millions of insects "murdered" day and daily by birds and spiders? Animals kill each other all the time - should we step in to stop it? Is it only killings carried out by humans that are horrific? If so, why? Is he saying that we are different from animals? If he does admit we're different from animals, then he has shot himself in the foot because his outrage at meat-eaters is based on his view that we aren't different from animals, but if we aren't significantly different from them then stop getting all emotional over the killing of them!!! And another thing - why does he say it's murder to kill animals yet he is prepared to "murder" vegetables and fruit? They are surely innocent beings, yet he is happy for them to be killed so he can live! If he says that those beings can't feel pain, then he has abandoned his argument that we shouldn't kill animals because they are innocent, and he should change it to we shouldn't kill animals if they suffer in the process, and this of course would justify many murders in which the victims were killed quickly and painlessly. So if his argument is that it is wrong to kill innocent beings, he should start eating stones or something, because pretty much everything you can eat was once alive.
We are different from animals, the slaughter of those people in Norway is a tragedy, the killing of animals for food is not.
Don't think too little of yourself, you're not an animal, you're a human being made in the image of God, the crown of His creation. But don't think too much of yourself, you are guilty of breaking God's law (we all are), and you are incapable of saving yourself from the judgment you rightly deserve. Thank God for the Saviour!
