Can commitment be wrong?
Dear friends,
This week David Cameron said he supported plans to legalise marriage for practising homosexuals. In itself that wasn’t new. What was interesting was the way he justified it: “To anyone who has reservations, I say, Yes, it’s about equality, but it’s also about something else: commitment.” Who could possibly have reservations about either equality or commitment? It set me thinking.
Take commitment, for example. It all depends what you are committed to. Commitment in itself is relatively neutral. There are plenty of examples of people being really committed to the most terrible things. No-one can fault their level of commitment – it’s just that what they were committed to was wrong. The men who brought down the World Trade Centre were totally committed to what they did. Hitler was totally committed to exterminating the Jews. The religious leaders were totally committed to having Jesus killed. On the other hand, firefighters were totally committed to rescuing survivors from the rubble of 9/11, there were people totally committed to hiding Jews, and Jesus himself was totally committed to obeying his Father.
So, it still begs the question: Is homosexual practice itself right or wrong? And how do we know? Who better to tell us than the God who made us? It’s really a matter of trust. Can we trust him to tell us what is right, and so what is best for us?
Chris Hobbs,
Vicar.