It’s only a matter of time before Australia embraces same sex marriage, with the support and advocacy of progressive Australian clergy.

So what’s next? We all know it won’t stop at same-sex unions.

So who’s up for group marriage?

For weeks, Sydneysiders and Melburnians who believe menages-a-trois and other polyamorous relationships can be just as committed, loving and valid as marriage between a man and a woman, slaved away together to earn their place in the sun. They drew up plans, sawed wood, hammered nails.

Finally, in early March, it was ready: the first float celebrating polyamory to join the colourful flotilla in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Here’s some background to the movement for “poly pride.” They even have their own “community.”

The polyamorous community in Australia is a broad church, with the slogan of its very active website being “ethical non-monogamy”.

It is increasingly prominent, with organised groups in most capital cities that hold regular discussion sessions and social nights.

Polyamorists generally distinguish themselves from the monogamous gay community, and from those seeking kinky casual sex. Some also see themselves as different from heterosexual polygamists where the “hinge” member has sexual relations with the two of the opposite sex, but the two of the same sex do not have sex with each other.

Rather they may form, in polyamorist lingo, a “polyfidelist triad” in which there is an equilateral triangle of sexual activity.

Group marriage is not without it’s trials and tribulations.

A recent Australian legal case involved a man whose wife had left him for another man and a woman, and taken the children. When the trio set up house together, mingled their respective offspring, and shared the same bedroom, the jilted husband applied to the court seeking an urgent order that the children be removed from the “immoral” household.

But magistrate Philip Burchardt rejected the application, saying the threesome seemed to be “thoroughly decent and honest people” and “I do not regard the relationship . . . as being damaging to the children.”

What’s next after group marriage?

Melbourne-born Peter Singer is a world-renown ethicist, philosopher, and professor at Princeton University. In 2005 he was one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

What does this great man advocate?

Singer argues that “mutually satisfying activities” of a sexual nature can occur between humans and animals.

I have a question for those progressive clergy and theologians who have rejected the plain teaching of Jesus. You have rejected the prophets, and apostles. You have rejected 2,000 years of church teaching.

How will you stand against the very forces you have allowed to be unleashed?

In June of 2002, the synod of the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster (Vancouver, Canada) voted to authorise a service to bless same-sex unions. J.I. Packer was among the synod members who walked out in protest.

Why did I walk out with the others? Because this decision, taken in its context, falsifies the gospel of Christ, abandons the authority of Scripture, jeopardises the salvation of fellow human beings, and betrays the church in its God-appointed role as the bastion and bulwark of divine truth.

J.I. Packer

In 2008, Packer, one of Time magazine’s 25 most influential evangelicals, formally quit the Canadian arm of the global Anglican Communion citing “poisonous liberalism” in the church body. He and other evangelicals joined the newly formed (2005) Anglican Network in Canada.

J.I. Packer explains: Why I Walked: Sometimes loving a denomination requires you to fight.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.

Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire

From the BUV policy on Ordination: “Persons who engage in homosexual practice will not be ordained.“

I’m confused. The leadership of the denomination and it’s theological college do not have a problem with Baptist clergy or theological professors who are advocates for same-sex marriage. Yet the BUV will not allow anyone to be ordained as a minister who engages in homosexual acts.

This is beginning to sound like an echo of the downfall of the Uniting Church of Australia.

Watch this space. It’s a lesson in how dynamic evangelical movements unravel and decay.

Gary Lockyer was the senior pastor at Lilydale Baptist (1988-2002). This is an full version of his comment posted today providing background to the turmoil at his former church.

Steve, I was the Senior Pastor of the Lilydale Baptist Church for 14 years. It had already grown out of its ancient (1881?) but very small building and was meeting in the Senior Citizens Centre. In 1991 we moved into the first stage of the new building and then into the larger auditorium in around 1995.

My theological stance? Conservative Reformed. My personal motto has always been the old Youth for Christ one – “Anchored to the Rock; Geared for the times.”

