News late last week that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided that same-sex marriage was a constitutional right has made waves around the world. When Ireland, earlier this year, held a constitutional referendum and the people voted in favour of same-sex marriage there was hardly as much debate and chagrin in the news or social media.
A lot of people have been asking why the difference. I suspect there are two reasons. First, the US has now affirmed same-sex marriage not by popular vote but by court ruling. Secondly, the US is generally seen as a Christian nation (with all its God-talk), whereas Ireland has had a clearly Catholic/Protestant history but has carried itself in a much more secular manner in the present.
Whatever the case, there’s been plenty of reaction. Some of it helpful, a lot of it unhelpful. This article is aimed primarily at Christians, and to encourage our church to think and act in helpful ways in response to the SCOTUS ruling – and to encourage us to think rightly through what may seem inevitable in our own country.
So how should we respond to this ruling?
- Respond with love
Whatever the outcome of the decision, wherever our culture moves on any issue, we are called to love.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” – Galatians 5:14
If you really fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” you are doing well. – James 2:8
The greatest priority for Christians is to love God. It’s our primary purpose in Christ. As a follower we are also called to love our neighbour.
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:34-40
Our neighbour is basically anyone who is within reaching distance of our actions and behaviour: my workmates, clients, friends, family, random people’s Facebook status/posts who I’m commenting on, Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat followers, etc.
- Respond with prayer
There are a myriad of feelings we can have in relation to where our world is going. It’s a good thing that God is sovereign over all these things, and as we learnt last Sunday, providentially guiding and caring for his people for the good of his purposes.
That gives us confidence to pray. To pray for our needs, to pray for our world, and to pray that God’s will be done and his glory be magnified.
- Remember that we don’t live for this world
There’s been a curious concern among Christians that God will judge the nation that approves of same-sex marriage. Aside from the fact that these same nations have already approved other heinous sins in God’s sight (no-fault divorce, abortion, greed, injustice, etc) the idea of God punishing nations in particular seems more nationalistic rather than biblical.
While there is much concern in the Old Testament regarding nations and judgement upon them this seems to be a likely reflection of where identity was found. Historically your identity was wrapped up in your nationality and homeland. However, the New Testament is less concerned with nations as a whole and more so with individuals coming to faith and repentance. The Old Testament is full of judgements on nations at a particular time in history, but the New Testament lacks this ongoing language that nations will fall because of particular sins approved.
There is also a curious assumption among some Christians that certain countries, like the United States, can be classified as a ‘Christian Nation’. This idea also runs counter to how the New Testament sees Christians as well as history itself. Yes, there are nations particularly in the so-called ‘West’ who have benefited from Christian ethics, morals and worldview, whose culture and legal systems and government processes have been influenced and shaped by Christian virtues. But to confuse that with a nation being ‘Christian’ is a mistake.
Rather, the New Testament constantly describes Christians as exiles in a foreign land (1 Peter 1:1) looking forward to a new heavens and a new earth at the return of Jesus (Revelation 21). Our first allegiance, then, is not to America or Australia or any other country, but to Jesus Christ.
Our world is a broken place filled with broken people. Broken people act in broken ways. Our job is not to preserve this world as it currently is, but to point people to restoration and greater hope in the gospel.
- Take care of using scripture
For Christians the supreme authority on matters of life, faith and conduct is the Bible. Our world does not recognise the bible as authoritative over their lives, let alone an authority altogether.
So take great care in quoting scripture in defence of ethical issues such as same-sex marriage. It comes across as uncaring, arrogant, bible bashing, and ultimately disengages our culture and misses an opportunity to present the gospel. Christians should always aim to engage with the culture around them, using it to point people back to true hope in the gospel (as Paul did in Athens in Acts 17).
This is not to say that we should therefore neglect the bible in our discussions. We should be well versed with what the bible does say about various ethical and moral issues. But take care how we use them in conversation, lest we put up more walls and barriers for what people really need to hear from God’s Word: the gospel.
- Beware what you post online and in social media – it can be so easily misunderstood
The same could be said about what you post online, in social media, or forward in email to friends and family. Tone and motivations are hard to perceive in online communications, especially in ‘comments wars’.
- Get your head around a Christian understanding and biblical engagement not just with the ethereal topic of ‘same-sex attraction’ but also in understanding the people within the LGBT community
There is much that the bible says about same-sex attraction which is important to know and be familiar with. Our understanding and relationships with others are fundamentally built upon our knowledge of what scripture says on this, and any other, topic.
But it’s another to know what people are like, and to relate to them as humans made in the image of God. Yes, that image is broken, but there is fundamental equality among all humans because we are all image bearers.
So it’s one thing to know what the bible says about hard topics like homosexuality. It’s another to know what the struggles and trials and temptations are for those within the LGBT community. Love (point 1) drives us to knowing both better.
Let me suggest this book on the topic for further reading.
- Remember the fundamental principle of the gospel: salvation comes before holiness
We must take great care of how our words and actions present the gospel to non-believers. What would you do if two men walked into church holding hands? The gospel makes no demands that people’s lives should change before they come to Christ in faith. It’s the exact opposite. Those who come to Christ in faith will have many areas of their lives stained by sin yet open to renewal and transformation by the gospel.
So we must not confuse that order. And this is important as we remember how to relate to people and interact with the LGBT community.
- Remember that the world isn’t going to end simply because of this…
The affirmation of this sin by the SCOTUS is not unexpected in scripture. In fact, Paul speaks of it very clearly in Romans 1:
Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. – Romans 1:32
I do believe that the SCOTUS ruling is surprising on its points of law, but I do not find the ruling surprising for what it affirms morally. Neither should we. Judges and Courts are held to a higher account in God’s sight, but worldly systems will inevitably favour worldly ways of thinking over and above God’s.
I want to be clear that while sexual sins are distinctively different in nature (cf 1 Corinthians 6:18) they are not inherently more heinous than other sins – like greed or idolatry. All sin disqualifies us from entering God’s presence.
So while we should be grieved that the SCOTUS ruled the way it did, we need not be alarmed that Jesus might suddenly return because the US, of all places, has affirmed same-sex marriage (were we alarmed when Canada affirmed same-sex marriage in 2005 or when Norway did it in 2008, or when Ireland recently affirmed it earlier this year?). Who knows if this period will usher in a harsh time for the Church in the US before God breaks out a revival under intense persecution (as happened, for instance, in the early church circa 150-300AD). Well, God knows.
- Engage our culture with the gospel rather than lobby or protest or sign a petition
There will be various ways that pressure will be brought upon our government to act and ‘not be left behind’ or ‘not be left on the wrong side of history’ in these matters. Part of this pressure will be from lobbying, protesting and petition signing.
And in response pro-family advocates will probably do the same.
My suggestion is that we shouldn’t engage in lobbying, or protesting, or signing petitions. The church’s job is to engage our world and culture with the gospel. The church’s job is not to mandate or legislate Christian morality upon our non-Christian world. A culture which is deaf to its own sins will not listen to those shouting at them what is wrong with them – this is how signing a petition, or lobbying and protesting looks.
This is not to suggest that we proverbially ‘roll over and die’ on these issues, but that we thoughtfully engage.