God, Gay Marriage and Government Interference

What does it all mean? I and many others were up ended by Senator Portman’s dramatic reversal mere moments before the Supreme Court hears arguments regarding DOMA. What was once a major issue for conservatives is beginning to take a back seat in the Republican party, while religious conservatives are being asked to move to the back of the bus.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s awful advice to Senator Portman was “Follow your heart.” What ever happened to following the Constitution? What about being faithful to how you represented yourself to your constituents?

This recent turn of events led me to preach a message at our church that focuses on both a Biblical and Constitutional perspective regarding homosexuality and gay marriage. As I shared with our family at Fremont Baptist Temple, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a balanced message on the subject. Since we live in an age of extremism we tend to hear a lot of hateful rhetoric from groups like the Westborough Baptists which is countered by liberal churches which are willing to ordain and marry homosexual couples. They call themselves “welcoming and affirming.”  Neither of these extremes has a grasp on biblical truth.

God’s Love

While many hard hitting churches like to emphasize the term “Sodomites,” I tend to avoid it. While it appears five times in the Old Testament, the New Testament authors use different words to address the issue. The word typically conjures up the idea of hell fire and brimstone and implies not only a hatred for the sin but a desire to see God’s judgment upon others. They forget how Abraham, known as the friend of God, plead for God to spare the city. He could have simply been content to get his nephew and family to safety. But instead he negotiated all the way down to ten righteous people. He stopped there because he mistakenly thought he could find ten. Abraham, a hero of the faith, had enough compassion to plead for that city. Likewise, it is only right that we should demonstrate love and compassion, even though we recognize homosexuality as a sin.

Liberals mistakenly equate God’s love with God’s approval. It is certainly true that God loves the entire world. But if we equate His love with his approval, we would have to say that He approves of every evil under the sun. How many other sins must we “affirm” to show the love of God?

Gay Marriage

The Scriptures teach us in 1 Corinthians 14:33 and 40 that God is not the author of confusion but a God of order. The Hebrew word neged, used to describe a help meet for Adam, describes Eve as an opposite yet compatible counterpart. Reading Romans 1:19-28, we see that Paul clearly identifies homosexuality as an unnatural and ungodly error. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 teaches us that it is not right (unrighteous) and self-deceiving. It also tells us that Jesus Christ can transform anyone who comes to Him. While many people are told both by misinformed Christians and ideological activists that gays can never change, the Scriptures tell us differently. Jesus Christ can transform anyone.

 

Government Interference

Now that we understand the bible’s balanced teaching that God’s love does not endorse man’s sin, we must ask ourselves how this relates to the issue at hand. After all, it is not government’s responsibility to enforce religion. As Christians and as Americans, we believe in the separation of church and state. Even many conservatives, especially young ones, are distancing themselves from this issue. “So long as it doesn’t affect me,” they declare “I don’t care what they do.”

This is where just a little discernment comes in handy. The first question we have to ask ourselves is “Why?” We live in an age where promiscuity abounds. Pastors have their work cut out just trying to encourage men and women to get married rather than living together. Yet the growing philosophy is that it is easier to just live together. Why don’t young heterosexuals see the need to marry so that they can have the rights that gays are claiming they need? The answer is that there is a deeper issue of natural rights at stake.

According to the GAO, there are 1,138 new rights that come with marriage. The rights that they claim to be seeking are the right to visit a loved one in the hospital, receive an inheritance and so forth. No one would be opposed to such rights. However, I’ve been asked to come to the hospital and pray for gays and when I did, their partner was right there. Even if this was a genuine issue, a lawyer can draw up the necessary paper work faster than a liberal preacher could marry them.

They are not simply looking for civil rights. Several court cases, in states where gay marriage has been legalized, have already demonstrated that they are out to rob Christians of their natural rights. Consider a young Christian photographer in New Mexico, who owns Elane Photography. She was specifically targeted by Vanessa Wilcock, a compliance officer with the Office of Equal Opportunity at the University of New Mexico. Wilcock demanded that the Christian young lady violate her Christian values and photograph her lesbian wedding. When the young photographer’s religious convictions would not permit her to do so, she was found guilty by the NM Human Rights division and required to pay damages.

Consider Robert Gifford, the owner of Liberty Ridge Farms. His family uses their property for a variety of activities including weddings. However, this Christian family politely informed Melisa Erwin and Jennie McCarthy that they would be unable to host their lesbian wedding. What happened? They were sued of course.

Counsel for the Giffords noted that there were exceptions for churches but not for family based businesses. This is often the incremental tactic used when stripping Americans of their natural rights which are protected by the Constitution. Are we forgetting that “All men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights?” The founders did not declare that only churches have rights. Inalienable rights belong to individuals. The First Amendment does not pertain only to churches but to the freedom of individuals. “Congress shall make no law regarding an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Yet when a Christian is compelled to comply with the religious views of a homosexual, they are being denied the free exercise of their religion and the government is establishing that another person’s religion takes precedence.

Neither the photographer nor the farmers were out picketing gay weddings or disrupting their chosen lifestyle. They demonstrated no aggression or hostility towards the gay couples. They simply choose to live out their own faith. However, simply practicing their own faith was deemed illegal. Thus legalized gay marriage gives occasion for gay couples to compel Christian individuals to violate their religious convictions on their own time with their own property. That is simply unconstitutional and immoral.

Click on this image to learn more about Baby M.C.

Finally, there is the tragic case of Baby MC in California. It is a modern life soap opera that is barely believable. Melissa and Jesus conceived a child but did not maintain a personal relationship. Before Baby MC was born, California legalized gay marriage and Melissa married Irene. Their wildly passionate marriage lasted nearly four weeks, during which time Baby MC was born. Melissa then moves on to Jose. Meanwhile, Jesus is paying child support for MC but Irene is suing for visitation rights. Under California law, the person married to the mother is considered the presumptive father of the child. Thus, as crazy as it sounds, the courts were recognizing Irene as the legal father rather than Jesus. Jose gets involved and stabs Irene sending her to the hospital. Meanwhile Melissa is charged as an accomplice and sent to jail. Crazy right? It gets worse. Now the courts have to decide what to do with Baby MC. Her mother is in jail and her “father,” Irene, is in the hospital. Wouldn’t Jesus be the logical choice? Of course not! If Baby MC spends time with him, it might hinder her bonding with Irene when she gets out of the hospital. So the state decides to put MC in foster care. Keep in mind that Irene never adopted Baby MC and the only claim she had was that she happened to be married to Melissa for a little over three weeks. This just happened to coincide with the birth of baby MC.  What kind of crazy world would come up with such ridiculous conclusions? A world with legalized gay marriage.

Gay marriage does not create a world of equality. It replaces common sense with an idealistic philosophy that punishes people who do not comply. It forces a religion of pseudo morality upon Christians who hold to traditional values. It establishes the dominance of one brand of religion over another, compelling individuals to abandon their religious values or pay a fine. It was just this type of bullying that led to the first amendment in the first place. The issues were different but the principles are the same. The legalizing of gay marriage is the establishment of religion, violates the first amendment and is prohibited by our constitution.