A specific New York City megachurch pastor has, on more than one occasion, publically related his stance on several issues including same-sex marriage: this pastor essentially says that Jesus only dealt with the root issues of the heart and not merely the symptoms of sin. Thus, Jesus never took a stand on the moral issues of His day, so we should not make general statements regarding important moral issues of society but deal with these controversial issues in personal dialogue.

I want to make a few observations regarding these statements:

From a practical perspective, many pastors with large ministries who rent in liberal cities such as New York City are very careful what they say about same-sex marriage and other moral issues because they can easily be thrown out of the public spaces they are currently renting. Thus, in their minds they must be more cautious than ministries who own their buildings. However, this caution should never become a doctrinal issue for the church at large but merely as a method and/or strategy for one particular church or pastor (whether they are right or wrong to take this posture).

Regarding the issue at hand: Do you really think Jesus (if He was here physically ministering today instead of 2,000 years ago) would not take a position on social issues such as slavery? For example, as Evangelical Christian William Wilberforce did and eradicated the slave trade in the British Empire in the 19th century; or like Charles Finney who was an avowed abolitionist in the 19th century who ardently preached against slavery during the Second Great Awakening?

Do you think Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was wrong to use his pulpit to fight racism and launch the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s? What about today: Would Jesus not preach against the sex slave trade or the abuse of children today? What about the Holocaust of the 1940’s? Was Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrong for speaking out politically against Hitler for exterminating the Jews and forcing fascism on the nation?

Would the early church apostles have fought abortion if they were in ministry today? It is easy to know the answer to this question since the oldest extra-biblical document we have on record is the “Didache” which is a short treatise giving the early church guidelines for faith and practice. In this document that many scholars date as early as before AD 70 (or as late as the middle of the second century) the church took a stand against abortion and infanticide. (Yes, the church has historically been publically vocal against abortion for over 2,000 years since the Roman Empire practiced abortion and infanticide!)

Furthermore, the early church preached against slavery and even released slaves in the presence of bishops during worship services in the second and third centuries. Even John the Baptist was put in jail because he preached against all the evil things King Herod was doing (Luke 3:18-19)! Hence, John was beheaded for politically incorrect preaching and prophetically calling out his earthly ruler!

Furthermore, since same-sex marriage has ramifications for all of family life, it flies in the face of our culture every time a pastor preaches on the biblical framework for marriage and family–even if alternative forms of marriage are not mentioned!

In the Greco-Roman culture of Jesus’ time all forms of sexual expression outside the norms of scripture were rampant! However, Jesus’ primary purpose was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:5-6). His main concern was not with the majority culture of Rome but to reveal Himself as Messiah to the Jews. This is why He did not have to deal directly with all issues related to human sexuality (since it was not a big issue for the Jews of His day). However, Paul the Apostle did deal with these issues numerous times since he was called to minister to the Gentiles (read Romans 1:24-31 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

Furthermore, although Jesus did not focus on the social issues of the (Gentile) Roman Empire, His very essence and ministry was a major threat and an affront to Rome! Not many understand that Jesus was crucified because He wasn’t politically correct, since His claim to be King of kings threatened the powers of the Roman Caesar. This is why the early church was also persecuted (read Acts 17:5-7). Hence, the real reason our Lord was executed and the early church was persecuted was not for religious reasons, (because, as a polytheistic society the Roman Empire tolerated millions of gods). It was due to political reasons!

Related to Israel, Jesus did indeed deal with controversial moral issues like marriage, adultery and divorce (Matthew 19:3-9), greed and money (Luke 12:13-21), and the true meaning of the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6). As a matter of fact, Jesus said in Matthew 19 that marriage is between one man and one woman, thus showing the biblical template regarding the distinction between the genders and their complimentary roles as one flesh in marriage. Furthermore, Jesus did not operate in a vacuum in isolation but pointed to the Old Testament writings to affirm His legitimacy (Matthew 5:17-19). Thus, to ask the question in the title of this article, we need to include the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament writings that practically apply the teachings of Jesus: For example, the first two chapters of the book of the Old Testament prophet Amos contain a current events commentary regarding the sins of the surrounding nations; all the Old Testament prophets from Samuel to Elisha dealt with social/moral issues; even John the Baptist explained to his adherents that true repentance meant they were to cease from receiving bribes and extortion (Luke 3), which were symptomatic of the social and moral decay of their culture and not just an issue of personal heart transformation.

In my opinion, if you are silent as a pastor and never take a position then your silence on such a major issue as same-sex marriage could be interpreted by many in your congregation as acceptance!  Also, some may even accuse the (silent) pastor of deceiving same-sex partners who, after climbing the ladder of church affiliation are then told (in a private conversation) that they do not qualify because of their sexuality and/or same-sex marriage. (One prominent pastor I know almost had a major lawsuit on his hands a few years ago because he was silent regarding same-sex marriage and two of his (same-sex) leaders announced they were getting married to each other!)

Because most pastors are silent and erroneously separate the gospel from the kingdom and culture, we have left society to be framed without a biblical template. Whatever area the church does not influence will come back to try and destroy us. There is no neutrality in this world!

In conclusion, it seems obvious to me that Jesus is calling for the church to lovingly serve our cities without compromising our prophetic call as salt and light to this world.

To subscribe for a weekly teaching click here.