Pastor Ed Young: Traditional Marriage Mirrors God's Connection to Creation
In his new sermon series that warns against drinking the "Culture's Cool-Aid," Pastor Ed Young of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas told his congregation over the weekend that it is important to consider why the Bible describes homosexuality as sin and why same-sex marriage misrepresents God's relationship with creation.
"Jesus did not say we should check our intellect at the door. We have to know why we believe certain things about life," Young shared this past Sunday as he insisted that believers should be fully aware of why "a sin is a sin."
"There are male qualities and aspects of God, and there are feminine qualities and aspects of God. When two become one, you have something beautiful coming together. In marriage, you have a picture of God's relationship with His people. It is the only relationship on planet Earth that mirrors God's connection with human beings. One man, and one woman in marriage," Young shared.
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"Marriage is the foundation of our culture. It is the building blocks of who we are. Children need both masculine and feminine influence," he continued. "God knows what's best for us -- emotionally, physically, intellectually, even sexually. God knows it."
The "Cool-Aid" sermon series, which for the next several weeks will explore topics such as gay marriage, vulgarity and bullying, focused first on the controversial topic of same-sex marriage this past Sunday.
Young, who has authored several books on marriage and relationships, began by explaining the title of the sermon as a play on the popular drink, which he said everyone likes to take a gulp of – just like many people are drawn in believing what the rest of society believes about homosexuality. Young, however, said that while Christians should accept homosexuals as they would other sinners, they should not approve of their lifestyle.
"We're all sinners. We're all attracted, we have a leaning of proclivity toward maybe greed, maybe lust, maybe anger, maybe slothfulness," said the Texas pastor.
"We accept everybody, but we don't approve of their behavior. We hate homosexuality, but we love homosexuals. We hate adultery, but we love adulterers. We hate lying, but we love liars," he added.
Young warned, however, of turning away from what the Bible teaches about marriage, which Christians believe is between one man and one woman, and listening to what culture says one should accept.
"As we look at where we're going, we see destruction and devastation," Young suggested, warning Christians not to drink "cool-aid laced with poison."
Pastor Young also insisted that there was an active gay agenda in the media and, as an example, alluded to a 2011 Gallup Poll that showed that Americans believe that 25 percent of the population is homosexual – while statistics show that only 3.5 percent of U.S. adults identify themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual.
The Fellowship Church pastor was again critical of President Barack Obama's recent endorsement of same-sex marriage, and said that "Obama has a ginormous cool-aid mustache."
He was critical of the president, who is a Christian, for using as a reason in his endorsement of gay marriage the Golden Rule, which states that people should treat others the way they would want to be treated. Young directly quoted Isaiah 5:20, which reads: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
In an interview with The Christian Post last week, Pastor Young previewed his sermon series by explaining that it was an attempt to "build bridges of love but draw lines in the sands of truth," and make it clear that "we either align ourselves with God's Word, or we malign God's Word by doing what we want to do."
"The church is the last bastion to talk about these issues. We can't be ashamed or shy or scared to talk about what God was not ashamed, shy or scared to write down and discuss. I think it's time for the church to stand up and talk about this issue in an open and straight-forward, biblical and loving way. I think churches all across North America and the world should be talking about this subject right now," Young added.
The entire "Cool-Aid" series, to be presented over the next several weeks, will be available on the Fellowship Church website.
