"Same sex" marriage has always been a poor meme, to me, because my brain goes into dialogue mode:
"Yes, Reverend, we each plan to remain the same sex."
Or the old saw about the old married guy saying, "That's the whole problem...The same old sex!"
"Same" is a close translation of the prefix "homo" and doesn't require any explanation to a child, so I suppose it's practical; but it's a scriptural oxymoron. And I don't think it is only "the religious right" who are uncomfortable about this. (There are cultures, and religions, in other parts of the world that will never accept this who make that guy with the rude signs seem pretty reasonable.)
To express anything other than complete approval and actual encouragement of homosexuality (and a group of other practices and conditions grouped in an acronym) is social and political suicide. You will be branded, first, a "homophobe"--a term invented to imply that anyone who doesn't care for homosexuality is simply "afraid" of their true desires. Second, you will be called a "bigot" and a "hater" even though you have never discriminated, never said or done anything threatening in any way.
A lot of believers chafe under this simply because of how frustrating it is to be misrepresented by assumptions, called names, and not heard. "Now you know how we feel!" they cry, and around it goes.
Here's the thing. The vast majority of Americans want, and believe in, a separation of church and state. I do, too, now that the state has made ungodly intentions clear, and much of the church is sounding like a political action committee.
"Marriage" is an institution controversial to the carnal mind because it was invented by God.
It's recorded right there in the Bible as His pattern for the relationship that anchors a family; nonetheless, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers and humorists have been confounded by it for centuries on end, insisting it can't work, is obsolete, and unreasonable. That's because, "except the Lord build the house, they who build it labor in vain," and "the carnal mind can not comprehend the things of God."
Soooo, at some point, someone decided that, for legal reasons (related to divorces and estates), the state would offer a legally binding "civil" union for those folks who didn't grok the whole "sacred" union deal. And, so bureaucrats proceeded, without a peep of protest from the Body of Christ, to "marry" people in a revocable legal contract that has nothing to do with the covenant God had in mind--sort of an imitation of Biblical marriage.
Now, they want to broaden eligibility for this arrangement--expand the market--and "Christians" are outraged, claiming the "definition" of marriage has been violated. Well, that ship sailed long ago when we let them call it "marriage" in the first place. They have their own definition, just as they have their own ideas about the Book on which ours is based.
I recall that Someone told us our "kingdom is not of this world," that "our weapons are not carnal;" that, though we are in the world, we are not to be "of it."
Some people want to outlaw sin.
Been done. Doesn't help.
Paul tells us clearly what the Law is for. Until conviction and repentance occur, it's all the same to God, and should be to us. Sin is all the same, in spite of how certain types affect different ones among us emotionally.
As is often the case, "Christians" thought they would prevail in a public argument (it's hardly worthy of being called a "debate") through indignation and an insistence on some sort of "morality." None of those things makes sense or matters in the culltour we're in.
"He said the world would hate us!"
Yes, but it better be for the right reasons. If you get yourself persecuted for some cause other than the gospel of salvation--which is NOT the Law--will that glorify or please Him?
"Conviction of sin is the ministry of the Holy Spirit," not ours.
Stick to the message we were given to pass on: "Be reconciled to God."
If you can't speak the truth in love, please be still.
And let the lost play house under whatever rules they make up.
