Gay marriage is coming to the United States. It's not a matter of if, only when. As the blog post starts off pointing out, England and France have recently passed gay marriage legislation and the author, Prof. David Murray over at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, sees the same inevitability coming to our shores. In this post, Prof. Murray lays out six steps for "minimizing the carnage."
1. Prepare our children
Most of us try to protect our children from sexual information until they are mature enough to handle it, without delaying so much that they end up hearing it first from someone else. We also want to lay a solid foundation of teaching them about God’s beautiful design for sexual relationships before eventually explaining the various perversions of God’s order.
That privilege – of waiting until our children are old enough and of presenting the beautiful before the ugly – will be increasingly denied us by the normalization and display of homosexuality in the media, in schools, and in the malls. This is going to be tough, but we will have to teach our children much earlier and about much more than we would ordinarily choose.
I don't really have much to say on this one because part of being a parent is deciding what to teach your children when. It's not my place to get between someone and his or her child, just like it's not someone's place to get between me and my children. But I do feel like there might be more pressing perversions of God's order than two abstract people of the same sex wanting to get married. Truth be told, I expect the issue of Gay Marriage will have very little impact on the child's day to day life unless the kid is gay, and then she gets to sit there and listen to Dad talk about how she's a perversion to God's order. Granted, I'm assuming a young age for these kids (where presumably a lot of this might just go over their head except for the part where two abstract people are bad), but Prof. Murray states very young ages might be the right time given where we're headed as a culture. Regardless, it seems like making sure your kid doesn't get hooked on prescription pills, or make an underaged sex tape, or drive drunk, or blow off school, or fail to use birth control responsibly would take precedence over two unrelated dudes who want to go to city hall and get some paperwork.
2. Prepare to love
Though Christians are often accused of hating homosexuals, homosexuals harbor far more hate for Christians than vice versa. They really do hate us in a way I’ve never seen in any other group – way more than radical Muslims or even the secular humanist and communist groups of the 1970′s to 1990′s, and that’s saying something. They are our self-declared enemies and want to see our beliefs, words, and actions criminalized. They want to shut down our businesses, render Christians unemployable, and incarcerate our preachers.
In response, we must love them.
That’s going to be one of the hardest things we will ever do, as most of us will never have encountered such personal enmity from anyone. But we must beg for the spirit of Christ, who prayed, “Forgive them father, for they know not what they do.” We must graciously and gently good-news them and good-deed them, while being unflinching in our moral convictions.
We don’t need to prove our spiritual manhood by condemning homosexuality in every sermon and prayer. Keep the focus on the saving love of Christ, no matter how tempting it is to get into constant condemnation mode. Remember, there are probably homosexuals in most of our congregations. Try to win them, not beat them.
This point seems all over the map. First, I'm not sure homosexuals hate Christians the way this article claims. Homosexuals don't kill in the name of homosexuality, they don't blow things up under the same pretense, but they are probably tired of seeing Christians butt into their homosexual perverted lives with signs and protests. I think what homosexuals might want most is to be left alone as normal people. What makes them angry, I imagine, is how a lot of fundamentalist Christians actively try and block that goal when it doesn't impact their lives in any way (unless you believe Katrina was punishment for New Orleans debauchery... then yeah I guess homosexual sin might impact you).
So the question becomes, what form does your love take? Does it take the shape of leaving them alone, being respectful and courteous in day to day interactions, and keeping your religious beliefs to yourself unless it somehow is appropriate to the moment? Or does it come in the form of you very sweetly holding up signs and protesting civil benefits completely outside the church's jurisdiction with very real impacts on their lives (like denying half the couple health care usually afforded to a spouse) available to straight couples? Do you condescendingly quote "they know not what they do?" to the homosexuals' faces with a loving smirk? Or do you just beat the shit out of them, sometimes within an inch of their lives? These are many forms of "love" that homosexuals have received from Christians. Gay couples have probably had enough Christian love for the moment.
The real question here is would you teach your child to stand up for a gay kid getting bullied by a crowd? That's the kind of love I could see Jesus dishing out, but it's never the kind of love I hear about in the news.
3. Prepare for jail
I doubt most politicians really want lots of otherwise law-abiding citizens jailed for refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding, or for preaching that homosexuality is wrong. Many do, however, want to create a climate of intimidation that will deter Christians from doing such things. If the UK pattern is a model – and it looks as if US campaigners are using the same playbook – they will pass “hate-crime” legislation, press charges against us, shame us in the media, stigmatize our businesses and churches, threaten us with the loss of our children, and impose substantial fines, all in the hope to scare us into silence. But when none of these things move us, the legal penalties will intensify until eventually some of us, maybe many of us, will end up going to prison for it. We’d better get ready for that inevitable reality.
This point seems melodramatic, but maybe this is where things are headed... except for the part where preaching homosexuality is wrong gets you jailed since we have pretty open freedom of speech laws. I think it belittles the victims of hate crimes to throw that phrase up in quotes, and it might push some people into some tough spots (like the Oregon bakery mentioned), but it also protects us from slippery slopes we've already been down, like the following:
Or:
The real question is just what actions are you planning to take that gets you imprisoned? And how do those actions fit with the second point of love?
