EDITOR, The Tribune.

According to Wikipedia, the Catholic Church, with its estimated 1.3 billion members around the world, is the largest branch of Christianity.

With Protestants comprising over 80 percent of the religious demographic in The Bahamas, Bahamian Catholics are a tiny minority.

The Catholic Church is headed by Pope Francis. As an Argentinean cardinal and Jesuit priest, Francis succeeded Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.

Argentina is located in South America, the epicenter of Liberation Theology.

This theology was developed by Latin American theologians Juan Luis Segundo, a Jesuit like Pope Francis, Leonardo Boff, Jon Sobrino and Gustavo Gutierrez, subsequent to the Second Vatican Council between 1962-1965. At the time of the Second Vatican Council, the young, impressionable Francis was in his mid to late 20s.

Judging by his controversial utterances since assuming office at the Vatican, Pope Francis seems to have not escaped the influence of Liberation Theology.

Proponents of Liberation Theology have merged Marxism with Christianity.

This cross-pollination is ironic, especially given the fact that Karl Marx was quoted as saying that religion is the opium of the people.

The overwhelming majority of the most ruthless atheistic dictators in the 20th century were deeply influenced by Marxism. Religious Marxists interpret the Bible through the lens of The Communist Manifesto much the same way traditional Catholics read the Bible through the lens of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Ironically, the Catechism of the Catholic Church was edited by Joseph Ratzinger, better known to the world as Pope Benedict XVI. In a recent Washington Post article by Chico Harlan and Michelle Boorstein, it was reported that Pope Francis, in a documentary titled Francesco by filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky, is calling for the creation of civil union laws for same-sex couples.

The Pope stopped short of calling for the full acceptance of same-sex marriage, which in itself is a misnomer. Genesis 2:23-24 gives us a divine definition of marriage, which is one man to one woman. Anything else is a distortion of God’s intended ideal.

The article claims that Pope Francis stated that gay couples should be legally covered.

According to the Pontiff, homosexuals are God’s children, which conflicts with the words of Jesus Christ in John 8:44, in which the Lord told His Jewish opponents that they are the children of Satan.

The same principle applies to unbelieving Gentiles from a soteriological standpoint. According to John 1:12, one must receive Jesus Christ as Lord in order to become a child of God. As one who studied theology, Pope Francis should be knowledgeable about the doctrine of adoption.

Pope Francis seems to be a proponent of the heretical German Lutheran theologian Adolf von Harnack’s universal fatherhood of God doctrine.

By suggesting that homosexuals are God’s children, the Pope is giving these people a false sense of security. The unrepentant homosexual is headed to a Christless hell, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth throughout all eternity. Either he gives up his lifestyle or he follows Jesus. He cannot have both.

For what it’s worth, Pope Francis’ viewpoints on homosexuality are at odds with the Bible. Evangelical Catholics in The Bahamas must appreciate the fact that their spiritual leader’s pronouncements must always play second fiddle to the Bible. Our eternal destiny hinges on it. The Bible minces no words in denouncing homosexuality.

First Corinthians 6:9-10 reads: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor isolators, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherent the kingdom of God.”

Additionally, other biblical passages, such as 1 Timothy 1:9-10; Romans 1:26-27; 2 Peter 2:6-8; Jude 7; Leviticus 18:22 and Genesis 19:1-25 are difficult for any homosexual apologist to explain away. Interestingly, Pope Benedict XVI, in the same Washington Post article mentioned above, is claimed to have said that homosexuality is an intrinsic evil. I wholeheartedly agree. Bahamian Catholics who support the traditional definition of marriage must now ask themselves the all-important question: Why am I still following Pope Francis?

Will Bahamian Catholics emulate Pope Benedict XVI by accepting the biblical standards for human sexuality, or will they follow the lead of the current Pope? In closing, I will like to leave a timely quote from the late Dr Greg Bahsen’s Homosexuality: A Biblical View: “ The creation of sexual differentiation by God from the beginning established heterosexuality as the normative direction for the sexual impulse and act. Man’s sexual function has been defined by God as male-female behaviour.

This fact refutes the claims of homosexual apologists who say that all human beings have the right of self-definition. Such existential rationale reflects an autonomous desire to replace God’s intended distinctions..... “

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama.

October 21, 2020.