Friday, May 18, 2012

Open Letter to Laurel Fantauzzo


Hello,

Reading your article addressing Manny Pacquiao, I must admit that I was stricken with similar emotions as when I listened to Matthew Vines' recent and similarly-impassioned talk at a church in Wichita on this very topic, a plea for acceptance for homosexual practice from Christians, an argument that the Bible has been misinterpreted on the question for the entire breadth of her existence. I feel for you. You have excited compassion in my heart for you, and that is a testament to your excellent writing. Please be assured that before I sent this email, I prayed for you and will, with God's help, continue to do so.

Adding to my melancholy is the fact that I see the false dichotomy you have laid out, and I don't think you see it.
You said:
--Kuya Manny, I want you to want me to win. But maybe you never will.--

I cannot speak for Mr. Pacquiao. I know very little about him, and for that fact I hope you will pardon me. I do see, however, that the thrust of your article is towards that about which I do know a goodly amount - the Bible's teaching on homosexuality and the current societal debate about the moral justifiability of homosexual practice and the legality of homosexual marriage.
You seem to be suggesting that Mr. Pacquiao must either want you to win or want nothing to do with you.
Hidden behind that is equivocation - "winning" to you seems to mean "succeeding in getting society to fundamentally change its view on marriage for my own benefit".

May I suggest that you have completely missed the Bible's message at this point?

All through the Bible and explicitly laid out numerous times (perhaps most notably the entire book of Galatians deals with this) are the roles of the Law of God and the Gospel (the good news) of Jesus Christ.
The Law is complicated, manifold, and even seemingly overbearing. It is impossible to keep all its tenets. Indeed, that is the very point! The role of the Law is to show us our hopelessness, the futility of trying to make it to God on our own or in our own merit. None of us can be good enough. Jesus Christ is our only way to eternal life (and indeed real life on this Earth). Jesus' message was clear - "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand...I have come to seek and save that which is lost...I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly...The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of sinners and will be killed, and will rise three days later."

There is only one way you can win, Ms. Fantauzzo. There is only one way any of us can win. We must place all of our faith and all of our life in the pierced hands of the God Who loved enough to take on human flesh, live a perfect life surrounded by ungrateful sinners like you and me, and die a horrible and undeserved death on the Cross. Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow Me." Among other things, this means that we must surrender to Him all our definitions, all our ideas, all our self-made righteousness and pretensions. Among these are our views of human sexuality and proper relationship. It is not possible to take up one's cross to follow Jesus and yet quibble with Him that He didn't know what He was doing when He created male and female, or that He was wrong to put man and woman together as a monogamous couple at the beginning of mankind. We have to choose between Jesus and all our preferences.

So, which way will you go? Do you love your lesbian desires and your cause so much that you will pass up eternal life with your Creator? It really is that simple. It is Jesus or complete loss.
Jesus said, "What will it profit a person to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul?" Is your soul worth a few decades of lesbianism, then death and judgment, during which you will have to bear your own sin?

Peace to you,
Rhology
http://rhoblogy.blogspot.com

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