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.

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.

Matt Glover, freelance cartoonist and pastor, is an advocate for same-sex unions.

His church, Lilydale Baptist, is in turmoil. They’ve only just found out via this gay website or maybe this one?

A church meeting to deal with the issue was cancelled a few days ago. A newspaper report states confidently that Pastor Matt has the numbers.

I’d be surprised.

Matt assured the reporter that his church members were not “homophobic,” just a bit uptight about public displays of affection between gay couples.”

[Ed. I suppose if any church members were "homophobic" they may need psychiatric treatment. Homophobia is not to be confused with homilophobia (fear of sermons) or homichlophobia (fear of fog), or hobophobia (fear of beggars). Anyway, let's hope there's counselling and medication available for any sufferers out there].

I remember Lylidale Baptist as a thriving evangelical church of around 400 people, once active in planting churches like this one.

The article states that “Lilydale Baptist has a strong community presence, offering financial services, counselling, an opportunity shop [pictured above], cafe, food bank and welfare assistance. Besides the usual youth and play groups, it has a Burmese congregation and a Tuesday night meeting of ‘hard-core” music fans.”

All these ministries were set up before Matt arrived by previous pastors who were evangelical.

Lilydale Baptist is in trouble. Expect the church community shrink, and the ministries above to become unsustainable, if they aren’t already.

The tragedy is, this was all avoidable.

If you want to know what decline and decay looks like at a local church level, this is it. This story is being played out all around the western world, in mainstream churches, missional churches, theological seminaries, and denominational headquarters. The drift starts with the clergy who are less likely to uphold biblical orthodoxy than ordinary disciples.

Matt is not the only well known Baptist leader who has come out publicly in support of gay marriage. What has happened at Lilydale is part of a general trend in the local denominational leadership.

The slide gains momentum because nobody wants to admit there’s an elephant in the room.

Decline and decay is always the result. There may be a time lag. But there are no exceptions.

You foolish Lilydalians. Get back to basics.

UPDATE

The Baptist Union of Australia has made it’s position clear by defining marriage as  the union between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life, although not all Baptist pastors, college lecturers and denominational executives agree.

UPDATE

Paul Kelly, editor of the Australian, on the political and social agenda behind the push for “marriage equality.”

UPDATE

Rev Matt Glover is no longer the minister at Lilydale Baptist Church. The Age newspaper reports that he had been “sacked” at a “secret meeting.” Rev Andrew Woff, acting Director of Ministries for the Baptist Union of Victoria (BUV), denied Rev Glover had been sacked. Although Woff agreed the process was not “all fair.” On behalf of the BUV, Woff stated, “He [Glover] is a competent and gifted minister, and there is no reason he can’t be called by another church.”

So where does the BUV stand on same-sex unions?

It’s a serious thing to sack a seventy year old priest. The Catholic church has a shortage of them.

Yet it strikes me as strange that someone who doesn’t believe in the Trinity, the virgin birth—who doesn’t believe Jesus ever existed—should want to be a priest, or should even expect to remain a priest.

Father Kennedy has found a new faith supported by the Socialist Alliance and other activists. He new faith that rejects the notion that Jesus ever existed, or that God listens when we pray. He has rejected the idea that God intervenes in human affairs, citing the horrific massacre in Norway. How can God be good and powerful if he allows such tragedies to happen?

He hasn’t lost faith altogether. He still believes in “the beauty of life and the goodness of people.” I’m not sure how long that faith can last when confronted with the reality of human evil such as we have witnessed in Norway.

I would rather live with unanswered questions, and put my faith in a God revealed in a crucified Savior. Jesus was crucified on a very real cross, by real soldiers, in real history.

A sign outside St Mary’s read, “Everyone has a place in the church. Every person without exception should be able to feel at home and never rejected.”

It seems there is one person who was not welcome in Father Kennedy’s church, his name is Jesus of Nazareth.

Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death.

Blaise Pascal

I caught up with an old friend a few years ago over coffee. He confided in me that he wasn’t sure if he believed in hell any more. He was a church leader with an evangelical background. He didn’t seem concerned. After all, he told me, it could have been worse—he knew a church leader who wasn’t sure if he believed in heaven any more.

Over time, movements tend to plateau, institutionalize and decline. At the heart of their demise is often a drift to a more secular faith that is led by religious professionals.

By “secularized” I mean that this life becomes more important than the world to come. Conceptions of God become vague and distant. Moral restrictions on members are relaxed and, the exclusive claim to truth is surrendered (see Stark and Finke).

It strikes me as curious that we would take upon ourselves the right to exchange biblical beliefs that no longer suit us. As though we had the power in ourselves to determine what is true and what is right.

At a whim we abolish heaven and hell. We recast the image of God in our own likeness. We sit in judgement on scripture rather than let it judge us. We redefine sin and remove the need for the Cross.

Worst of all, is the harmony carefully preserved within Christian movements as they calmly drift from the gospel.

