The "L" Word and Same-Sex Marriage: Why Religion Is Losing the Debate
A commentary by Cecil Maranville
United Church of God elder in Glendale, Arizona
Have you noticed anything missing in the arguments Christian-minded
people are using to oppose same-sex marriages?
We hear: "For thousands of years, marriage has meant a union between
a man and a woman." But who says so? Who defined it that way?
The answer is, God defined it. After completing His creation
of the genre of mankind by the marvelously symbolic crafting of a woman
from a rib of the man, God announced: "Therefore a man shall leave
his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become
one flesh" (Genesis 2:24 ). In a parallel creation commentary, God
told the man and the woman, the husband and the wife, "Be fruitful
and multiply" (Genesis 1:28 ).
Obviously (though apparently not so obvious to many people today!),
one of the purposes of marriage is for the man and the woman to have
a family.
Thousands of people in the United States are unashamedly challenging
this legal definition of marriage. That's right, legal .
We're not speaking of the California proposition that defined marriage
as between a man and woman. We aren't referring to the statutes on the
books of nearly 40 states saying that marriage is to be between a man
and a woman. We aren't referring to the Massachusetts Supreme Court Justices
who redefined marriage and ordered their state legislature to craft the
new definition into law. We aren't referring to, or joining the national
debate over, a constitutional amendment to require marriage to be so
delineated.
We're referring to God. His Word is law.
That's a reality that all too many Christian-minded people shy away
from, and it's failing them and their leaders in the culture war raging
in America . "Law" is the missing element in the religious
answers to same-sex marriage-not man's laws, but God's law.
Some Christian teachers and denominations have fostered an ideology
that God's law is at the most a "guide" for the believer. In
pretzel-like contortions, they teach believers that the law is okay,
just not required. But how can a law be law and not require anything?
Political correctness didn't start with the current debate over the
definition of marriage. Many Christian religions have a long history
of taking the politically correct approach toward God's law,
instead of a biblically correct one. In the lifetimes of all
reading this, Christian religions have often sought to soften the force
of God's law, preaching a religion of platitudes. In the current debate,
this type of theology allows for continued moral drift from God's unchanging
law.
Christianity at large has run from the law of God for so long, it cannot
say with clarity what sin is. What is it? Is it doing something that
hurts others? Is it going against your conscience? Is it up to each of
us to define?
This approach has no form or shape. God is love, true. Yet in love,
God told the man and the woman He made how they and their children should
live. And biblically speaking, we love God and our fellow man by obeying
His commandments (1 John 5:2-3). When we fail to live by these rules-God's
law- we sin. Breaking the law of God is sin (1 John 3:4).
Christian teachers universally talk of grace but vary widely in their
teaching as to what should be done because of it. God's grace involves
the extension of a pardon -the suspension of the death penalty.
It is only common sense, as well as the teaching of the Bible, that God
expects the pardoned individual to be law-abiding from that point on,
submitting to His spiritual law. Assuredly, there is freedom in grace.
It includes freedom from the death penalty, as well as the expectation
to live life the way God wants us to live. Anything less is to demean
this wonderful gift of God.
Clearly, grace does not include the freedom to break the law of God
because His laws reveal the way to an abundant life, as well as spiritual
conversion.
Compare the law of God with the rules of a household. God's laws are
simply rules for His household. In a healthy family, parents
lay down reasonable rules or boundaries out of love for their children.
Just as obeying one's parents is normal and healthy, so also obeying
God's law is spiritually healthy. Plainly, a loving and respectful child
of God will live by the rules He has set for the household.
Society expects every citizen to be law-abiding. Indeed, a citizen who
rejects and refuses to submit to law is a criminal!
As long as Christians remain confused about God's law, their arguments
about same-sex marriage will collectively continue to be hollow, without
a center. If the debate before Western culture continues to pivot on
human opinions, society will drift further and further from the way God
told us to live.
We are the children of the man and the woman He made in the Garden.
We're supposed to live by the rules He gave them.
Are you aware of God's law? Do you know how it applies to you? Or are
you wandering in the fog of today's vast array of interpretations regarding
God's fundamental instructions? You can't afford to be wrong on this.
For biblically sound instruction that provides clarity to this more important
subject, request or download our eye-opening booklet The
Ten Commandments. |
