Haywood Humble

You’ve heard it said,

I don’t want Waynesville to become Asheville.

I say to you:

Haywood must be Humble, lovers of God.

It is not enough for Haywood county to have a negative vision of what it does not want. Haywood must have a positive vision of good. Our rulers must love God. One theologian put it like this:

Since the civil magistrate is invested with this authority by… the one living and true God, …[he is] under obligation to discharge the office devolving upon him in accordance with the revealed will of God. The Bible is the supreme and infallible revelation of God’s will and it is, therefore, the supreme and infallible rule in all departments of life.¹

Haywood county’s vision of good must match God’s vision of good, if it be good. Our leaders must willingly, and not under compulsion, produce a healthy, god-honoring social circumstance.

Biblically Good Sexuality

Jesus defines proper, God-defined sexuality, which is the basis of social order:

Pharisees came up to [Jesus] and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” (Matt. 19:3-9 ESV, emphasis added)

Jesus here defines man as male and female, and man’s proper sexual relationship as one-man, one-woman, life-long covenant. This is set in the context of God’s positive purposes for the propagation of the human race through family. Jesus, and later Paul, make exceptions to this arrangement only in cases of adultery, desertion, and life-long chastity.² There is no proper expression of sexuality or gender outside of these contraints given by God’s positive vision for man. This is nothing but a reaffirmation of the Old Testament (Gen. 2:23-24), which teaches its men:

You shall not lie (κοίτην) with a male (ἄρσενος) as with a woman; it is an abomination. (Lev. 18:22 ESV; cf. Lev. 20:13)

This is quoted in the New Testament:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality (οὔτε μαλακοὶ οὔτε ἀρσενο-κοῖται), nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you… (1 Cor. 6:9-11 ESV, emphasis added)

This Old Testament referent, like Jesus’ positive vision of sexuality (“from the beginning”), strips away any suggestion that New Testament writers are only condemning pederasty or sins of their particular time, culture, and situation so that today’s sodomy and sexual sin would not apply. The New Testament passage also shows these are sins to be repented-of, and not lived-in as identities. The Bible has always been abundantly clear, but

There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. (2 Pet. 3:16 ESV)

Is it a coincidence, then, that the narrow³ and Biblical definition of sexuality is the only one excluded by the rainbow flags decking our streets?

Exclusion for Thee, but not for Me

What are these displays for then, if not to publicly shame, defile, and mock the God and word of Christ and Christians?

The rainbow flag, displayed for “Pride”, was created by Gilbert Baker. Baker was once a member of a group called “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence”, who dress like Christian clergy to mock them, publicly performing non-Christian acts like drag.⁴

Historian Carl Trueman explains the purpose of this mockery:

[for Freudians] culture is constituted by those things that it forbids; the frustration that such rules create finds an outlet in art; thus, works of art are also constitutive of the culture, reflecting in some way the interdicts that are in place. A deathwork, by contrast, represents an attack on established cultural art forms in a manner designed to undo the deeper moral structure of society… deathworks make the old values look ridiculous.⁵

In short, a pride parade is a “deathwork,” intentionally seeking to unseat established moral norms, releasing people from the social stigmas of sexual sin.

“Pride”, in particular, is fittingly called a “deathwork” since it brings no life.

Neither homosexuality, adultery, sexual-experimentation, sexual-misidentifications, gender-confusion, gender-denial, queerness, or paedophilia contribute to a positive or godly vision of family and society. They produce no legitimate offspring, nor do they produce a true basis for sociological unity (e.g., so-called “gay” and “trans” identities are incompatible) without existing by opposition; namely, to Christians. These are definitionally anti-social, anti-god, distortions of public good.

If Haywood held merely to the positive vision provided by its Lord, it would encourage family. No man would be concerned that his young girls would see expressions of their gender paraded around, in mockery, by a grown man. No one would suffer lascivious, lewd, and lustful sexual display in public.

Claims that LGBTQ+ people are unsafe in a Christian-society’s hands stem from faulty views of safety. He is safest who hides in God and what God loves.⁶ On the contrary, Christians, and the innocent in general, especially children, are not safe from wicked ideology on Waynesville streets.

None of this occurs because there is some hatred of exclusion. Exclusion is the goal, Christians and their culture are the target.

Biblically Defined Pride

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isa. 5:20 ESV)

It’s often noted that Pride, as a vice, is one of the seven deadly sins, but there is a positive side to pride, or boasting. Men talk of pride in their wives, their country, or their family. The Apostle Paul boasts in the Corinthian church,

I have great pride in you (2 Cor. 7:4 ESV)

But a negative sense of pride, the sort of pride God condemns, is a pride which raises itself above God or God’s revelation of right and wrong, good and evil. This pride God hates (Prov. 6:16-19).

For this reason “Pride”, as an event, is a celebration of many evils. On sexuality it celebrates everything but God’s vision of the good; under the pretense of inclusion, Jesus’ definition of god-honoring sexuality (i.e., chaste heterosexuality) is excluded; under the pretense of love, the pride movement teaches a hatred for the family and a hatred for God, by denying them. Under the pretense of diversity, Christians are despised and rejected.

Let us, then, take pride in the Lord Jesus, in his stance on marriage and sexuality. Take pride in churches and pastors who are not weak-willed and silent on this matter, speaking where God speaks. True humility is refusing to speak further than God has. True humility is speaking what God has spoken. It is not humble to be silent in such times.

