Evangelical Orthodoxy

Politics, News, Faith, Fun

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Radical Abortionists

Video showing it is not about "women's health."

Gay Marriage

Gay marriage continues to rage. This week SCOTUS is heard arguments around California's Proposition 8 ... commonly called the Defense of Marriage Act. This is a complex theological, social, and political issue with myriad big money special interest groups pushing their respective agendas. I'll look at this issue briefly in several contexts. First, legal. Gay special interest groups argue that they face discrimination and struggle a la the Civil Rights movement. Gay lobbyists love to compare this case to Brown v. Board. This is ridiculous. Legally, gays in America have the exact same rights as heterosexuals. Gays can marry in every state and enjoy the same benefits and privileges of those marriages. What they want is a new privilege - to marry someone of the same gender. This is something heterosexuals cannot do. So let's put away the argument that gays do not have the same rights as heterosexuals. Similarly, to argue gays face discrimination on par with African Americans is a disgrace. If the Gay Lobby was conservative, African Americans and the Establishment Media would be figuratively burning them alive, but since the Gay Lobby largely is liberal, it gets a pass. The Gay Lobby argues it needs a new privilege to accommodate its social constructs. Fair point. Gay men and women want to marry other gay men and women. I understand that - let's just be intellectually honest and not try and ride the Civil Rights bandwagon. The theological argument similar is burning up Facebook and the Interweb with Hipster Christians changing their profile pictures to red equal signs. My question to my friends is this: if this is such a clear theological issue, why did not the Holy Spirit but Hollywood Liberals drive this issue? In other big social issues of the day - slavery / civil rights / abortion / war / social justice / the environment - the Church always was leading from the front: a prophetic voice calling for social change. Here, the humanist tail is wagging the Church, which as become a lap dog of the Liberal Establishment. If the theological truth is so clear, why was the Church not calling for gay marriage in 1960? IMHO, the Bible is pretty clear on the issue. Jesus defines marriage in Matt. 19 as between a man and woman. Using the Levitical passages is a distraction. If G-d wanted Adam and Steve, would not Jesus have redefined it in these scenes where he redefines so much of The Law? The problem is that today as much as ever, Hipster Christians are torn between being Hipsters and Christians ... to often hipsters win. My concern with redefining marriage is that it begins to undermine our social fabric. Fairness demands that marriage cannot be redefined only to suit gays but much be open to any combination of men and women who wish to marry. Now, polygamy, incest, etc., must be allowable. Practically, it becomes more difficult to maintain a social order. The reason the government grants marriage incentives is because it orders society into family units. We use this unit in health insurance, tax codes, etc. Once this falls apart, we risk undoing those other institutions. For example, now nothing stops two buddies from "getting married" to save on taxes or to get health insurance benefits. Marriage / divorce already is easy, so why not marry your buddy for a couple of years during grad school? I think the answer should be some sort of "civil union." Respect religions - not just Christianity - and reserve the term marriage as a theological term. If the state wants to grant a civil union to gays, then I do not object. But the Gay Lobby will not be satisfied with that ... let's be honest, this debate has nothing to do with wills or hospital visits, but a systematic movement to bring Western order into post-modern chaos.