A Review of Double-Minded: How Sex is Dividing the Australian Church. By Mark Durie.
Deror Books, 2023.
The Australian churches and sexual ethics:
Australian pastor, social commentator, and Islam expert Rev. Dr. Mark Durie has a new book out which is brief but informative. The subtitle tells us what it is about, but before going further, let me mention what this book does not set out to do.
This is not a detailed look at the sexual revolution, nor issues like homosexual marriage, nor a history of the culture wars in Australia, nor where the churches should stand on these matters. Indeed, at one point Durie says he is not making his views known on these matters (although as a conservative, biblical Christian we know where he does stand on this).
What this slim volume does set out to do is look at the major church bodies in Australia, exploring where they stand on these pressing issues, especially things like same-sex marriage. He examines both historical matters as well as sociological findings on this. He draws on recent census findings and church surveys, although noting that these may not tell us the whole story.
Early on he notes that “the worldview of Christians is so different from, and indeed alien to, the dominant way of thinking in the surrounding culture, particularly in relation to the nature of the human person. To this lack of understanding can be added hostility towards the church’s moral teachings.” (p. 4)
The long and short of things is this: the more liberal churches are far more comfortable with the secular culture around them, and so are much more likely to embrace its views on most things, including sexual morality. This should come as no surprise: theologically liberal believers tend also to be politically, culturally and socially liberal as well.
So the real issue boils down to the matter of biblical authority. If we accept the Scriptural teachings on things like sex, marriage and family, then we will not blindly go along with whatever are the latest trendy secular left agenda items of the world around us.
Thus the main division in churches is between those who primarily take their marching orders from the Bible, and those who are more than happy to cozy up to the world and its amoral and immoral value systems. One liberal denomination after another has been fully supporting things like the homosexual agenda – and now the trans agenda.
Durie shows how this works out in practice on a larger scale. He reminds us that the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) movement arose in response to the liberal North American Anglicans and their support of homosexual marriage. This is part of the bigger picture. He says all this is being fought out on two levels:
On the one level, there are theologians and religious teachers slugging it out to establish the rightness of their views. On another level, deep cultural shifts are affecting church members, manifested in changing attitudes to sexual expressions as well as changing patterns of behaviour. In a sense, the theologians are trying to sort things out after the sexual revolution cultural tsunami has already swept through the churches. (p. 23)
As mentioned, those believers who have been following all this will not be surprised at the findings presented in the book. Groups like the Uniting Church in Australia have primarily caved in on these sorts of issues, although there still are vocal minorities within seeking to turn things around.
In his chapter on the UCA (which was formed in 1977 when the Australian Methodist, Congregationalist, and Presbyterian churches merged), he looks in more detail at what is happening there. In the area of sexual ethics, it has evolved into “the most progressive of major Australian Christian denominations.”
It authorised homosexual marriage in 2018, but it allows individual clergy and congregations to decide whether they run with this. However, it also still has traditional marriage ceremonies. As such, “the UCA has recognised two mutually incompatible doctrines on human sexuality and marriage.”
His chapter on Pentecostal churches notes that Australian Census data is unreliable, given that there is no “Pentecostal” box for them to click. Still, it is now the largest Christian body in the country following the Catholics. He examines two main groups: The Australian Christian Churches and the smaller Acts Global Churches.
All up the Pentecostals and charismatics tend to be the most conservative (biblically faithful) groups when it comes to matters of sexual ethics. This may seem surprising, given that they have a younger demographic than the other older denominations. Although Durie goes on to say (p. 104), that while the ACC had the most conservative views on sexual morality, they tended to keep rather quiet in public, as in the SSM debate.