About a year ago my denomination (Baptist Union of Victoria) reappointed its New Testament professor, Dr Keith Dyer. The appointment was supported by the denominational leadership and theological college and affirmed by a two-thirds majority of a BUV Assembly of ministers and church representatives.

Historically, the BUV has been an evangelical denomination with a conservative statement of faith that upholds the supremacy of scripture.

Keith’s reappointment, despite his teaching on sexuality, says a lot about the state the BUV is in.

In an unusual interpretation of Genesis 1:27 Keith Dyer argues that God created humanity, male and female not male or female. Therefore, humanity, made in the image of God, is a continuum stretching from male to female and everything in between. This view of human sexuality, he claims, was reaffirmed by both Jesus and Paul.

For Keith, these are issues of justice and righteousness. Therefore he supports the marriage of homosexuals and their right to child adoption.

Keith responds to those who appeal to the “plain sense of Scripture” that they are in danger of reducing God’s Living Word to a book of dead letters and laws. “For the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor 3:6).”

Keith states that the affirmation of the ‘homosexual’, the ‘intersexual’ and the ‘transsexual’ is needed to awaken the church to its full glory as the body of Christ.

I’ve written a response to Keith’s teaching. My concern here is what this case study can teach us about the decline of a denomination and how to prevent it. More on that later.

Here’s the full text of Keith’s article: A Consistent Biblical approach to (homo)sexuality

I’ve just listened to a two part series on “Progressive Christianity” based around interviews with keynote speakers and participants.

The interviews are candid and provide important insights into final stages of decline and decay in the lifecycle of a movement.

Note the denial of the very core of the Christian faith. Note the willingness of denominations to tolerate clergy who deny the faith. Note the self interest that keeps clergy within denominational systems even while they undermine them.

On Christianity’s lack of originality . . .

In the last 20 years, there’s just been an explosion of information about how Christianity really got started and all the changes that were made. And for the first time, people are learning that there’s nothing in the Christian tradition, not the Virgin birth, not the death on the Cross, not the three-day later Resurrection, not the Ascension, not any of those things that we have laid upon Jesus, are unique to Jesus. They have existed in mythologies in Egypt and other areas as much as 500 years before Jesus.

Reverend Fred Plumer President of The Center for Progressive Christianity in Washington

On taking Jesus down from the cross . . .

In simple language I think what I would like to see is us let Jesus become the human that he was – albeit we might say an enlightened teacher, prophetic teacher, a wise teacher, a wisdom teacher, but essentially taken back down from the cross – and eliminate the need to worship as opposed to becoming a follower. I had a great vision while I was in seminary, literally of a picture in my mind of having a conversation with Jesus and having him say to me ‘Take me off the cross, so that you can follow me, you cannot follow me if you’re worshipping me.’ I don’t know where that came from, or what the effect was but that’s really the heart and soul of the Progressive movement, at a theological, Christological level.

Fred Plumer

On the doctrine of the Atonement (Christ dying for our sins) . . .

I really do think that’s been a curse to the faith.

Fred Plumer

On the nature of mission . . .

A lot of us who are interested in Progressive Christianity are white, middle class Western people and that we really need the voices of people who are marginalised and excluded, to join that progressive conversation, and that we need to examine some of the ways in which we perpetuate other people’s oppression, and I think the voices of gay and lesbian people are one way that that comes into the conversation. ,

Reverend Dr Margaret Mayman, senior minister at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Wellington, New Zealand

On the historic Christian faith . . .

I’d be happy to abandon the Apostles’ Creed.

The Very Reverend Jeremy Greaves, Dean of the Anglican Cathedral in Darwin

On why “Progressive Christians” are white, middle class and greying . . .

I remember Jack (Bishop Shelby) Spong saying last time around, when I was clearly the youngest person at the conference, that it doesn’t surprise him that young people are absent form this sort of event because so many of these questions are questions that for so many people in their 20s or even 30s, aren’t on the horizon yet, and so I’m not sure what it looks like. I don’t think that Progressive or this part of the church will ever be full of young people, but I think it certainly has a future, but I’m not sure what that looks like.

Jeremy Greaves

On quietly leaving traditional Christianity behind . . .

For so many of us in ministry, we’re locked into a model where the people who sit in the pews pay our salaries, pay our way. I have a wife and three small children to support and so the challenge of being too prophetic and changing too many things too quickly is that there won’t be enough people left in the short term to help me survive financially, and that’s a brutal and very difficult challenge.

Jeremy Greaves

On the fear that induces silence . . .

For so many of my colleagues in their 60s, which the majority, certainly in the Anglican church clergy are, they can probably get away with doing the same thing for another three or four years, and I have probably 30 years of ministry ahead, and that won’t work. And so the real challenge . . . is knowing that we need to be somewhere else, but for me it’s the fear that comes with that and perhaps lacking the courage sometimes to go quite as far as we perhaps need to go.

Jeremy Greaves

Full text and audio of the interviews.