4. Prepare for betrayal
This is going to be a sifting time. Some Christians will cave. Prominent preachers will compromise. Famous Christians will distance themselves from believers who have fallen foul of homosexual campaigners. “What’s the point in going to jail? We can still preach the Gospel without ever mentioning homosexuality. We must be wise….etc.” There will be major Judas-type disappointments. The mighty will fall. But many humble unknown Christians will suffer honorably and beautifully and know the blessedness of being persecuted for righteousness sake.
I guess I would fall into the camp of Christians that have already caved, as many probably already have, but not because of hypotheticals like questioning the value of going to jail. It's because of things like the Golden Rule and not seeing a point to pushing my spiritual life onto someone else. Beyond that, I thought this article might have some relevance here:
I thought it was an interesting read that explores the seven passages that constitute the entirety of the Bible's coverage of homosexuality. There's probably a lot to say just on that article, but I'll let it stand on its own and just point out that Christians have a tendency to take parts of the Bible that they want and ignore or explain away the parts that don't fit anymore. It's very much possible to teach the Gospel without ever mentioning stoning your unruly children.
5. Prepare a refuge?
This great nation was founded when a group of persecuted believers fled religious persecution to find and enjoy freedom of religion. It’s beyond ironic that the very same pilgrims would be among the first targets of this new “religious” persecution if they were alive today. If the current trajectory continues, we will look at one another and ask, “Where can we flee to?” Perhaps a State will come forward that will stand up to this tyranny and offer refuge to thousands of moral and spiritual refugees, aliens in their own land. Maybe another Mayflower will be required, perhaps many of them, this time to sail away from these shores in hope of finding freedom to worship and serve God according to His Word. But where to? Where is left? Russia? Which brings us to…
There's plenty of Islamic extremist groups that could also welcome you, but some of these extremists might kill you for being Christain. Beyond that, this point feels more like hyperbole than anything else. I'd be curious what persecution Prof. Murray feels he experiences, then he might want to compare that persecution to the legal obstructions and hardships gay couples experience every day. Apparently that persecution Prof. Murray feels is growing to the point where he sees a possible need to leave the United States. His point ignores the separation of church and state that evolved from the desires of those original persecuted pilgrims. Our founding fathers had the wisdom to understand that freedom from religion falls into the same basic category as freedom of religion. It might be considered ironic that Prof. Murray wants to impose beliefs through legal channels in ways similar to what inspired the original pilgrims to set sail in the first place.
And finally...
6. Prepare for eternity
The Bible makes clear, and history backs it up, that when a people goes down this route, it’s close to it’s end. It has run out of moral ground, it’s already over the cliff, and falling into the holy wrath of God. As country after country passes gay marriage laws, the end is coming closer and closer. If the USA falls, how far behind will God’s judgment be? The time is short and shortening. We need mercy, we need prayer, we need to plead with our family and friends to flee the coming wrath by fleeing to Christ the only savior of sinners – yes even homosexual sinners – that will come to Him for salvation.
... the End of Times trump card. Just in case you haven't been persuaded by Prof. Murray's points yet, just know that disagreeing with him will speed up the arrival of the apocalypse. So how about you not be an asshole and bring about the end of the world by supporting gay marriage?
My favorite line here definitely has to be "If the USA falls, how far behind will God's judgement be?" You know, I could probably argue that the USA has already fallen in a number of more meaningful ways. Not to harp on the subject, but just a few months ago we had twenty first-grade kids shot to death. L.A. cops just wrapped up a manhunt for someone off on a shooting spree that the shooter claimed was motivated by deep-seeded corruption in law enforcement. After that, L.A. cops found a woman's body in a hotel water tower.
We mistreat harmless children but call it a reality TV show and it's cool. We have multiple reality TV shows that take dumps on marriage or follow teen parents... and then we follow the teen parents in gossip magazines reinforcing who knows what? We make Kardashians and Hiltons rich. We drop missiles from drones, we execute mentally disabled inmates, we elect representatives who then actively undermine our method of government...
We've already fallen in the ways appropriate to our changing times, just as society has always found methods to fall in its own way. And it's not that we fell, but got our religious act together only to fall again. We're still falling and it makes you wonder if it's not really falling at all?
For most of us, life is hard work. For those of us lucky to be born here in the United States, it's much easier than in many places, but we still insist on self-imposed hardships. Went broke from medical bills and your life was ruined? Yeah we could do something about that but let's not. More people die here from gun violence than anywhere else in the world? Let's not touch that. Two people love each other and want to be legally recognized as married and enjoy the same benefits but happen to both be dudes? Eat some Deuteronomy, gay couple!!
Really, the only point needed on Prof. Murray's list was the second one, applied much more broadly. I would love to see what could be accomplished if we could recognize all of our fellow citizens as an integral part of society's team. Somehow, I don't feel Prof. Murray's suggestions pass the WWJD test.
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