As in the West as a whole, church attendance is declining and religious observance is waning in Australia and the gospel of secularism is on the rise. But also as in many countries, there is a mixed bag here. Durie looks at the latest census figures and finds both growth and decline. He says this:
The story of Australian Christianity has not been one of uniform decline. While the “Catholic” and “Mainstream Protestant” churches have been declining, the “Other Protestant” and “Pentecostal” churches have been growing, and the net effect of these trends is an increase in overall Protestant church attendance despite mainstream Protestant decline. (p. 60)
In his chapter on looking to the future, he reminds us of how churches need to be aware of the legal pressures that are increasingly being brought to bear on them:
Protections for churches to discriminate on the basis of sexual ethics will only be available when a church can show that this is done to conform to church doctrine. This protection will not be available if the official doctrine of the church does not offer this protection, or if a denomination or movement is inconsistent in applying discipline in relation to sexual ethics.
The increasing anti-discrimination pressure on churches will surely put pressure on then to have clearly defined positions on sexual ethics, and to apply discipline consistently to enforce these positions. Tolerance expressed as vagueness and inconsistency in church discipline will be increasingly untenable. Turning a blind eye to code of conduct violation will no longer be an option. (p. 140)
Yes quite right. I recall even decades ago speaking at churches and warning them that they better be ready for all this. Keeping their heads in the sand and hoping none of the sexual revolution – including the radical homosexual agenda – would impact them is just living in dreamland. Some took notice of our warnings – some did not, and they are now paying the price.
Durie says that we are now in a time of transition, with key divisions emerging among the churches concerning the issue of sexual morality and the biblical position. It may seem like the progressives are the wave of the future and will eventually win out. Not so says Durie:
It would be a mistake to see the emerging divisions in Christian churches over sexual ethics as the last throes of failing, rusted-on religious conservatism. While some Christians have been embracing the outcomes of the sexual revolution, they represent the dying fringes of Christianity, not its beating heart. (p. 148).
[1197 words]
Rev Stephen McAlpine, author of “Being the Bad Guys”, renames our society “sexular” rather than “secular”.
Man can do what he likes for a season; but when man wilfully decides to break God’s Laws and even teach others to do the same, does such a man remain a follower of Christ; or does such a man just go his own way, cut off from the Kingdom of God?
Is the “church” divided now or was part of what appeared to be church, merely religious and effectively a spiritually dead carcase; never Born Again?
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John 3:1-21
New King James Version
The New Birth
3 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born [a]again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man [b]who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should [c]not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Jim Wallace said in July 2012, prior to the change in the Marriage Act,
“If you cross this line, you won’t be able to defend it”
Jim’s ‘prophecy’ was spot on. Things have gone dramatically downhill since then.
https://atributetoaustralianchristians.wordpress.com/2020/10/07/if-you-cross-this-line-you-wont-be-able-to-defend-it/
For a conservative biblically based view of these issues see ‘Gender Wars in Christianity’ by. Guy Manuell, available through Amazon
It is so affirming to read this article, as it describes what I have seen and experienced over the course of my life.; the decline in the social fabric of our culture and in the church. I have commented on this as I’ve observed it, and have not found a place I can land within the church regarding the same sex marriage question. Consequently, I have no church home. I need one, I need to worship and take communion, fellowship and to grow spiritually. I am lacking, yet, cannot compromise with how most denominations and even non-denominational churches straddle two opposing position, or pick and choose which scriptures they uphold and stand by. It is the worst use of power and control. I am at a loss as to where I can worship in good conscience.
How can a Christian be in the world, and not be of it? Storefront churches answer this By playing loud rock music with religious lyrics, Handing out ear plugs to worshippers who need a quiet place to withdraw from the noise and cacophony of the world? And leave baskets of communion cellophane wrapped communion bread and tiny sealed cups of wine at the exit as a way of distributing communion elements: Drive through communion, on the go.
Or is it correct to restrict worshippers from communing if they have been divorced? And in the process deprive worshippers of the experience of that holy sacrament. Who draws the lines and who enforces the lines, if there are any? Who has the power and control? I believe God still has the power and that is what I cling to in this current state of affairs. But still have no place to experience corporate worship. Perhaps if I focus on loving the Lord my God with all of my heart, mind, and soul, it will be enough.
wavered
Many thanks Coleen. Keep standing strong.