What the Christian Stance on Same Sex Marriage Should Be
+++Every Christian should celebrate Obergefell v. Hodges (legalized same-sex marriage)+++
Every Christian on the planet should celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage. If you disagree, that’s ok. If you want to tell me I’m wrong, you may be right, but if you know me at all you know that I am thoughtful in my opinions and equally thoughtful taking correction.
This is not a lecture. This is not doctrine. This is not preaching. I’m not an authority. I am a regular sinner. I probably sin more than most. I love Jesus dearly. This is only an opinion.
We should celebrate same-sex marriage. My belief in this matter started as a whisper on the 26th of June, but as I blunder around on facebook, scrolling past pictures of my friends’ children, looking for cute animal videos and vine compilations I love to watch (the important stuff), it’s turned into a roar. I’ve noticed a lot of my fellow Christians up in arms about the Supreme Court’s decision. Naturally, I scroll by these quickly to click on the gym fail compilation immediately after, but through sheer numbers, some of these statuses garnered more of my attention than normal. Sadly, I am not proud of the stance we’re deciding to take as God’s light to the world. We’re still casting our judgment, our stones.
Any ban on same-sex-marriage and discrimination against homosexuals is a metaphorical death by stoning. I can’t imagine a life where I’m not allowed to marry my wife. If I close my eyes and think about it, I get panicky. It is a dark, desperate scenario I can only flesh out for a minute before I lose my resolve. It is worse than death by stoning. This is a reality that we force on a significant part of our population. This is not to mention the emotional and physical trauma associated with a shunned lifestyle. I mean until recently, you could literally lose your livelihood in the military for simply being a homosexual. Can you imagine losing your job because you watched Game of Thrones and didn’t skip the part where Tyrian gets banged by three girls? It’s pornography is it not? I bring up these points because when we make a stand and tell the world, “I love and respect everyone, but I do not support gay marriage,” we are without question lying to ourselves. By not supporting gay marriage we are taking a part in casting our brothers and sisters into a hole of shame, hiding, and hurt that we heterosexual Christians will never understand. How many deaths by suicide have we contributed to by taking a stand against homosexual sin? Is our righteousness worth a pain to someone else that can only be assuaged by death? Is it worth the ex-communication of our children, to send them in the world alone to reflect on the error of their sexual orientation? This is how we keep our hands clean, no? If we are really so worried about the souls of our fellow man, why force them into hiding and seclusion. Where does Jesus teach us to push people into hopelessness and depression to teach them of his justice and enduring love? Essentially we are telling homosexuals “you cannot be married because you are living in sin.” Shall we then ban every masturbater, every adulterer, every child abuser, every liar, and every slanderer from being married?
I understand all of our religious arguments. Some I agree with. I understand that God made man and woman to be one. I understand the wages of sin are death. I understand that marriage in our country is a passionate topic and that it has been defined as one way for a long time. I understand the Old Testament to be full of black and white, sin-and-be punished examples. I understand God held the Hebrews to a terrifying and impossible set of standards. A verse I see thrown around as if to be a moral answer to the uncertainty with this court decision is Leviticus 20:13, more or less saying to put homosexuals to death. Leviticus and the preceding book of the bible, Exodus, also say that anyone sacrificing to God slightly improperly or coming before him improperly or standing in the wrong way near the Tabernacle was to die. That’s why there is an old and new covenant. God knew no man could live up to his standards, that’s why he sent Jesus, the new covenant. The rules of old are broken and gone with the arrival of our new High Priest. The wages of sin are death but Christ paid the price. We are all sinners covered by his grace and we are all equals in sin. If you are a Christian and this doesn’t make sense to you, I encourage you to stop what you are doing and study the book of Hebrews. It clearly states the stance we should take in these kinds of situations.
Our strong moral stance, as courageous as it is (which I sincerely say, social repercussions these days are serious) will bring no one salvation. It will break no one’s heart. It does not display his kingdom. The time and effort we take to defend our beliefs are better spent at our gay relative’s house washing their feet. At our gay neighbor’s house mowing their lawn. These are the things Jesus would do. This is how He would spend his time. These things take more courage. These things take action. They are active pursuits of Christ’s Kingdom. Our Facebook statuses are passive, and as Matthew 6 says, it is simply us practicing our righteousness in front of others to be seen by them and their replies will be our only reward.
I will be the first to say I’ve washed no feet. I’ve congratulated no one who felt personal victory in this case. When you count the score: Self-righteous facebook status – Christ-like gesture to homosexuals…..I now sit 1-0. I want to say I will change that soon. I’d like to think I will go out of my way to make someone feel loved. I worry laziness will get the better of me. I guess we’ll see. I think it safe to say that if we, as Christians, as the Body of Christ, act like Christ during this historic time period, we will see the score favored heavily towards the side of Christ-like gestures. Or we can keep thinking that homosexuality is a sin so dire and so great that it alone deserves to be refused marriage.