A pastor of a New York City megachurch has, on more than one occasion, publicly related his stance on several issues including same-sex marriage: This pastor essentially said 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; hence we should not make general statements regarding important moral issues of society but rather deal with these controversial issues in personal dialogue.

I want to make a few observations regarding his statements:

From a practical perspective—many pastors with large ministries who rent in liberal cities such as NYC are very careful what they say about same-sex marriage and other moral issues because they can easily be thrown out of spaces they are renting—thus, in their mind, they have to be more cautious than ministries that own their buildings. However, this caution should never become a doctrinal issue for the church but merely 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 were here physically ministering today instead of 2,000 years ago) would not take a position on social issues such as slavery (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 help launch the civil-rights movement in the 1950s?

What about today? Would Jesus not preach against the sex-slave trade or the abuse of children today? What about the Holocaust of the 1940s? Was Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrong for speaking out 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, 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 70 A.D. (or as late as the middle of the second century), the church took a stand against abortion and infanticide (yes, the church historically has been publicly 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 the bishops during worship services during 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.

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 (Matt. 10:5-6). His main concern was not with the majority culture of Rome but to reveal Himself as Messiah to the Jews, which 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 so numerous times, since he was called to minister to the Gentiles.

In my opinion, if you are silent as a pastor and never take a position, your silence on such a major issue as same-sex marriage could be interpreted by many that you condone it. 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 to destroy us; there is no neutrality in this world.  

Joseph Mattera is overseeing bishop of Resurrection Church, Christ Covenant Coalition, in Brooklyn, New York.

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