In 2012 Justice Scalia told us it would only be a matter of time before “the other shoe drops”. That other shoe will likely drop in 2015—same-sex marriage will be constitutionally allowed in all 50 of our states. When the Supreme Court meets in 2015 to make a ruling on same-sex marriage the likely decision will be just as defining of a moment as the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 which legalized abortion.
Since 1973 the church has been fighting to end abortion. And though we don’t seem to be winning court or legal battles on this topic it does appear that our nation is becoming more pro-life than pro-choice.
Will the same thing happen with same-sex marriage? Will we be talking in 2057 about a decline in same-sex marriages? Will the cultural tide turn at that point?
I don’t have those answers, but I do know that our hope for traditional marriage will be a much different battle than our discussion over abortion.
I say this because murder and killing children is not an acceptable practice in our culture. As such, one really does not have to believe the Bible in order to disagree with abortion. All you have to do is believe that life begins at conception, to value human life above human choice, to believe that taking human life is wrong, and voila you’ve got someone that is pro-life.
But in order to oppose same-sex marriage it is almost necessary to do so from a biblical perspective. Yes, there are those who argue against it for societal reasons. But at the end of the day the most vigorous opponents of same-sex marriage are those who believe it to be sin. Those who believe it is sin also believe sin destroys humanity, and out of love for humanity oppose that which is believed to be killing them.
This is why at foundation most debates over same-sex marriage are actually debates about Scripture and authority.
I had a discussion with a young lady the other day about human sexuality. And I’ve got to confess I totally botched it. I botched it because we talked primarily about human sexuality. What I should have done was start with what she believed about the Bible and authority. Because if we can’t agree there then we aren’t going to agree on issues of sexuality.
And this is why I say that this debate will be much different. We don’t have emotional appeals like we do in abortion. We cannot appeal to common grace and say let us not take the chance that we really are taking the life of a human being. Our shared humanity is enough.
But in this debate we don’t have that emotional appeal. In fact those who argue for same-sex marriage have a very strong emotional appeal. Love wins the day. How can Christians be seen to oppose love? In fact I’d argue that in our culture opposing same-sex marriage feels like being anti-gospel.
So, I’ll be interested to see what direction the discussions over same-sex marriage take once it becomes illegal? Will persecution happen? Will the church in America slowly be at home with same-sex marriage?
I don’t know the answer but I do know we won’t see same-sex marriage overturned in our nation until we see God change hearts in such a way that His Word is our authority.
