Last one out, please turn off the lights
“Senate advances same-sex marriage bill amid religious freedom concerns” read the headlines. (or some variation in nearly every major news medium yesterday)
The US Senate voted 62-37 Wednesday to pass a bill that would federally recognize same-sex marriage and provide legal protections for interracial marriages. (That last part surprises me. I didn’t realize interracial marriages were still a problem for people anymore.)
This was of course predictable. The bill was in the hands of Senator Chuck Schumer and most all of the leftist leadership of his party for many months. Regardless how the elections actually turned out, he and his party knew they must forge ahead with their plans to rip down every last vestige of traditional marriage, sex, and parenting—just like the statues those ideals represented throughout America’s public parks and town squares.
The cynically titled Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA), if ultimately signed into law by President Joe Biden—and it will be—will repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law signed by President Bill Clinton (yes, that Bill Clinton) that defined marriage federally as the union of a man and a woman, and permitted states not to recognize same-sex marriages contracted in other states. DOMA was already effectively nullified by the 2013 and 2015 Supreme Court decisions United States v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges.
The present bill would not require any state to allow same-sex couples to marry but would require states to recognize any and all marriages—regardless of “sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin”—contracted in other states. Again, this is just a smokescreen.
We should know by now that this is only temporary. Marriage is on the way out…
along with any remaining notion of tradition, value, dignity, and the crucial importance of marriage to women and children, and ultimately the preservation of western civilization.
Writing in Catholic News Agency, Jonah McKeown explains, “The RFMA represents one of the first legislative responses to the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June. While the majority opinion in Dobbs said, ‘this decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right,’ Democrats have pointed to Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion suggesting the court should reconsider all ‘substantive due process’ cases, including the 2015 Obergefell decision on same-sex marriage.”
“The Catholic bishops of the United States urged Senators in July to oppose the RFMA, citing the importance of stable marriages for the well-being of children and society, and expressing concerns about the bill’s effect on the religious freedom of those who hold to a traditional definition of marriage.”
From The Gospel Coalition, Joe Carter listed “four obvious takeaways from the vote on RFMA.”
- Christian politicians no longer look to the Christian view of marriage to compel them to support traditional marriage.
- Christian politicians may not be influenced by Scripture, but they are swayed by polling data.
- Politicians won’t be the ones to save traditional marriage.
- The church must continue to fight for marriage.
Carter elaborates on all of these points very well, and you would benefit from opening the link and reading his article.
Really though, what’s the surprise about politicians showing their true allegiance to anything or anyone but the party? Clearly codifying the destruction of the most universal institution to be found throughout the world, and in all of history, is no big deal to them. What could be a bigger deal than maintaining the party power structure? Marriage? Not so much.
But I feel I must say this: the last point might be a little bit sticky, since there are increasing indications that marriage will someday be included in the list of “traditions” some churches may be prepared to redefine—someday.
“Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, or ELM for short, is a prominent pro-LGBTQ ministry within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America—ELCA,” writes the Publisher of The Dissenter on November 14, “ELM, according to its website, seeks to be ‘an anti-oppressive organization. In particular to our own histories and contexts, we recognize the need to be particularly committed to anti-racism, anti-sexism, and ‘anti-ableism’ and stand in solidarity as allies and active participants in other anti-oppression movements. Among the ‘oppressed,’ in ELM’s view, [is] the sexually immoral.”
“ELM recently shared an ‘anonymous’ story of a polyamorous queer sex triangle and compared the relationship to that of the Trinity.” Apart from being ludicrous, such a comparison is outrageous blasphemy. ELM I would remind you, is a part of a mainline church.
Thabiti Anyabwile, (pictured) a Southern Baptist pastor, and another Gospel Coalition contributor, has championed the cause of the pro-abortion party for years. He gave support for Biden’s selection of Rachel (Richard) Levine despite the fact that he personally supports a traditional sexual ethic, because such a thing “doesn’t mean this person isn’t qualified to be a doctor or one of the nation’s chief doctors.”
Now as always, presenting the good news of Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of our sins, and His purchase of our souls for eternity against the daily drumbeat of despair and defeat is precisely where the “charter of salvation” for evangelism, encouragement and edification should be directed.
It’s been posited that every generation faces a crisis unique to its own age. Arguably our lives have been shaped by cultural and social upheavals before. The parents of the boomer generation lived through both the Great Depression and World War II. But today we are ill-prepared to contend with issue like this with anything resembling consensus. We should try and imagine how our children and their children are seeing the world today. We are only now seeing how much conditioning they have already received at the hands of secular humanists. They’ve been fed the lies and deceit of dead philosophers who never knew God, but were determined He either did not exist, or if He did, He was completely irrelevant.
For those who may say, “We’ve been down this road before, we’ll get past it,” Actually no, we haven’t been down this road before. We shouldn’t settle for just getting past it. This is unprecedented. I would also say we should be very careful—unless we are a politician of course—because the sanctity of marriage is very precious to God, and He is understandably jealous for it.
- Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. (Hebrews 13:4)
Though with a scornful wonder
this world sees her oppressed,
by schisms rent asunder,
by heresies distressed,
yet saints their watch are keeping;
their cry goes up: “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
shall be the morn of song. (The Church’s One Foundation, S. S. Wesley)
