Why Are Christians Surprised to Discover Homosexual Marriage Is a “Constitutional Right”?

Conservatives and Christians are suddenly shocked, shocked to discover that homosexuals have been awarded a brand new “constitutional right” that hadn't existed for more than 200 years. It is now a constitutionally protected act for a man to marry another man and for a woman to marry another woman, at least in Massachusetts. But rest assured, soon it is likely to come to a wedding chapel near you.

How did society get to this condition? What can Christians do about it?

It began decades ago when many Christians decided rather than to love and pray for those imprisoned by sinful perversity, it was a better idea to encourage them to continue unrepentant in depravity. Many Christians persuaded themselves it would be more “tolerant” to tacitly endorse what sends men to hell than to be Christ's witnesses against it.

Unfortunately, when we began legitimizing homosexual perversion, we simultaneously began losing the moral high ground necessary to oppose homosexual marriage, homosexual adoptions, and any other behavior rooted in sexual deviancy. Soon enough we will be besieged by deviancies many of us had not even imagined. All constitutionally protected.

The depraved themselves are not the ones most responsible for this horrible turn of events. Depravity has always been with us. But civilized cultures used to marginalize such behavior, driving it to the dark corners of shame and ostracism. It is Christians and conservatives who are largely to blame for the infection spreading throughout society, because we've allowed it to.

What we legalize we tolerate. What we tolerate we encourage. And what we encourage we get more of.

As a result, for conservatives and Christians to complain now about what has been wrought largely as a result of their own “tolerance” simply will be viewed by others as an arbitrary snit. In short, whining.

Since permitting the legalization of perversion in one state after another, any attempt now to regulate sexual immorality is merely one group capriciously trying to impose its preferences on another group. Homosexual advocates know this and must be delighted. They finally confront Christianity on a level playing field. Christian morality no longer is the basis for lawmaking. Christian values no longer carry any more moral weight in our culture than anyone else's standard of right and wrong.

Marriage, Massachusetts' Chief Justice Margaret Marshall has decreed, is “an evolving paradigm” and there exists no “constitutionally adequate reason for denying civil marriage to same-sex couples.”

Oh, conservatives and Christians will argue about the “practical” effects of depravity. But homosexuals will trot out their own “studies” proving otherwise.

Christians will say marriage between a man and a woman is the way it has always been. So what? Slavery was universally historic, too, until it was outlawed. Tradition does not make something morally right.

Christians can say children receive particular benefits when they have a mother and a father. But homosexual advocates will argue that other “benefits” stem from homosexual marriage. For example, kids will become more tolerant of homosexuality.

This culture clash will be, and for 50 years increasingly has been, an argument reduced to one set of arbitrary standards versus another, a conflict of the Christian's idea of “benefits” versus the homosexual's idea of “benefits.” And, of course, as the Massachusetts court demonstrated, standards and benefits today are entirely in the eye of the beholder, ever since we jettisoned God's law as the basis for our laws.

Fifty years ago it was illegal in every state for a man to engage in sodomy with another man. Now in fifty states it's a constitutionally protected “right.” If that's not arbitrariness in action, what is?

This slippery slope we've traveled for half a century has taken us exactly where the Massachusetts court has gone. And as Christians and conservatives, we have forfeited the right to complain because we allowed legalization of sexual perversion. It would be like the Trojans complaining about all those Greeks hiding inside that Trojan horse. After all, who opened the gates and rolled in the “gift” from the enemy?

By making it legal for one man to have sex with another man, sodomy became a moral act in our society's eyes. Think not? Try telling a non-Christian that homosexuality is morally wrong. You'll be called a bigot, intolerant, a homophobe. You'll even get a similar response from many who consider themselves Christians. What society makes legal becomes society's de facto moral standard.

Sure, we can complain that most Americans still oppose homosexuality and especially homosexual marriage. But unlike a half century ago, good luck trying to get a majority to outlaw either one. Watch as the resistance mounts to a constitutional amendment to limit marriage to a man and woman.

We've arrived at a dark, dark day. And it may get much darker. Soon enough we will see what “tolerance” of sin spawns. Already it's changed the meaning of “tolerance” into “acceptance.” And now it is likely to spawn a degenerate, depraved society rivaling ancient Israel's. And you know what God did to that place.

It may not be possible to turn the tide in America. Soon there will be attempts to legalize polygamy, and then incest between “consenting adults,” and then bestiality. Look for marriage of brother and sister, brother and brother, brother and 10-year-old brother. Brother and pet iguana. Who are we to judge?

Having forsaken the Lord's standards, there will be no end to imaginative “preferences.” And there will be no opposing them without invoking some arbitrary standard. And that means the constituency with the most political clout gets to choose the arbitrary standard de jure.

All this is discouraging until we remind ourselves God is in control, completely and utterly. He has a plan and will not be thwarted.

But it's also important not to confuse God's plan with our plans.

I love my country, and I know it's the best yet devised by men. But in its day, so was Israel under the Judges and Israel under King David. Yet the Israelites did what was right in their own eyes, turned from the Lord, and suffered the consequences.

Clearly Satan is seizing our courts. This is no exaggeration. Look in your Bible. What the courts are calling a constitutional right is a sin that sends people to hell. But instead, our 21st century Pharisees call it a good thing.

“Woe to those who call evil good” (Isaiah 5:20).

Faithful Christians must trust the Lord and trust that His plan will come to pass. But that doesn't mean we do nothing. We must obey as well as trust.

“If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

We must oppose evil, hold up what is right, not arbitrarily so, but absolutely so as the Bible instructs us. By doing our part, we may thwart the crumbling of our society. Or not.

If it's God's will, the United States surely will crumble, as did ancient Israel. But if we obey and trust, our reward is insured, whatever He does with America.

Even the most optimistic believer must wonder how a just God can refrain from punishing a nation that has murdered 44 million babies in the womb, that endorses sinful homosexuality, and that worships false gods like wealth, fame, and materialism. If He can turn over the ancient Israelites to their enemies and banish them into exile, He certainly can do the same to the U. S. A.

As a nation, we may have exhausted God's mercy and patience. As a nation, He may already have given us over to our debased minds.

Regardless, as individual Christians we must continue to trust and obey. And that means not giving in to the culture's depravity, regardless of how arbitrary it becomes.

The rest is up to Him.

True revival originates only from God and comes to people who willingly turn to Him. Our hope isn't in worldly courts or even in the political acts of fellow Christians.

Our only hope is in the Lord, and that's where we should go first. His grace is sufficient.

Go ahead and protest, call your congressman, sign petitions. But first we must go to God and seek His forgiveness for whatever role, great or small, we have played in allowing the U. S. A. to resemble Sodom and Gomorrah.

Then ask Him to lead us back into the light and out of the darkness.