Anti-LGBT group: Jesus opposes gay marriage, just look in this bit of the Bible everyone already ignores
An anti-gay group is trying to pass off a quote about Jesus opposing straight divorce as him opposing same-sex marriage.
The National Organisation for Marriage made the claim today in a newsletter.
They wrote: “The God who created the universe also is the creator of the institution of marriage.
“It is so important to Him in his plan for humanity that he included it among his very first instructions to us: ‘That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh’
“Lest you think God was simply making a suggestion that we might accept or reject as we feel suited, read what Jesus Christ himself said about marriage:
“‘Haven’t you read,’ he replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator “made them male and female,”‘ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’” (Matthew 19:4-5).”
Except… that’s not QUITE the full context, is it guys?
Here it is for you, NIV style.
Let’s take a wider view.
When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
So… yeah, that’s not so much about gay people getting married as about straight divorce getting divorced.
To be clear, Jesus is saying that under no circumstances can you get a divorce, and is emphatically emphasising that God’s ‘traditional Biblical’ definition of marriage is contingent on the very idea that marriage is an inseparable union.
So in other words, according to the National Organisation for Marriage’s very own hand-picked Bible quote, the ‘traditional’ definition of marriage is one that is already ignored by law in the vast majority of the Western world, and has been for hundreds of years.
PinkNews recently compiled an exhaustive list of everything Jesus has said about gay people.
Although, we asked Jesus about it and he isn’t happy…
