Editorial
Re: Capitulation
Tony Campolo's Turmoil over Homosexual "Marriage"
In a June 8 declaration on his personal blogsite, Tony Campolo, an Evangelical theologian with a reputation for contrarian views and a significant opinion leader in the movement's progressive wing, called for "the full acceptance of Christian gay couples into the Church." At the base of his reasoning is the rejection of the idea, which "traces back to St. Augustine," that "the sole purpose of marriage is procreation." Dr. Campolo numbers himself with those who recognize "a more spiritual dimension of marriage, which is of supreme importance." The premise, taken with the caricature of traditional Christian teaching about marriage, makes his conclusion unremarkable.
One wonders if Dr. Campolo has ever heard the Prayer Book marriage service: "First [marriage] was ordained for the procreation of children . . . secondly . . . for a remedy against sin . . . thirdly . . . for the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have of the other. . . ." That he is playing to the ignorant and thoughtless is plain by his presentation of the traditional view of marriage as solely for procreation, which then makes him able to hoist into the place of that old mistake a different and better First Reason, namely, to promote those things ("love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control") which make for spiritual growth in the partners.
On what does his authority for this enlightenment rest? Here are his bona fides:
As a young man I surrendered my life to Jesus and trusted in Him for my salvation, and I have been a staunch evangelical ever since. I rely on the doctrines of the Apostles Creed. I believe the Bible to have been written by men inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit. I place my highest priority on the words of Jesus, emphasizing the 25th chapter of Matthew, where Jesus makes clear that on Judgment Day the defining question will be how each of us responded to those he calls "the least of these."
Once again it is not difficult to see how he will reason from this to approval of gay marriage. (One wonders about homosexuals being impliedly among the "least of these." Politically and culturally speaking, in these Western lands they are immensely powerful oppressors of orthodox Christians. If they are the least because they are sinners like those with whom Jesus and his disciple Campolo have notoriously associated, then why are they not marked out for deliverance from the sin that make them so?) What is of particular concern here, however, is this statement: "It has taken countless hours of prayer, study, conversation and emotional turmoil to bring me to the place where I am finally ready to call for the full acceptance of Christian gay couples into the Church."
What people are saying about Touchstone:
Let us not be so simple and unhelpful as to say that this is what happens when one is an Evangelical and with respect to authority can do no better, for the first problem here is not the source of Campolo's highest authority as terminating in personal spiritual struggle. Rather, it is his prejudicial misrepresentation of fact and rhetorical legerdemain leading to a desired conclusion—the desire for the conclusion being the only reasonable driving force behind the process itself.
While it would be fair to say that many Evangelicals have lost touch with their own history to such a degree that they find it difficult to contemplate themselves as a part of, and beholden to, a deeper, older, and larger authority than their seminary professors and more influential pastors represent, and that there is fear of going too far in meditation on these things lest they become in some sense un-Evangelical, the problem in this "I have been in much prayer (or Bible study, or communion with saints or angels), and so declare unto you . . ." syndrome is something all Christians need to be wary of.
Our first reaction to these declarations should be unapologetic, knee-jerk skepticism. St. Paul commends the Bereans for not believing him without first satisfying themselves from the Scriptures of the legitimacy of his message. One sees the same critical attitude in the Catholic Church when episcopal commissions are set up to evaluate claimed miracles or appearances of saints. While popular piety may carry the day in such cases, still, the effusions of enthusiasts are not simply accepted at face value in Rome; nor do the mutterings of hermits, however starved and unblinking, translate automatically into Holy Tradition among the Orthodox. (As Fr. Reardon once told me, "We may put this one on the fast track, and let you know in about 500 years.") Wise Evangelicals have the same attitude. That is why the predictably iconoclastic Dr. Campolo remains a fringe phenomenon among them. •
S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
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more from the online archives
34.1—January/February 2021
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28.2—March/April 2015
Neo-Pagan Family Policies Doom Any Recovery by Allan C. Carlson
29.1—Jan/Feb 2016
Secular Credibility Is a Devilish Temptation by James Hitchcock
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