Men are created to be warriors and Christian men are called to battle for truth in our culture, causing the light of God’s truth to shine on contemporary issues. Here are a few thoughts about the battle over the definition of marriage…..
1. Don’t ever let yourself think that homosexuals, who want their relationship accepted as a marriage, are the enemy. They are not the enemy—they are held captive by the enemy, Satan, who is the father of lies. We must weep for those caught in this lifestyle.
2. Don’t forget that heterosexual sinners need a savior just as much as homosexual sinners. In fact it may be that my lust is a far worse sexual sin in God’s eyes than the homosexual practice of a lost man or woman—because God has allowed me to know him and his love for me. To whom much is given, much is required.
3. Don’t remain passive about this subject. We need to equip our teens with an understanding of this issue of defining marriage. When the marriage debate is framed superficially as “should homosexual couples be given the same right to marry as straight couples,” we should not be surprised to see our teens accept gay marriage. What patriotic American doesn’t support equality?
4. Do steer the discussion to the real issue: Of all the potential romantic/sexual relationships possible in society (one woman and one man living together without marrying, one man having several wives, homosexual partnerships, bestiality, open marriage where sexual infidelity is the norm, one man and one woman who are sexually faithful), our society has singled out one liaison that is called marriage: one man and one woman making life-long pledges to one another and being sexually faithful to each other. The state licenses only this kind of liaison and requires sexual faithfulness or the divorce is permitted. Why is this one liaison, alone, singled out for society’s blessing?
- There is overwhelming, irrefutable evidence that the healthiest home environment for raising children is living with those whose sexual liaison produced them--their mother and father, who remain married and faithful to each other in the relationship of marriage. The stability of society’s homes, which shapes the next generation, is supremely important to any society.
- As a society, deciding matters of civil law and policy (such as tax benefits) is a moral activity which must aim at the public good. Legislators recognize that the public good is enormously impacted by the home setting in which its children are raised. Thus marriage is encouraged and financially rewarded by our society’s tax code.
- The recognition of so-called same-sex marriage would be a clear social statement that motherhood or fatherhood or both are negligible in the public good of raising children. But the truth is that two men adopting children cannot provide motherhood. And two women adopting children cannot provide fatherhood. Homosexual partnerships are just one of many romantic/sexual liaisons that do not provide the same benefits to children as marriage.
- Marriage defined as the union of one man and one woman is the longest held, most foundational institution in the history of mankind. Before now, as far as I know, no society in the history of the world has ever defined marriage as between people of the same sex.
- In America at present gay couples have the right to live together, proclaim their love for each other, be sexually involved (in most states) and be “in a relationship” on Face Book. But they are demanding the special status in society that traditional marriage has always held in history—the status of being the best environment for the raising of the next generation of society. Their union does not provide this healthy environment for our children and it does not deserve this status.
5. Do recognize that in a democracy, the laws that are passed reflect the world and life views of the society. Our world and life view as Christians is that our creator ordained the institution of marriage—one man with one woman coming together in loving sexual union and that very loving union being the place where a child is conceived. We have every right in our culture to lobby for our view of marriage. Indeed, we must do so in order to fulfill our calling as the salt (holding back decay) and light (enabling truth to be seen) of the earth.
6. We must remember, as we winsomely argue for the biblical world and life view, that the moral law is written on the hearts of those who hear us. Though they may not agree with us, and their mind may be darkened, we do have a friend in this argument—their conscience.
Many of you have thought this through in more depth than I so please give me your feedback. You can also check out an article by John Piper. My goal is not to provide an exhaustive study of the issue but to challenge us as men to step up in our cultural setting, to winsomely battle for truth.