The Church grew steadily (as you indicated) across all the age groups through those years. In 1996, we presented a submission to the Baptist Union of Victoria (BUV) “Ordination of Homosexuals” debacle that strongly affirmed ministry and welcome to homosexuals, but no unrepentant practising homosexuals in membership or leadership.

I recall that our submission was passed at a well-attended Church Meeting without a dissenting voice or vote. At the time, we had a number of refugees from the Uniting Church with us; the last thing they needed was the fear that their experience would be repeated! How quickly things have changed, with changes in both congregational and pastoral leadership.

I mentioned “debacle” with regard to the 1996 BUV Assembly that ruled out Ordination for a practising homosexual. I was one of the few who pointed out the inadequacy of any motion only based on the “opinion of the Churches” (subject to change) rather than based on a conviction that homosexual practice was a sin according to the Scriptures.

I stressed the foolishness of “locking the front door” of Ordination (a questionable practice anyway) while pointing out that the “back door” was standing unguarded; a Church could call an unordained practising homosexual as a Pastor. The only “discipline” if this was to happen? The BUV would advise that he / she could not be ordained! That’s a forceful blow with a limp lettuce leaf!

With a few others, an attempt was made that night to add the words “or approve of homosexual practice” as a bar to ordination. The amendment was overwhelmingly lost. Worse, we were laughed at openly in the Assembly by some as we attempted to point out the futility of forbidding the practise of homosexuality while allowing its advocacy. What is playing out now at Lilydale is the logical and totally predictable result of that horror of an Assembly.

I am not proud of it – more greatly embarrassed! (and I’ve had my own valley to navigate in the mean time) – but so disorienting was the experience that night that I have never been at a BUV Assembly since.

My heart breaks for the people at Liydale and what they are going through. And I’m not feeling too good about seeing a Church that I served with commitment in this situation. Buy now it should have been established as a strong and vital regional Church with a clear witness to the faith once delivered. May God grant a miracle to see it still get there.

Gary

Here’s my reply to Gary.

Gary

Thank you for your well written and godly response to the situation at Lilydale Baptist.

I googled you and found your response to Pastor Danny Nalliah’s shameful comments following the Black Saturday bush fires which claimed the lives of 173 Australians.

Again, a well written and godly response.

Nice to see you defending the gospel of grace against attacks from the religious left, and the religious right!

Blessings

Steve

I’ve just updated the Movements podcast page to make it easier to navigate.

Happy listening!

On Saturday the ruling Labor conference committed the Party to a policy of support for same-sex marriage. The move was supported by a rainbow coalition of activists including member of the clergy.

History teaches us that this is not the end of a long battle, just a pause before the next push begins. What was unthinkable a decade ago will soon become a reality in Australia and other parts of the Western world.

Brace yourselves for new campaigns—polygamy, group marriage and whatever our foolish hearts can conceive.

We shouldn’t be surprised. We live in a broken world. Sin has taken its toll on the most precious of God’s gifts—our sexuality. It’s why Christ came to rescue us from the guilt and shame.

Or maybe there’s another way. Perhaps there can be salvation without the need to face our sin. Could we remake ourselves and save ourselves from the burden we bear?

Could we recreate God in our image? Could we dictate to the Almighty our standards of sexual behaviour? Could we bow before our preferences and desires?

Yes we can.

How can I, a heterosexual who’s been very happily married for 50 years, tell anyone else they don’t have the right to form a loving, committed, lifelong union and enjoy the fruits of marriage as I have done? Marriage is not a club to be restricted to some. Like the Gospel, it is a blessing to be shared.

Rev Dr Rowland Croucher
Baptist Minister

Recognizing same-sex unions will help return marriage to its rightful place in society.

Rev Matt Glover
Baptist Minister

We haven’t even really begun to ask what role the affirmation of the ‘homosexual’, the ‘intersexual’ and the ‘transsexual’ might play in awakening the church to its full glory as the body of Christ.

Dr Keith Dyer
Professor of New Testament
Baptist Theological College

I cannot understand how a man can appear in print claiming to disbelieve everything that he presupposes when he puts on the surplice [clerical robe]. I feel it is a form of prostitution.

