DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 2 (MExN): The Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) on Friday sounded its position “loud and clear” that marriage is between a man and a woman only, and it shall “never permit gay sex and the criminalizing of adultery as unconstitutional and archaic by the Supreme Court cannot in any way justify gay sex or adultery.” Terming the recent Supreme Court judgment decriminalizing the acts of homosexuality and adultery as “extremely detestable and unacceptable to the Christians under any circumstances,” the NBCC is a press communiqué warned all the Christians never to be taken away by such laws as reinterpreting the Bible and the biblical morality and ethics. Interpreting the judgment, a NBCC communiqué understood that homosexuality and gay marriage and adultery as per Section 377 and Section 497 IPC are no longer an offence and means to say that homosexuality, lesbianism, gay marriage or adultery or illegitimate sex outside the conjugal bed does not injure or hurt anyone and should not be treated as an injury or a hurt to women or children, therefore, they are not crimes. Stating that “Adultery is always adultery, so also it is the same with homosexuality or lesbianism, the NBCC said the Court absolutely cannot change these true facts. It stated that there can be no any other interpretations on these issues, which it pointed out “is not the opinion of the church but the biblical teaching upon which the church formulates its uncompromising propriety, morality and ethics.” The NBCC also maintained that “tension; unfriendliness and distrust between the theo-centric and anthropo-centric institutions” have always existed till date since many centuries ago. The said tension becomes wider when the church stands firm unto the biblical teaching and the state continues to be swayed away with its compromising interpretation of modernisation and liberalization in the name of modernity. In a secular country like India, the NBCC observed with regret that the state is tilting towards this aspect more and more lately. “We cannot say that we are surprised with the recent two rulings of the Supreme Court in our country but we are certainly shocked and astonished how India once supposed to be conservative society is changing so rapidly and embracing the new diluting norms of propriety, morality and decency,” it stated. At such given scenario, the NBCC said Christians must also stand on their solid ground on issues which impinge on their faith and morality because “we have a much higher calling to stay faithful and committed to the teaching of the Bible.” “Though we are governed by the law of the land so as to be good citizens, however, when the laws are intentionally introduced and amended to liberalize or compromise morality and ethics of its citizens, we, the church must firmly stand guard against such move at all costs and always,” it went on to state. What is considered as immoral and unethical is not the church’s own construction but we are governed by a higher standard than that of the world, which is the Bible, it added. The NBCC also made it clear that the church did not criminalize LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender /transsexual and intersex) and adulterers but simple proclaims that they are sinful acts and against God’s design for relationship and marriage. And to this end, the church must pursue the path of redemption and restoration, it added. It also stated that it is the responsibility of the church to reach out in the spirit of Christian love and compassion to redeem the lost souls without making statement of superiority complex or discriminatory judgment. “NBCC stands on the finality of the Bible for all matters of faith, morality and practices. Even if the court decriminalizes gay marriage and adultery it cannot not justify against the biblical teaching on such unnatural relationships and unwarranted human behaviors.”
