Broken shards

Potter's House, a controversial, to put it politely, Christian sect, has made national headlines amidst reports of alleged spiritual abuse of its members. The reader is encouraged to read the full article. I wish to take issue with their teachings on marriage. Ex members report pressure from leaders to get married young.  

One of them reported: 

“If you are single, your pastor will tell you if someone is a good choice to marry. And they firmly believe in marrying them young. If you are not married by 25, something is wrong.”

I once bumped into some Potter's House members in a suburban shopping strip. They asked me how old I was, and if I was married. I told them my age, and that I was single. They tried to tell me that being single was a sin. It appears that this is what they teach their members, and cause a lot of damage to peoples' lives as a consequence. 

At the time, I was too polite to challenge their rebuking of me. I can only speculate that they take the Adamic procreation mandate, initially given to Adam, and later reiterated to Noah, Ishmael, Jacob, and Jacob's sons, as a binding Christian command. (See Genesis 1:28, 9:1, 7, 17:20, 28:3, 35:11, and 48:4). 

This takes some very creative hermeneutics, to say the least. No Christian member of the clergy should teach such nonsense. While the Bible teaches that marriage is a good thing, as the apostle Paul taught in his first letter to the Corinthians, marriage and singleness are choices. Regardless of their situation, faithful obedience to God is commanded.

It would be a good thing if news stories like this cause people to leave Potter's House. It is disheartening to think about all the people whose lives they have negatively influenced. 
 

https://www.news.com.au/national/former-pastor-linked-to-the-potters-house-breaks-silence-they-believe-in-marrying-them-young/news-story/ce85706b7f9e2546a051cf7b4265e819

When your quiver has no arrows in it

Anyone who has read the book of Genesis would know that in the first chapter, God gives humanity a mandate to procreate and populate the earth (Genesis 1:27-28, 2:24), and that this mandate was renewed after the flood to Noah and his sons (Genesis 9:1), and later to Jacob (Genesis 35:1). Jesus later affirmed it in Matthew 19:4-6.

The meaning of these verses is straightforward enough, yet some Christians have found a creative way to interpret them. I think back to my encounters with members of the Potter's House, a controversial sect which originated in Arizona in 1970, and was first established in Australia in 1978. 

One Saturday morning in a local shopping strip, a couple of their members were handing out tracts to passers by. I stopped to talk to them. They asked me about my personal life, When I told them that I was unmarried and had no children, they tried to tell me that being single is a sin. As I don't like conflict, I didn't debate this point with them. I can only surmise that they were using God's population mandate as their authority, and correlated this with the Bible's consistent affirmations of marriage and family. 

Most of what I've learnt about how my car works comes from when it breaks down. In much the same way, I've learnt about good hermeneutics from examples of questionable or bad Biblical interpretation. Examples such as this one remind me how important it is to read the Bible carefully and intelligently, and to also be careful in practically applying it to one's life. It affirms singleness as much as it does marriage. Those married Christians who often treat unmarried Christians as inferior to them need to read their Bibles more often, and see them as God sees them; loved and valued.

Irreverance

I dare any of my plethora of engaged friends and acquaintances to incorporate this piece of music into their wedding ceremony.

Ultra-conservative firebrand

My brother and I were among the hundreds of people who attended a rally in support of traditional marriage this Sunday. The ethnic diversity of both the crowd, and the speakers who addressed the rally meant that the small number of people attempting to disrupt it soon realised that they couldn't use one of their rehearsed chants. I forget the words they used, but it implied that being opposed to same sex marriage is just like supporting the racist anti-miscegnation laws of the past.

The authorities did an excellent job of maintaining order at this event. In an attempt at provocation, one pair of trouble makers kissed each other in front of the crowd, while their comrades played loud music by artists such as George Michael and Bronski Beat in an attempt to drown out the speakers.

I was pleased to see that after the rally finished, and the crowd dispersed, people on both sides of this debate were having a civil discussion with each other. On the other hand, this event received no media coverage, nor did any of the other rallies held in Australian capital cities last Sunday. This disappointed me, but the mainstream media is blatantly biased towards same sex marriage, so I wasn't expecting them to report on the rallies.

http://unityaustralia.org/