Stoats and Weasels in the Church: Christian Ethics and the Culture of Cohabitation and Homosexual 'Marriage'

 A small, declining denomination in the United Kingdom with a great heritage has recently changed its position on gay 'marriage' and cohabitation.  The UK Methodist Church, with a reported membership of only 164,000, has recently affirmed by vote that they wish to advocate their anti-Biblical and post-orthodox teaching on these issues.  They join other dwindling denominations (the Scottish Episcopal Church, the United Reformed Church, and the Quakers in Britain) in their misguided attempt to survive by caving to post-Christian culture. 

Such denominations first reject the instruments of orthodoxy--the authority of the Word of God and the four affirmations of the Church: unity, holiness, universality, and being in continuity with the apostolic Church of the New Testament.  (The Nicene Creed says, 'We believe in one, holy, catholic [universal], and apostolic Church.')  After bolting the front door of the Church to orthodoxy, these stoats and weasels open the back door for whatever reigning culture wishes to flood into it.  The reference to stoats and weasels comes from Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.  While away from his home for a protracted period of time, the owner, Toad, returns with his friends to discover that stoats and weasels have taken over his glorious manor and trashed it.  This is the experience of every Christian in mainline denominations in the West today, not just the Methodists.  (There are local church exceptions in these denominations, to be sure, but they are not in focus here.)  Once the stoats and weasels destroyed Toad's fine house, or as part of doing so, they engaged in wild, destructive behaviour.  The final step for the UK Methodists and others of their kind will be to continue to affirm the culture as the new faith in ever increasing ways.

Elijah, of course, encountered a similar situation in Israel in his day.  He singularly stood up to the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah (1 Kings 18).  These stoats and weasels sought to introduce the Canaanite culture's worship into Israel.  God utterly destroyed them.  This is what the book of Revelation calls the removal of Christ's light (candlestick) from the church of cultural affirmation.  From an orthodox perspective, they are no longer Christian Churches: their ministers are not to be recognized as ministers of the Christian faith, their baptisms are not to be recognized as Christian baptism, their marriage ceremonies are not to be recognized as 'holy matrimony', and their worship is filthy before a holy God (cf. Jeremiah 7).  (In the period of transition, there will remain some orthodox ministers and churches in these denominations, and they need to be handled differently.  They are essentially 'hospice chaplains' in the dying denominations of Culture Affirmation.)

Few people in the West pay attention to stories such as the UK Methodist Church's vote.  Those who catch the news in society will probably be inclined to process it as, 'Well, the Church has been and is simply irrelevant and has nothing to challenge my secular views.'  Why would anyone join a 'church' that offers nothing different from the culture?  Hence their membership decline and their irrelevance.  

Over against the sad but predictable news about the UK Methodist Church is the good news of the Presbyterian Church in America's recent vote that persons somehow trying to affirm their identity as homosexual rather than seek God's transforming power and grace to transform their desires (Jesus' ethic of the heart) are unfit for ordination.  See Carl Truman's article in First Things: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2021/07/at-the-pca-general-assembly-the-little-guys-stood-up.  In this, the PCA is joining (the process of voting on this is still playing out post-General Assembly) the fine statement of the Anglican Church in North America's College of Bishops this past January (see: https://anglicanchurch.net/sexuality-and-identity-a-pastoral-statement-from-the-college-of-bishops/).   These denominations will have to follow through with discipline and pastoral care.

News like this provides an opportunity to engage others on the subject.  It provides an opportunity to discuss the Christian faith and true Christian teaching.  Also, the news will resurface later this summer, when a split in the United Methodist Church in the United States will come.  A new, Global Methodist denomination is set to arise out of the ashes of the post-orthodox United Methodist Church.  As the second largest Protestant denomination in the United States, we should expect some news coverage of this event and, once again, it might be an opportunity to discuss truth with others you know.

So, we need to be prepared for such discussions.  I want to recommend a short article that lays out the case ever so briefly and succinctly for the Christian teaching that marriage between a man and a woman is the only place for sex.  Ian Paul's article is something you could pass on to anyone you engage in the conversation.  See https://www.premierchristianity.com/theology/does-the-bible-prohibit-sex-before-marriage/5244.article.  You might suggest to someone else that you read it together and then discuss it in light of the Biblical references that Ian Paul offers.  (Ian Paul's own blog site often offers in-depth, excellent discussion on these and other issues in the Church.  He continues in much closer dialogue than I would have with the 'stoats and weasels' of the Church of England.  Yet he advocates an orthodox understanding that is Biblically informed.  See: www.psephizo.com.)  Another excellent resource in England is Martin Davie's Glorify God in Your Body, which is online: glorify_god_in_your_body_pdf_final.pdf (ceec.info).  On my own blog's book shop, I have a short Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage that goes into some depth over various topics. It is also meant for wide use in the Church, from children in their mid-teens and for people at any stage in their Christian discipleship.  Also, for those in South Africa, please note the recent article by Rev. Dave Doveton on the situation with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa and the country of South Africa: https://anglicanmainstream.org/marriage-an-errant-anthropology-and-a-war-on-reality/. 

One final point. I sometimes get questions from people about both the issues noted in this post. 'Should I go to a "wedding" of a homosexual couple to keep the relationship open?'  And, 'What should we do when our cohabitating child comes home to visit?'  My answer to the first question--which is an obvious 'No'--can be found here: https://bibleandmission.blogspot.com/2016/11/issues-facing-missions-today-65.html.  My comment to those asking the second question is that every Christian home needs to have clearly outlined house rules based on our Christian faith.  Anyone coming into that sphere of authority, including a grown child coming home for a visit, needs to respect the house rules.  This is a basic application of the Fifth Commandment, which applies to grown children as much as young children.