SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

Can you feel the blood rising already?

Here's another weigh-in on this serious subject that is under adjudication by our high court.  In an effort to be brief about a complex subject, could we consider three areas?

FICKLE. TWEAK. LOVE.


FICKLE.
The Supremes are asked to build law around something so new the paint hasn't dried.  Marriage between a man and woman has been the pillar of society for 4,000 years.  Just as recently as 1996, Bill Clinton and Democrats passed legislation called DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) which upheld traditional marriage.

Now magically, we are 17 years down the road from DOMA and things are tumped upside down.  We have new clarity; we're evolved and tolerant.  But consider that there are 1,100 federal laws dealing with marriage now that a capricious ruling could complicate.

TWEAK.
A friend of mine posed a good question.  Do the people with the red/pink "equal sign" (see above) want marriage, or just the perks the institution affords?  Civil unions already exist that could be reworked to assure better equality of benefits.  But would that really scratch the itch?  Perhaps not.  Do same-sex couples want to be considered "married" in the sense they haven't done anything wrong and are equally entitled to rewrite mores?  Now the water gets deep and choppy.

Marriage already had an inventor and the Inventor built humanity on that plan. People don't get to rewrite a concept from on high.  Rewriting would make them equal to the Divine...and Lord knows, that's been tried.  Marriage remains His plan for the ages and both a picture of what His fidelity looks like, and a launchpad for the next generation.  A man gives himself up for his wife just like Jesus gave himself up for the church.  The woman respects her husband as the church respects her Head.  (Personally speaking, marriage has been His best tool to tweak my selfishness.)  All that brings glory to His power and points to God's larger plan.

 We "get" that not everyone in a secular society buys into such a model.  Some believe the Bible and some don't. However, now the image of God is under attack like never before with tsunami waves that would shake the pillars of civilization.  And this latest wave hurls people into one of two camps.  Either you are kind and loving and trying to do as Jesus said ("love one another")...or you are a hater-bigot.

Is there room for the lover of God's word?  Homosexuality is mentioned seven times in Scripture, all unfavorably.  What shall we do with that?

LOVE.
If you have children, you may be familiar with loving through hard times of unacceptable behavior.  Yes, the Scripture calls for loving others, but not to the exclusion of the other things He says.  Scripture also sets out guidelines for those who would "come, follow Me".  He calls us to actually love people enough to plead with them when they are asking for God's wrath.  Isaiah says "Your sinful acts have alienated you from God."

In Scripture, if I am busy tolerating behavior that is sure to earn punishment, then I may gain the applause of men...but I haven't loved my brother well.  A Christian can tolerate ungodly behavior that is another man's choice, but they certainly don't promote it.

There is a wide place to camp where people can know we love them, while not endorsing their behavior.  Have you not heard the present participle verb in Romans 1:18?  "God's wrath IS (continually) BEING REVEALED from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness."  It truly is spitting in the wind to ask for God's wrath.  If we love our neighbor, we want them on that bus when it pulls out of the station for the coming kingdom.  You can't love them and help them be excluded from the kingdom at the same time.

So at day's end...

We know FICKLE men change, but God doesn't change.  Isn't DOMA a great example?  Once everyone wanted to support it, now everyone is jumping off that bandwagon.  Did you ever tell your kids "if everyone jumps off the cliff...will you?"  All the more reason to hang tightly to words that never change.  Should we call "good" what God has not called "good"?  He actually says "Woe to them who call evil good".

TWEAK the benefits?  Yes, we can "even" things up.  We can decree that partners have better survivors' benefits and figure out how the states can reciprocally acknowledge civil unions.

But MARRIAGE belongs to God.  He folds marriage into the implementation of His greater plan, which is one continuous blueprint.  So who is bodacious enough to tweak HIS plan?  That can't end well.

And LOVE.  What is love?  Are we not called to love God first?

And if we love anything more than God, isn't that forming an idol?  Self-rule is an idol (when self determines what is "just" and "fair").  Loving one of God's tenets to the exclusion of them all is an idol (picking which you live by and which you ignore).  Nobody makes a golden calf anymore, but idols are made everyday.

We should remember God doesn't have tenets such as "go along to get along"...or..."do what you like as long as you don't hurt anyone".  His tenets call us to choose Who(m) we serve.

And does it hurt to see people go their own way?  You bet it hurts.  The Book says the road is narrow and one day all will give an account.

So take courage and speak the truth in love.