Sad But True

Last week, the state senate of Maryland by a voted to recognize homosexual marriage by a 25 to 22 margin. Gov. Martin O’Malley has said that he would sign to sign this bill into law, which makes Maryland the seventh state to legalize homosexual marriage. To win passage in the House of Delegates, there was a compromise that allows opponents to place the new law on the November ballot, leaving the possibility for opponents to repeal it. Polls show that Maryland is almost evenly divided on this issue, so the November referendum means that it will not be politics as usual in Maryland this fall.

This will likely prove a difficulty for President Obama. The president has been soliciting support from the gay community in his reelection campaign, but he has stopped short of fully embracing marriage rights In the last election, Obama expressed opposition to gay marriage, but now he has hinted that his views are “evolving.” Supporters of the bill will likely pressure him to weigh in on the referendum in November, and that is a problem for him. African-American church leaders in Maryland have led the charge opposing the measure. It is those church leaders who are expected to encourage grass-roots Democratic support. The Washington Post suggests, “If the debate in Maryland’s legislature is any guide, the mixture of emotions among African Americans over gay marriage will not be an easy issue for Obama to navigate.”  Politics is often the practice of being able to say with a straight face, “I have friends on one side of this issue and friends on the other side of this issue… and I always stand with my friends!” It seems like it is going to be hard for the president to stand with his friends on this one!

We need to decide where we are going to stand here.  It seems to me that part of being created in the image of God is being created male and female (Gen 1:27). That statement of our unity with God and diversity of gender because the foundation of marriage, not only for Adam and Eve, but for all time. Paul argues in Romans 1:26-27 that same gender sex is a violation of the natural created order—

For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. (NET)

Bible doesn't say nearly as much about homosexuality as it might appear given all the rhetoric these days.  But what the Bible does say is very consistent from the Old to the New Testament. Not everyone weighing in on this issue cares about the Bible' not everyone who cares about the Bible reads it the same.  But because of how I read it, I am left with little choice on where to stand.

To be perfectly honest, the Bible isn't any more clear on homosexual marriage as it is on heterosexual divorce.  In fact, the Bible is probably clearer on divorce.  So why are the no political movements by evangelicals to outlaw divorce? Why are the very politicians who speak the loudest of protecting marriage often the biggest offenders when it comes to divorce? It is a sad but true fact that many Christians who see homosexual marriage as a great threat to the institution of marriage look at divorce among us as a sad but true fact! I’m personally just not too interested in hearing people scream about the sin of homosexual marriage unless they are equally opposed to heterosexual divorce, not in the way they vote but in the way they live with their husbands and wives.