Clive Staples Lewis, 1963
Mere Christian

In religion, Liberalism may be characterized by a progressive discarding of elements in historical Christianity which appear superfluous or obsolete, confounded with practices and abuses which are legitimate objects of attack. But as its movement is controlled rather by its origin than by any goal, it loses force after a series of rejections, and with nothing to destroy is left with nothing to uphold and nowhere to go.

TS Eliot

Haven’t you read, 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. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.

Jesus
King of Kings, Lord of Lords

I guess that means, No we can’t.

The governing Australian Labor Party will introduce a private members bill to legalise marriage between same sex couples. The move is largely symbolic. The bill will most probably be defeated—this time.

Meanwhile some Australian denominations are tripping over themselves on this issue.

A number of pastors and leaders within my own denomination, the Baptist Union of Victoria (BUV) have for years supported the ordination of gay clergy, and same sex marriage. Their exegetical gymnastics are truly impressive.

There has been very little public discussion or debate on the issue.

Progressives, who tend to inhabit denomination headquarters and the college, don’t have the support of their constituency. Conservatives, who tend to lead the healthier growing churches, don’t want the publicity that conflict would bring.

The great irony is that the progressives can’t survive without the funds provided to the denomination, and it’s institutions, by the conservatives.

It reminds me of the quote attributed to Lenin, “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we hang them.”

We’re one big happy dysfunctional family.

In contrast, the Baptist Union of NSW will have none of this foolishness. They are clear on what the scriptures teach on human sexuality and marriage. The get on with the job of making disciples and planting churches, in which they are making impressive progress.

Compare this to the division and distractions that will impede the mission of the Lilydale Baptist Church for years to come.

The BUV is a case study of a movement well into decline, headed for decay if it doesn’t do something. If you have any doubt, study the history of the Uniting Church in Australia and weep.

Two glaring disconnects between what we call “mission/missional” and the early Christian movement.

1. Words. Acts is built around the theme of the progress of God’s word. The book is dominated by speeches. Only one of which is given to believers.

So why are we so reluctant to proclaim the gospel?

2. Movement. There’s an urgency about the spread of the gospel in Acts. Whenever the disciples settled down, God unsettled them and they keep moving.

So why do we place such an emphasis on settled “missional communities”?

Here’s a few interesting facts from the first twenty five pages.

The world’s population nearly doubled between 1970 and 2010.

63.2% of the worlds Christians are in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

About 10% of foreign missionaries work among Muslims, even though Muslims make up about 37% of all non-Christians in the world.

“The non-religious, or secular, bloc has shown the most massive growth in the past century, from a tiny 0.2% of the world’s population in 1900. . . in 2010 representing 13.6% – mainly Europeans and Chinese.

The Indian sub-continent has the largest concentration and variety of least-reached peoples.

The proportion of Buddhists who have come to Christ is minute.

The total population of unreached people is 2.84 billion, or 41.1% of humanity.

“Operation World: The Definitive Prayer Guide to Every Nation” (Jason Mandryk)

Sometime this week. the world’s population will pass the 7 billion mark

At the time of Christ the world’s population was around 250 million. It took until another 1,800 years to reach 1 billion. In 1960 it reached 3 billion.

Lamin Sanneh is Professor of History and World Christianity at Yale University. Here are his estimates of the trends in population growth and the changes in religious belief since 1900.

Note the incredible rise of Pentecostal/Charismatic movements (includes African independent churches and Chinese underground house churches) which has taken place predominantly in the developing world where the population is growing fastest.

Here are the figures on the shift from Christianity as a faith for the Western world (Europe and the US), to Christianity as the faith of the developing world (Asia, Latin America, Africa).

Finally, the incredible growth of the Christianity in Africa, outstripping the growth of Islam in that continent over the last 100 years.
This massive population growth will continue due to the extraordinary growth in agricultural productivity. By 2050 there will be 9 billion people on the planet.

What will it take to reach a lost world with a rapidly increasing population? Christianity of the developing world is showing us how. . . Movements.

“Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity (Studies in World Christianity)” (Lamin O. Sanneh)