This morning, the lawyer representing Sweet Cakes by Melissa reported that
the couple was paying the fine of over $135,000 levied against them by Oregon's
Bureau of Labor and Industries for not baking a wedding cake for a lesbian
couple. Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian doled out the heavy-handed fine,
claiming the bakers were being immoral in their stance, inflicting emotional and
mental suffering and violating the women's civil rights by discriminating on the
basis of their sexual orientation.
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Avakian had prompted the payment by seizing every penny the bakers had in their
bank accounts.
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It seems we live in a topsy-turvy world
where wrong is called right and right is called wrong. But this shouldn't
be a surprise to Christians. I understand that people have a tendency to think
of the problems they currently face as new or unique. While for some things this
may be true (substituting screen time for real relationships doesn't seem to be
a problem of past generations), human beings are a remarkably consistent lot and
the early believers faced many of the same trials we do today.
Athenagoras
gives us one example. In the second century AD, Christians were being persecuted
in various cities across the Roman Empire on trumped up charges. Different city
official and citizens objected to Christians not bowing to their gods, which
basically meant rejecting whatever morality they themselves deemed appropriate.
The officials would put the Christians on trial under false accusations, such as
being immoral or being atheists, condemn them in a kangaroo court, and use it as
justification to persecute them and seize their belongings.
Charges of immorality are as old as Christianity
The injustice of this all disturbed Christian philosopher Athenagoras so much
that in AD 177 he wrote a letter to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the Emperor of
Rome himself and argued the case for the Christians. One of the charges brought
against Christians was they were engaging in immoral sexual acts. Athenagoras
writes, "they have further also made up stories against us of impious feasts and
forbidden intercourse between the sexes, both that they may appear to themselves
to have rational grounds of hatred, and because they think either by fear to
lead us away from our way of life, or to render the rulers harsh and inexorable
by the magnitude of the charges they bring."
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Athenagoras goes on to argue that Christians are not immoral at all; they
are actually more moral than even the belief systems of their accusers, pointing
out how gods the officials worship, such as Zeus, were adulterers and
incestuous. He writes that Christians held to a high view of the sanctity of
marriage. He then goes on to compare Christians and their accusers. Notice how modern the charges in this paragraph sound:
But
though such is our character (Oh! Why should I speak of things unfit to be
uttered?), the things said of us are an example of the proverb, "The harlot
reproves the chaste." For those who have set up a market for fornication and
established infamous resorts for the young for every kind of vile pleasure—who
do not abstain even from males, males with males committing shocking
abominations, outraging all the noblest and comeliest bodies in all sorts of
ways, so dishonouring the fair workmanship of God (for beauty on earth is not
self-made, but sent hither by the hand and will of God)—these men, I say, revile
us for the very things which they are conscious of themselves, and ascribe to
their own gods, boasting of them as noble deeds, and worthy of the gods. These
adulterers and pederasts defame [people choosing to remain unmarried
for life] and the once-married (while they themselves live like fishes; for
these gulp down whatever falls in their way, and the stronger chases the
weaker…), but it is incumbent on us to be good and patient of evil.
Two Lessons from Athenagoras
While the persecution of Christian bakers is not nearly as severe as what
second century Christians faced, I think there are lessons to be gleaned from
the parallels between this event and what Christians faced in Athenagoras' day.
First, charges against Christians on grounds of morality won't go away.
Christian values are not those of the world and no one should be surprised when
those who are in charge come against Christians and successfully use the law as
a hammer against them. Jesus himself warned us of this when he said, "If the
world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of
the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the
world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John
15:18-19. ESV).
Secondly, we must make certain as Christians that we
consistently live up to our own moral standards. Athenagoras' argument is
anchored on the fact that Christians really did value marriage. They held it in
the highest regard and shunned things like divorce and adultery. He states
Christians are opposed to immorality for entertainment, such as was common in
the gladiatorial events.
How seriously do Christians take their
entertainment choices? Do you hold your marriage in the highest of regards,
seeing it as inviolable until death? Does your life help make the case against
persecution or is it undercutting the contrast? We must live as Christ has told
us to live, for we will certainly suffer if we bear his name.
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