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. (1 Cor. 16:13 ESV)

Biblical Response

They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. (Jer. 6:14 ESV)

Some Christians are happy to “live and let live,” as if that were happening, or possible. The parading is proof, itself, that Waynesville’s leaders are willing to spend our money on wicked ends, which defile and degrade. It would be even worse if they allowed such perversions into our gates for the mere money and “positive cash flow.”

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? (Mk. 8:36 ESV)

Libraries and schools are increasingly encroached on and individuals consider it some sort of miracle that they can say “Jesus” in a prayer in public, when this is obviously the just and right way to live.⁷

The Haywood Humble must live lives of proper orientation, and proper new life in Christ. Often, mere mentions of “orientation” and “born-this-way” stymie the least of these, so it’s worth briefly understanding a biblical basis for Christian righteousness.

Repentance is the primary word for a Christian understanding of orientation, which in its most basic sense is turning from sin to God. There’s never an inclination in the scriptures that a Christian should call themselves a ”___________ Christian”, where ”___________” is any sinful adjective, or that a Christian need-be psychologically or emotionally enslaved to what God calls sin or sinful, such as any sexual sin.⁸

Debates rage not only “orientation,” but over whether or not homosexuals are “born-this-way.” Claims are made that rising numbers of homosexuals only represent latent, previously silent, populations. Regardless, our Lord says,

Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ (Jn. 3:7 ESV)

Only by the Holy Spirit can one posses new and vital life in God, and let their previous, sinful self, be gone. No one has a right over their own body, or defining their own identity, since everything belongs to God.

What do you have that you did not receive? (1 Cor. 4:7 ESV)

Biblical Steps for Haywood

The Haywood Humble must posses this simple message:

Repent, believe in the good news! You may be born again by belief in Jesus Christ, who died that you might live, who lives that you might die to yourself and all your wicked passions. He will change your orientation, your sexuality, your self, that you may honor the Lord, from the greatest to the least of these. I have no self-righteousness, but only the righteousness of Christ, to offer you. Come and believe, be saved.

To our leaders, Waynesville’s Town Council,

You are lamentably responsible for this wicked display. Repent, for us, and love Jesus Christ. He has given you power, which you must use in His wisdom. Establish his righteousness that Waynesville’s children may be safe.

We ask our civil leaders to govern with humility, moral seriousness, and a sincere concern for the good of the people entrusted to them. Public office is not self-created authority; it is stewardship under God.

Christians who wish to further speak with Waynesville’s Town Council may encourage them respectfully and plainly.⁹

To Haywood’s Humble men, please protect your most vulnerable and immature from this degrading and sinful display, and encourage the mature to be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might.¹⁰

Haywood Humble

In order to organize for the positive promotion of family and godliness in the greater Haywood area, I invite you to connect and communicate with us at Covenant Presbyterian Church.

We will also keep an email list for all those who are interested at HaywoodHumble.com. Please go there and a leave message so we can get to know you. God willing, we will organize to help protect and provide for our flocks.

By the Lord’s grace alone, I’m humbly your servant in Christ,

Pastor Joe Johnson

HaywoodHumble.com
CovenantPresbyterian.church

Appendix A: A brief note on Christian government

Presbyterians traditionally hold, through the Westminster Confession of Faith, to an active civil government participating in righteousness, while simultaneously making a distinction between church and state. Here is the logic, from the perspective of our Larger Catechism’s take on the ten commandments (Ex. 20):

Question: Who are meant by father and mother in the fifth commandment?

Answer: By father and mother, in the fifth commandment, are meant, not only natural parents, but all superiors in age, and gifts; and especially such as, by God’s ordinance, are over us in place of authority, whether in family, church, or commonwealth. (WLC 124)

Our civil government is constrained by the commandment of God, in the fifth commandment.

Question: What is required of superiors towards their inferiors [in the fifth commandment]?

Answer: It is required of superiors according to that power they receive from God, and that relation wherein they stand, to love, pray for, and bless their inferiors, to instruct, counsel, and admonish them; countenancing, commending, and rewarding such as do well; and discountenancing, reproving, and chastising such as do ill; protecting, and providing for them all things necessary for soul and body: and by grave, wise, holy, and exemplary carriage, to procure glory to God, honour to themselves, and so to preserve that authority which God hath put upon them. (WLC 129)

Our government must act as a loving father, or mother, over all in their care, for soul and body. This means taking care to not promote sin, of course, but instead to promote righteousness. Further, for those in government to tear down monuments of idolatry, not to erect them.

Question: What are the duties required in the second commandment?

Answer: The duties required in the second commandment are, the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath instituted in his word; particularly prayer and thanksgiving in the name of Christ; the reading, preaching, and hearing of the word; the administration and receiving of the sacraments; church government and discipline; the ministry and maintenance thereof; religious fasting; swearing by the name of God, and vowing unto him: as also the disapproving, detesting, opposing, all false worship; and, according to each one’s place and calling, removing it, and all monuments of idolatry. (WLC 108)

Lastly, it requires government to provide for the church, though not to become the church.

Question: What do we pray for in the second petition?

Answer: In the second petition (which is, Thy kingdom come,) acknowledging ourselves and all mankind to be by nature under the dominion of sin and Satan, we pray, that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the gospel propagated throughout the world, the Jews called, the fulness of the Gentiles brought in; the church furnished with all gospel-officers and ordinances, purged from corruption, countenanced and maintained by the civil magistrate: that the ordinances of Christ may be purely dispensed, and made effectual to the converting of those that are yet in their sins, and the confirming, comforting, and building up of those that are already converted: that Christ would rule in our hearts here, and hasten the time of his second coming, and our reigning with him for ever: and that he would be pleased so to exercise the kingdom of his power in all the world, as may best conduce to these ends. (WLC 191)