It is a "shameful day" when a gay atheist offers more spiritual insight and moral backbone than many of the church leaders in the West, but this is sadly what is happening right now, Jewish believer of Jesus Dr. Michael L. Brown said.
Brown was referring to Matthew Parrish, the writer of the article entitled "As a gay atheist, I want to see the church oppose same-sex marriage."
"You know the hour is late when God uses a gay atheist to bring a sobering wake-up call to the Church, but that's exactly what happened after Ireland, traditionally a bastion of Catholicism, voted to redefine the marriage," Brown wrote in an article for The Christian Post.
Parrish was one of those who expressed shock over the Catholic church's response to Ireland's vote, noting how the Church failed to offer a definitive moral argument against same-sex marriage.
"Even as a gay atheist, I wince to see the philosophical mess that religious conservatives are making of their case. Is there nobody of any intellectual stature left in our English church, or the Roman church, to frame the argument against Christianity's slide into just going with the flow of social and cultural change?" Parrish wrote.
Brown could not agree more. Since when does a popular vote determine morality, he asked. And since when does the majority determine the will of God?
He said he could not believe that spiritual leaders are simply following what the crowd wants when they should be the ones who should be standing up against the wrong things the majority wants.
"How utterly perverse that some pastors make their decisions based on what is trending on Twitter or on what teens are doing on Instagram rather than basing everything on what God has clearly spoken in His Word, with sensitivity, compassion, and cultural wisdom," said Brown.
He said the moral backbone shown by Parrish is something that is sorely lacking among many ministers and leaders today.
He expressed hope that the Church would eventually realise the futility of issuing "man-pleasing, spineless (and) non-confrontational message."
