I normally don’t watch the Hallmark cable channel, but my wife has it on at times and I noticed it cranks out movies with nearly-identical, cookie-cutter plots involving an unmarried, female protagonist who is dating an obnoxious and self-absorbed Mr. Wrong, but eventually stumbles upon sweet, charming, and attentive Mr. Right, who was usually right under her nose the whole time.
It came to my attention that on November 22nd, Hallmark premiered a new movie, “The Christmas House,” featuring a gay lead couple for the first time. The official summary states the movie “follows Brandon and his husband Jake as they visit Brandon’s parents for the holidays. The couple spends the time anxiously awaiting a call about the adoption of their first child.”
I was eating breakfast with a Christian friend recently and I mentioned the movie in question with some remarks about it being symbolic of how society is increasingly accepting of gay relationships and gay “marriages” as normal. It struck me as significant that the Hallmark Channel, widely viewed as a bastion of “goodness” and “morality,” had finally acquiesced to the LGBT agenda drumbeat.
My friend takes a different view and believes that, since we are all sinners, it’s no more objectionable for Hallmark to portray homosexuals in relationships than it is to portray anyone else. I certainly “get” the “we are all sinners” argument, but, I replied, these types of shows promote/condone homosexual behavior/relationships as a positive option, especially in the minds of younger viewers. The conversation went back and forth and we both began to become exasperated with each other’s arguments. I then offered my final thought. Hypothetically speaking, I said, Jesus Christ would not have married those two characters. He would have loved them and taught them to repent and trust in Him as their Savior by faith alone, but He would not have condoned their homosexual behavior and He definitely would not have married them. My friend replied with something along the lines of, Yeah, I agree Jesus might not have married the two, but we are not Jesus Christ and we are not to judge because we are all sinners as well. At that point, we ended the discussion because we were just going round and round in repetitious circles.
Yup, we are all sinners. No doubt about that. One of the most annoying features of the independent fundamental Baptist church we attended decades ago was the pastor’s constant railing against homosexuals. But that doesn’t mean we are to capitulate and accept sinful behavior, ANY sinful behavior, as positive and acceptable. The LGBT steamroller has drastically altered society’s view of sexuality and marriage over the last couple of decades and that view is even making inroads into the church.
Postscript: I don’t watch a lot of television outside of the news and some sports, but I have noticed the growing trend of same-sex couples being used in advertisements.