The Wall

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“What a dear old wall that is that runs along by the river there! I never pass it without feeling better for the sight of it. Such a mellow, bright, sweet old wall; what a charming picture it would make, with the lichen creeping here, and the moss growing there, a shy young vine peeping over the top at this spot, to see what is going on upon the busy river, and the sober old ivy clustering a little farther down! There are fifty shades and tints and hues in every ten yards of that old wall. . . . It looks so peaceful and so quiet, and it is such a dear old place to ramble round in the early morning before many people are about.” Jerome K. Jerome, “Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)” Ch. 6 (1889)

circle of life?

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I saw this in the Baptist Press today:

"NAVAJO NATION OVERRIDES VETO -- The Navajo Nation's tribal government voted 62-14 June 3 to override President Joe Shirley Jr.'s veto of a ban on "gay marriage." The vote means that "gay marriage" is now illegal on the largest American Indian reservation. Shirley had vetoed the ban in May, saying it was unnecessary."In the traditional Navajo ways, gay marriage is a big 'no, no,'" Navajo delegate Kenneth Maryboy, who voted for the ban, told the Associated Press. "It all boils down to the circle of life. We were put on the earth to produce offspring.""

This event is notable for the Dine', but I could not help but notice the animistic comment at the end, referring to the "circle of life." President Joe Shirley graduated from Rehoboth School (a boarding school founded by the Christian Reformed Church--from which I also graduated) and may be a Christian. I don't know if Kenneth Maryboy is a Christian, but his comment certainly is not.

The reference to the "circle of life" is actually comment that assumes there is no God, that the universe is all that ever was, all that is and all that ever will be. The comment assumes that life is responsible for itself. The traditional Dine' (Navajo) belief is they are here on earth to maintain the hozo (peace of the universe). To say that gay marriage is a "no, no" in Navajo tradition is to imply that traditional Navajo belief itself is threatened. The hozo is threatened if the nozhoni (beautiful ones) act in a way that is improper.

But is that what the Bible teaches? Yes, we are on earth to produce offspring, but it does not start there nor does it end there. God put us on earth to bring glory to Himself and while here, one of our responsibilities is to full the earth and subdue it. How desperately proper theology must be engaged! If gay marriage is wrong, it is because homosexuality is against God, and a system that does not recognize Him is in danger to doing the very thing it hates! Romans 1:18ff

The fact that gay marriage is considered any the Navajo (or any other person for that matter) is a give-away that their current system of belief is a system that fails.

Hakuna matata won't cure it, either.

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