[ Contents | About the Participants | Opening Statement by Carl Hansen  | Opening Statement by John Rankin | Dialogue | Questions from the Audience | Closing Statement by Carl Hansen | Closing Statement by John Rankin ]

Closing Statement by John Rankin

JOHN: Just in response, Carl, to something you just said. First of all, I'm going last because you went first. In terms of the normal order I could have reversed it just as happily. Carl, you said that we focus on one issue while ignoring others. I really think I've done quite the opposite. We can't focus on Scripture on its own terms in its own context unless we start at the beginning. That's why I spent so much energy, and I continue to come back to the question of the order of creation. So regardless of our perspectives on the inspiration of Scripture, I stand with confidence that we are not going to understand what Scripture says about anything unless we start with the order of creation. The order of creation is magnificent. So for example, when it talks about men and women, if you look at every pagan origin text on the face of the planet, they treat women as dust, dirt, demons, animals, or some sub-human capacity. Only Genesis treats women as equal to men. Now, complementary, we're not the same. Women bear babies and men don't as one philosopher put it so succinctly. But that's because we need each other. If you had two men in the order of creation there would be no history. That would be the end of the human race. The bottom line is that God's nature from the beginning in the order of creation is to create. The very nature of fulfilling God's image is to fill and subdue. You cannot do that without having children. And the whole necessity of male and female being complementary and being that which will fulfill the created work and enter into God's Sabbath, is based on male and female in the order of creation. And so the one question I posed at the beginning is still the central question. To say that homosexuality is a gift of God, we have to have two points of definition. Who is God? Number one, and number two, if it is claimed that it's the God of the Bible, then why is it not found in the order of creation? My book goes into detail on this. And I'll look at any question under the sun, from submarines to airplanes, anything. Downhill skiing obviously as well. I'm convinced that every issue there is on the face of the planet is addressed in understanding God, life, choice, and sex in the order of creation, and everything's a subcategory of those terms and how they relate to each other. And Jesus came to fulfill that. So the real question for me as I make that argument, and I make that with conviction, is how therefore do I treat homosexuals? Well, I dealt with this question two weeks ago with Nadine Strossen. She's the president of the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU. And the question was, "How do evangelical Christians love their homosexual neighbor?" And I think that we who are Christians must realize that when we were unreconciled in our sins, God sent his Son to live and to die for us. And therefore I will treat everyone as an image bearer of God seeking peace, order, stability and hope, to live, to love, to laugh and to learn. And regardless of a point of difference, I will say categorically that if that person were in danger I would lay my life down for them. I would say categorically I don't want one inch more freedom to pursue happiness under this Constitution than I give to others, based on an understanding of not depriving others of life, liberty and property. And I think if we do do that, there are very many homosexuals who will receive that as good news and encouragement to try and change. Back to Contents

[ Contents | About the Participants | Opening Statement by Carl Hansen  | Opening Statement by John Rankin | Dialogue | Questions from the Audience | Closing Statement by Carl Hansen | Closing Statement by John Rankin ]