By Selwyn Duke

It's really quite strange when you encounter a theologian or man of the cloth who appears to have no faith.  One could really wonder why they devote their lives to something they seem to believe is a fairytale.  I suppose they're much like experts in ancient literature.

Some people who fit this description want us to be non-judgmental with respect to risky sexual behavior.  CNSNews.com reports on their goals, writing:

"Religious leaders and AIDS activists told CNSNNews.com Tuesday that
labeling sex outside of marriage as sinful or having multiple partners
as immoral behavior is 'biased' – something society has 'moved beyond.'"  

I'm sure, and I suppose we've moved beyond intellectual honesty as well.  After all, one of these libertines, a Reverend Michael Schuenemeyer, executive for health and wholeness advocacy in the national offices of the United Church of Christ, was asked the following question by CNSNews:

"Isn’t ‘having multiple partners’ one of the major causes or routes for
acquiring HIV, and doesn’t your religion label that as promiscuity or
immorality?  Shouldn’t religions counsel against sexual immorality?"

And he refused to respond. 

Ah, we live in an age in which churchmen have become politicians . . . or maybe it's that we have politicians posing as churchmen.  Well, regardless, they are poseurs. 

The reason why I'm comfortable making such a judgment about their faith is that they exhibit profound ignorance of a basic tenet of Christianity.  These people would reduce the Church to a social services or charitable organization — and "reduce" is the operative word.  Charity is noble and no entity in history has done a better job of administering it than the Church (the Catholic Church is the largest provider of aid to the poor worldwide next to the U.S. government), and it should continue to provide for people's material needs to the best of its ability.   Yet its mission is infinitely greater than that.

To paraphrase Jesus, "Do not fear that which destroys the body; fear that which destroys the soul."

Now, I'm sure many of the activists cited by CNSNews would find the above to be as much of an anachronism as sexual morality, but a believer of any depth understands it as a profound Truth. 

If all we perceive is this world — if we think there's nothing beyond it — then staying in this world as long as possible becomes an overriding concern; this is something that leads to a fixation with health.  But we will spend eternity in the great beyond, and what is this life as compared to eternity?  It is like a grain of sand in a desert or a drop of water in an ocean. 

This is why Jesus asked, "What does it profit a man to gain the world but to lose his soul?"  A church's primary task is to prepare people for their journey home; it is there mainly to save souls, not flesh.  Of course, the Church should do its utmost to encourage people to be a good caretaker of the temple of the soul, but this is nevertheless a secondary concern.

Thus, Rev. Schuenemeyer is in the wrong business.  A man of the cloth is not a doctor, social worker, psychologist or activist; his main job is to warn people about spiritual poison, about that which separates them from God and jeopardizes salvation.  His overriding concern must be spiritual health, not physical. 

If he doesn't understand this simple Truth, he is no kind of man of God at all.  

            © 2008 Selwyn Duke — All Rights Reserved