‘The church strongly and severely condemns gay marriage and adultery strictly as the Bible does’
Dimapur, Nov. 2 (EMN): The Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) on Friday termed what it called the Supreme Court’s recent “empowering and legalising” of homosexual act and adultery as “extremely detestable and unacceptable to the Christians under any circumstances.”
The state’s apex Baptist church organisation issued a statement saying it was incumbent upon the NBCC “to exhort the Church on the stand of homosexuality and gay marriage” following the recent Supreme Court of India judgment decriminalising homosexuality between consenting adults by declaring Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised gay sex, as ‘manifestly arbitrary.’
The NBCC in its executive meeting held on Oct. 30 to 31st deliberated threadbare on the apex court judgment, it stated. “…the Supreme Court of India in another judgment decriminalised adultery by declaring Section 497 of IPC which criminalises adultery as unconstitutional, archaic and manifestly arbitrary by stating ‘mere adultery can’t be a criminal offence. It is a matter of privacy” has degraded the institution of marriage into nothingness.
“These aforesaid crimes as per Section 377 and Section 497 IPC are no longer an offence after the two judgments delivered by the Supreme Court of India. It means to say that homosexuality, lesbianism, gay marriage or adultery or illegitimate sex outside the conjugal bed does not injure or hurt anyone and should not be treated as an injury or a hurt to women or children, therefore, they are not crimes….this interpretation granting of liberty, empowering adulterers and unnatural relationship with the encouragement and support of law is terribly wrong for our society,” it stated.
It ‘warned all the Christians’ never to be taken away by such laws as reinterpreting the Bible and the biblical morality and ethics. “The NBCC makes its position loud and clear that marriage is between a man and a woman only, it shall never permit gay sex and the criminalising of adultery as unconstitutional and archaic by the Supreme Court cannot in any way justify gay sex or adultery.
“Adultery is always adultery, so also it is the same with homosexuality or lesbianism. The Court absolutely cannot change these true facts. The church strongly and severely condemns gay marriage and adultery strictly as the Bible does. There can be no any other interpretations on these issues. It should be absolutely clear to each and everyone that this is not the opinion of the church but it is the biblical teaching upon which the church formulates its uncompromising propriety, morality and ethics,” read the statement.
Since ‘many centuries ago’, it stated, the tension, unfriendliness and distrust between the theo-centric and anthropo-centric institutions have always existed, and continues even today. The tension becomes wider when the church stands firm unto the biblical teaching and the state continues to be ‘swayed away’ with its compromising interpretation of modernisation and liberalisation in the name of modernity, according to the NBCC.
“In a secular country like India, regrettably, it is also observed that the state is tilting towards this aspect more and more lately. We cannot say that we are surprised with the recent two rulings of the Supreme Court in our country but we are certainly shocked and astonished how India once supposed to be conservative society is changing so rapidly and embracing the new diluting norms of propriety, morality and decency.
“As much as we try to be a good citizen, the Christians must also stand on their solid ground on issues which impinge on their faith and morality because we have a much higher calling to stay faithful and committed to the teaching of the Bible. Though we are governed by the law of the land so as to be good citizens, however, when the laws are intentionally introduced and amended to liberalise or compromise morality and ethics of its citizens, we, the church must firmly stand guard against such move at all costs and always.
“What is considered as immoral and unethical is not the church’s own construction but we are governed by a higher standard than that of the world, which is the Bible. Therefore, in such a situation whether be it section 377 of IPC, decriminalising homosexuality or gay marriages or section 497 of IPC which criminalises adultery as unconstitutional, we must turn to the Bible for proper guidance and definition,” it stated further.
According to the NBCC, it must be made clear that church did not criminalise LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual and intersex) and adulterers. It simply proclaim that they are ‘sinful acts and against God’s design’ for relationship and marriage, it stated.
“This is certainly the time for us to make our position lovingly and compassionately clear that homosexuality, lesbianism and adultery are sinful acts. These sinful actions are against God’s priceless design of the marriage institution which are also against the belief of the Christian faith and practice. It is therefore, the responsibility of the church to reach out in the spirit of Christian love and compassion to redeem the lost souls without making statement of superiority complex or discriminatory judgement.
“NBCC stands on the finality of the Bible for all matters of faith, morality and practices. Even if the court decriminalises gay marriage and adultery, it cannot not justify against the biblical teaching on such unnatural relationships and unwarranted human behaviours. What is defined as sinful in ‘God’s Word’ is always sinful and wrong, the Court has absolutely no authority to redefine or alter the ‘Word of God’ to its own whims and interpretations under any circumstances,” it stated.
