Many Christians are troubled by the continued “slouching toward Gomorrah” exhibited at the White House during the signing of the “Respect” for Marriage Act.
While the law arguably changed nothing, the trajectory of accepting/promoting same-sex marriage is seen everywhere in our culture – even in Trump’s speech at Mar-a-Lago with Log Cabin Republicans on Dec. 15.
Christians are commonly critiqued nowadays for caring about same-sex “marriage” when it supposedly doesn’t affect them.
Why do we care?
When it comes to the Church, the issue of homosexuality (in ordinations or marriages) is an unambiguous issue of authority. The Bible is clear: God ordained marriage as between one man/one woman for life as Jesus confirmed: “from the beginning.” Accordingly, any sexual relations outside the marriage covenant is sin. Any supposed pastor/church/denomination that approves of active homosexual relationships has openly decided to reject God’s wisdom and authority. In following the wisdom of the age – instead of Scripture – they have become distinct from Christianity, becoming rivals to Christianity rather than the loving uniters they masquerade as.
True Christianity involves trusting the Lord, not leaning on our own understanding. It involves a worldview and moral order – we are to love God with all our minds, not just emotions/feelings. When it comes to the State and public square, how can people reconcile the huge chasm separating Christianity from the secular humanist worldview on display at the White House and Mar-a-Lago last week?
There’s no quick, easy answer. Historically, Americans shaped our thinking, laws and national life around the basic moral order of Christianity, regardless of whether political leaders and citizens were Christians or not.
In almost every culture, there’s been conviction that there’s a moral order, and wisdom consists in aligning one’s life with that order.
As living contrary to the natural order has consequences (think gravity), living contrary to the moral order has consequences.
Humans, created in the image of God, have moral sense – basic understanding of right and wrong. But we’re easily led astray to our own ruin – and society’s – without a standard to live by.
God’s book of nature clearly teaches us the
relationship between a man and a woman is unique; it can do something no same-sex “marriage” can do: procreate. This further teaches us that every child brought into the world would best be raised by the man and woman that brought him into the world (normally).
This is what God’s Word teaches and it corresponds with reality.
Because this is the relationship that can result in new citizens, it is the only relationship that the State should regulate and promote.
Further, because those citizens are best raised by father and mother, the State has an interest to promote natural marriage and discourage divorce and “sexual disorders” that damage true marriages/families.
The firmness of Christians in defending God’s universal and unchanging moral order – which is both reasonable and natural – is not hateful or bigoted.
Our purpose is to honor God and defend the good of our fellow man – anything less would be malevolent.
Scott Kamps writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, thestableguy@frontier.com.