(Mat 23:13 NKJV) "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

(Rom 5:20 NKJV) Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,

There is power in the Word of God and when it says in Rom 5:20, that he Law brings out and exposes the sins deep within, there is a warning here that when we focus on the Law so strictly following the footsteps of the Pharisees, we become the biggest transgressor what we so strongly emphasized should not be done and revealed as the hypocrite. Indeed in Mat 23:13, the religious fundamentalist talked about heaven so much and the laws to follow to enter, yet they do not ourselves enter and what they teach shuts the door for others to enter in. So would many teachings of the Christian Right, so strongly emphasizing the law, yet shutting up the Kingdom of Heaven for gays to enter in for on the account of them as being too sinful to qualify.

The news of Indiana congressmen Mark Souder who was a leading Christian anti-gay antagonist resigning because of adultery reminds us the danger of championing the Law. In the ultimate hypocrisy, it was his mistress “Tracy Jackson” who was interviewing him and praising him as an advocate for “abstinence education” whilst in the back they were having a good time having extra marital affairs even though married. Mark was a member of Congress for 15 years, since 1994. Souder, 59, has been married to Diane Bauer since 1974.

The TPM May 18 article entitled “Rep. Souder And Mistress Recorded Video Praising Abstinence” where it was reported that in the November 2009 video, Tracy Jackson of “Office of congressmen Mark Souder” introduces him as follows: "You've been a longtime advocate for abstinence education and in 2006 you had your staff conduct a report entitled 'Abstinence and its Critics' which discredits many claims purveyed by those who oppose abstinence education."

From the congressional website of Mark Souder,

Souder was a member of the Apostolic Christian Church, and United Brethren in Christ which are Fundamentalist churches. His tenure at Congress was influenced by his religious convictions. In 2004, Souder said in an interview that "the closer to the clearness of the Bible, the less ability I should have to compromise”. From his Interview with “Religion and Ethics” April 23, 2004 Episode no. 734, we know the following:-

I notice you have the Ten Commandments over there by your desk. Why is that?

The Ten Commandments are the closest thing we have to a foundational set of principles that are both in the Old Testament and reinforced in the New Testament. The specific reason I have them in my office is that, a number of years ago, after we introduced a bill that would allow the posting of the Ten Commandments, a group from my district came in and presented them to me. I said I would keep them in my office. …. It's because they are a warning that the Lord is God, and do not take his name in vain, and honor him, and put no other gods before him. That is a rebuke to much of what happens in our society.

Would you look at gay marriage as "continuing to sink"?

But I believe that it's wrong and it's controllable. That is a fundamental, biblically based view that doesn't leave a lot of room or comfortability in a society where they don't want you to have absolutes.

(Mat 7:2 NKJV) "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

(Mat 7:3 NKJV) "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

Ultimately what Mark Souder said and did came back to haunt him. Adultery was controllable, whilst being gay is innate. His strong emphasis against gays sowed for him a sense of religious self righteousness which meant he never saw his own sins even though they were very real. The danger for Christianity in Singapore which is so anti-gay until we have strong positional statements by NCCS against gays and insisting that they be put in prisons, is that we are opening the flood gate of sin and corruption to enter the church. When we focus on the sin of others, the speck in their eyes, we often do not see the plank or log of wood in our own eyes even though it is so much larger and so obvious.

The bible says that the same manner we judge will be used to measure back to us, ie when as a Christian community we judge as grave sins, same sex orientation, even though it is innate and not a sin by itself, we sow for ourselves the strictest of judgment where there would be little grace nor mercy. In due time, we will reap what we sow because that is how justice and nature works, a time for sowing and harvesting. The power of this kind of grave judgmental sowing is so great such that it will bring out the sins deep in our hearts that we have not committed into reality. Hence, we will be exposed even to the deepest thoughts and desires. And Jesus reminds us that the Pharisees will be judge according to the Spirit of the Law, the intentions and desires of one’s heart even though no action of sin is committed which was very extreme. Singaporean Christians will be judged no differently for we have used the extreme measures and scales to condemn gays.

It is so important for the church be a New Creation and to start living again by God’s grace and mercy, because what we have done against the gay community is unforgivable except by the depths of God’s Amazing Grace.

INTO THY PRESENCE WE COME
NOT BY THE WORKS WE HAVE DONE
BUT BY THY GRACE AND THY GRACE A LONE
INTO THY PRESENCE WE COME