Gay “Marriage” and the Christian

Is it because Christians are so judgmental that they cannot stand to see anyone happy who does not have the same morality that they have? Is it because Christians feel threatened by the idea of a marriage between two same sex individuals because they don’t agree with it and it violates their sacred texts? Perhaps for some this is true. I submit that the true obstacle for Christians is really far from that. Christians (thinking ones at least) object to “gay marriage” because we are being asked, directly or indirectly to celebrate and commemorate what we sincerely believe is sexual brokenness. Now, a true Christian understands that we are all broken, that is, all of mankind is “broken” in some way or another and some more obviously than others. The world is made up of broken people…none of us is perfect. But we recognize our brokenness for what it is and we don’t deny it and we certainly don’t celebrate it. You see, Christians understand that because of our brokenness we need a Savior to redeem us and “save us” from ourselves. We need a remedy from our broken condition. We believe that we are hopelessly morally fallen creatures who are utterly depraved and that every aspect of our being, including our sexuality, is marred by sin (rebellion against our Creator). In some way or another, every aspect of our beings is corrupted. That is a fact for Christians. That is classic Christian doctrine. We are all ruined masterpieces of the Creator, created “good” with some good still evident in us but morally decayed in so many ways. We each struggle daily with our own temptations and the corruption within our own souls.

Homosexual unions are, therefore, upsetting for the Christian because, while we are all broken, we understand marriage to be a the ideal relationship between two people. It is so special it is used to describe the union between Christ and His Church which is called the “Bride of Christ” throughout Scripture. It is a celebration of something pure, good and right: a spiritual and physical union between two people of the opposite sex which combines the separate persons involved into ONE FLESH. That is, a true marriage is the complementary union of two people with completely different perspectives (male and female) coming together to form a new integral whole. It is a lofty ideal of pure love, designed by God, in a world of moral decay.

To ask a Christian to sanction “gay marriage” is, in effect, asking him to violate his religious convictions by celebrating the very brokenness that we believe Christ came to deliver us from.  This is why we cannot recognize “gay marriage” or even wish some one congratulations on becoming married to a same sex partner. It would be akin to us congratulating them on a disaster. For a Christian that truly follows Christ and believes the Scripture it is like celebrating spiritual death. It is, in fact, our love for mankind that prevents us from wanting to see anyone, let alone celebrating it, engage in conduct that we believe will lead to a spiritual and moral disaster of gigantic proportions. How could we believe otherwise? We are not being mean or intolerant in not wanting to see people violate God’s sacred command. We are actually being loving, not wanting people to bring ruin upon themselves for that is what we believe happens in such an instance. For us, celebrating gay marriage would be like celebrating divorce or adultery. Although such unfortunate things occur and we still deeply love the people involved, we cannot in good conscience celebrate the happening of these events, no matter how the culture “spins” it. . 

Until we have proof positive that “gay” people were created or “born that way” and that it is not a defective, broken sexuality dysfunction, we cannot believe otherwise. Alas, such will never be proven because “gay” is behavior and not a natural state. In this way being “gay” is far different than the race issue. One cannot help what he is born or the color of his skin. But one can definitely change his/her sexuality…it happens all the time. It is choice that, over time, reinforces itself in a positive or negative direction. As Christians we want to encourage people to overcome their brokenness, not deny it or worse, celebrate it.

He answered, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
~Matthew 19: 4-5