http://www.christianpost.com/news/five-reasons-christians-should-continue-to-oppose-gay-marriage-74704/
By Kevin DeYoung
, CP Guest Contributor
May 10, 2012|9:01 am
Yesterday, to no one's surprise,
President Obama revealed in an interview that after some "evolution"
he has "concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go
ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get
married." This after the Vice-President came out last Sunday strongly in
favor of gay marriage. Not coincidentally, the New York Times ran an article on
Tuesday (an election day with a marriage amendment on one ballot) about how
popular and not controversial gay television characters have become. In other
words, everyone else has grown up so why don't you? It can seem like the whole
world is having a gay old time, with conservative Christians the only ones
refusing to party.
The temptation, then, is for Christians go silent and give
up the marriage fight: "It's no use staying in this battle," we think
to ourselves. "We don't have to change our personal position. We'll keep
speaking the truth and upholding the Bible in our churches, but getting worked
up over gay marriage in the public square is counter productive. It's a waste
of time. It makes us look bad. It ruins our witness. And we've already lost.
Time to throw in the towel." I understand that temptation. It is an easier
way. But I do not think it is the right way, the God glorifying way, or the way
of love.
Here are five reasons Christians should continue to publicly
and winsomely oppose bestowing the term and institution of marriage upon
same-sex couples:
1. Every time the issue of gay marriage has been put to a
vote by the people, the people have voted to uphold traditional marriage. Even
in California. In fact, the amendment passed in North Carolina on Tuesday by a
wider margin (61-39) than a similar measure passed six years ago in Virginia
(57-42). The amendment passed in North Carolina, a swing state Obama carried in
2008, by 22 percentage points. We should not think that gay marriage in all the
land is a foregone conclusion. To date 30 states have constitutionally defined
marriage as between a man and a woman.
2. The promotion and legal recognition of homosexual unions
is not in the interest of the common good. That may sound benighted, if not
bigoted. But we must say it in love: codifying the indistinguishability of gender
will not make for the "peace of the city." It rubs against the grain
of the universe, and when you rub against the grain of divine design you're
bound to get splinters. Or worse. The society which says sex is up to your own
definition and the family unit is utterly fungible is not a society that serves
its children, its women, or its own long term well being.
3. Marriage is not simply the term we use to describe those
relationships most precious to us. The word means something and has meant
something throughout history. Marriage is more than a union of hearts and
minds. It involves a union of bodies–and not bodies in any old way we please,
as if giving your cousin a wet willy in the ear makes you married. Marriage, to
quote one set of scholars, is a" comprehensive union of two sexually
complementary persons who seal (consummate or complete) their relationship by
the generative act-by the kind of activity that is by its nature fulfilled by
the conception of a child. So marriage itself is oriented to and fulfilled by
the bearing, rearing, and education of children." This conjugal view of
marriage states in complex language what would have been a truism until a
couple generations ago. Marriage is what children (can) come from. Where that
element is not present (at the level of sheer design and function, even if not
always in fulfillment), marriage is not a reality. We should not concede that
"gay marriage" is really marriage. What's more, as Christians we
understand that the great mystery of marriage can never be captured between a
relationship of Christ and Christ or church and church.
4. Allowing for the legalization of gay marriage further
normalizes what was until very recently, and still should be, considered
deviant behavior. While it's true that politics is downstream from culture,
it's also true that law is one of the tributaries contributing to culture. In
our age of hyper-tolerance we try to avoid stigmas, but stigmas can be an
expression of common grace. Who knows how many stupid sinful things I've been
kept from doing because I knew my peers and my community would deem it shameful.
Our cultural elites may never consider homosexuality shameful, but amendments
that define marriage as one man and one woman serve a noble end by defining
what is as what ought to be. We do not help each other in the fight for
holiness when we allow for righteousness to look increasingly strange and sin
to look increasingly normal.
5. We are naive if we think a laissez faire compromise would
be enjoyed by all if only the conservative Christians would stop being so
dogmatic. The next step after giving up the marriage fight is not a happy
millennium of everyone everywhere doing marriage in his own way. The step after
surrender is conquest. I'm not suggesting heterosexuals would no longer be able
to get married. What I am suggesting is that the cultural pressure will not
stop with allowing for some "marriages" to be homosexual. It will
keep mounting until all accept and finally celebrate that homosexuality is one
of Diversity's great gifts. The goal is not for different expressions of
marriage, but for the elimination of definitions altogether. Capitulating on
gay marriage may feel like giving up an inch in bad law to gain a mile in good
will. But the reality will be far different. For as in all of the devil's
bargains, the good will doesn't last nearly so long as the law.
This article was originally posted here.
READ: JOHN PIPER- HUMANS DON'T CREATE OR DEFINE MARRIAGE. GOD DOES.
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