Offending God

I read a conversation that Kirby was participating in on facebook the other day.  One person was defending marriage between gay couples and others were making points against it.  Kirby made the point that gay marriage partners demanding to be married in churches who taught against homosexuality were infringing on the church's rights to uphold their own beliefs.

I was struck, upon reading the conversation, with an impression that has come upon me numerous times lately: that in our society, one of the things that we are doing, that is really dangerous to our morality, is trying not to offend.

I am not saying that we should strive to be offensive, but our culture is so focused on not giving offense to anyone, that it is hardly possible to stand up for what is truth without being considered offensive to someone.

It strikes me that marriage is ordained of God as a sacred ordinance and that homosexuality is strictly forbidden by God as an unnatural sin.  In our day, people who are living a homosexual lifestyle, not only want to be allowed the freedom to do so without guilt, but they also want to sanctify this action by giving it the same rites as the sacred ordinance of marriage.  This strikes me as blasphemy.  Holding up something unholy and attributing to it a holy status.

I am struck by the thought that in being so careful not to offend other men, that we may instead, be offending God.  Is it not better then to offend men, than to offend God?

Yesterday, in Sunday School, we talked about Lehi's counsel to his sons at the end of his life.  He was explaining to Laman and Lemuel that Nephi had not tried to offend them, but was speaking the truths of God as given to him by the spirit of God.  That men take the word to be hard when it goes against their natural tendencies to be approved of no matter what they are doing.  I think this story applies here.

As the world struggles more and more to get us to move into the grey areas and compromise what we believe, I believe we must stand true and faithful to the truths that we know.  We would not offend men, but it is even more vital that we should not offend God.