Thoughts on gay marriage
David Potter
Having lived in the San Francisco area for almost 20 years, I have had the chance to look at the gay marriage issue from many angles. For instance, one of my students at San Francisco Baptist Seminary died of AIDS. He had contracted the disease before he was saved. I am thankful to God for the times I was able to interact with him.
Here are some random thoughts on gay marriage.
- At some point, we have to give people what they want. When they will not listen to Scripture or to reason, they must suffer the consequences of their decisions. We may have arrived at such a point.
- We have just as big a problem, if not a bigger one, with rampant divorce, even among members of Bible-preaching churches. Gay marriage will assist in the dissolution of the concept of family, but the American family is dying anyway with or without the assist. Broken homes (aka single parent families) are now considered normal. Divorce was a lot less common when there was a stigma attached. “Blended families” (or, “mosaic families,” as we call them here in Hungary) is just a euphemism for the devastation that divorce and remarriage leave in their wake.
- The arguments which support gay marriage work equally well as arguments for polygamy and incest. (Historical footnote: the Republican Party was founded on two issues: opposition to slavery and opposition to Mormon polygamy.)
- The campaign to make sodomy mainstream has gone on for many decades. Over the years, the gays have built up a powerful political lobby and public relations organizations. These organizations will not go out of existence if and when gay marriage becomes legal. Like civil rights organizations and many government agencies, their reason for existence ceases if their goals are ever reached. They have an incentive to create more grievances, once the current ones are addressed. In other words, the campaign for gay rights will never end. Giving in on one issue will only encourage the campaigners to find new issues to fight for. Expect law-suits and pressure against churches, Christian organizations and individual Christians. Expect trouble for Christians in the military.
- Political action may be a good thing, but we should not think that the answer to our problems is political. The Moral Majority did not save the country in the 1980’s. Shifting attitudes among younger Evangelicals make the resurrection of the Moral Majority highly problematic. Prayer and proclaiming the Scripture will do a lot more good. That is what God told us to do.
David Potter serves as a missionary in Hungary with Baptist World Mission.