Watch the Oxford Union debates of Calvin Robinson and Alan Wilson (You can find these debate clips from the 03/1/2023 PowerPoint) (10 points )
- Briefly explain each speaker’s thesis statement and supporting arguments and analyze each speaker’s theological arguments. Do you agree with the speaker? If so, why? If not, why?
- What would be your speech if you were a speaker at the debate? Outline your speech
The Reverend Calvin Robinson stated at the beginning of his remarks that either he is wrong, and Christians have been teaching wrong for the last 2000 years, or the church is going to be an apostacy. Robinson said Aquinas said quite clearly that marriage is between one man and one woman because this allows for procreation. Robinson also says that Paul says that marriage is only between one man and one woman, for the purpose of being fruitful, or procreation. And because God knew everything about creation and said marriage is one man and one woman for procreation, then homosexual marriage is not godly. I do not agree with Robinson, and while he is a great orator and writes good arguments, his talk was riddled with half-truths and white male power statements to keep the status quo.
Dr. Alan Wilson started by saying that the understanding of marriage has never diverged between church and state until now and that is completely wrong. Biblical marriage was an evolving understanding. Biblical marriage includes 9 types of marriage, none of which would be legal in England today. As late as 1992, marital rape was introduced as a possibility whereas previously a married woman was expected to consent to any sexual act within the marriage. Marriage has always been evolving. The early church had no doctrine of marriage at all in a formal way. Marriage is marriage is marriage. And if you believe same sex marriage is wrong, don’t marry a homosexual. I agree with Wilson, which is not what the majority of those who commented on his video do. I agree because God is love and God created us as we are and therefore all should be loved.
My speech if I were a speaker at the event would include a look at the clobber texts, biblical marriage, and God children. I would start with Judges 19:15-25 (rape of concubine in Gibeah) and Genesis 19:1-11 (the attempted rape of angels at Sodom). Both include strangers who come to the city and stay in the home of a visitor of the city. The city people come to rape the visitors. All the city men participate, not some and not just the homosexuals in Genesis. Also, if Genesis 19 condemns homosexual sex, then Judges condemns heterosexual sex. Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13 are likely about Canaanite Shrine ritual sex given their contexts. Jude, verse 7, condemns the sin of Sodom, but what it condemns is angel – human sex because the previous example listed by Jude 6 is the story of Genesis 6:1-4. 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:9-10 both contain “vice lists” where the words ARSENOKOITAI and MALAKOI are used. ARSENOKOITAI means rapist or pederast, MALAKOI means immoral person, and someone who only has sex with women. Romans 1:23, 26-27 supposedly condemns lesbians, however this is describing the Isis Cult in Rome. This exposition on clobber passages is from The Rev. Dr. Robert K. Gnuse, what he was taught in 1972 at an LCMS Seminary.
Biblical marriage is not just between one man and one woman. Men could have multiple wives, concubines and slaves. We also know from extra biblical writings that sex with slaves by men was not just with female slaves, and as we heard about 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy, a man was looked down upon by society if they only had sex with women. Galatians 3:26 says “You are all God’s children through faith in Christ Jesus.” God created all of us to be loved, and all of us deserve to be in a marital relationship that includes love.
aSacredRebel 