Supreme Court Decisions a Week Later
I have been mulling over the Supreme Court decisions of a week ago. Perhaps the most important observation to make is that 25 years ago such a decision would have been extremely unlikely. It became possible because our culture has shifted significantly in its attitude towards the issue of who should be married. So the court did not create the situation. It reacted to one. The issue was not just one of law but of culture. So we face the reality of how our culture is changing.
I thought of an analogy this week. People in our culture today get divorced for all kinds of reasons far beyond those Scripture addresses. Scripture views divorces for these other grounds quite negatively. Jesus called this situation adulterous. Yet the church seeks to minister to people who have made these choices. I suspect in thinking through the mission of the church in the face of our current situation as a similar kind of situation. We need to reflect the moral commitments of what marriage is as defined in Scripture, while recognizing our society is developing a different standard. We also need to continue to seek to minister to those who move in a direction distinct from the standards God in his Word sets forth. The two situations are similar.
This week the Table Podcast dealt with the Supreme Court decision from both a legal and a missional perspective. We interviewed a retired federal judge for the legal points. That podcast set a one day record of activity for our podcast program which is less than a year old. So if you are wrestling with how to think about what is taking place, I'd commend it to you. Here is the link:
http://www.dts.edu/thetable/play/supreme-court-decision-same-sex-marriage/
Do let us know if you found this helpful. Mark Bailey, DTS President, hosts. He interviews Judge Rollin Van Broekhoven and myself. Also check out Lael Arrington's remarks on DOMA on the Bible.org blog list. She has said several things well.
3 Comments
VanillaGorilla
Clarification
"We also need to continue to seek to minister to those who move in a direction distinct from the standards God in his Word sets forth. The two situations are similar."
Are you saying Christians need to adapt to the culture change and should view homosexuality the same way we view divorce?
Darrell L. Bock
Clarification
No not quite. The issue is not adapting to cultural standards of divorce or to those of homosexuality. The issue is how to minister to people who accept societal standards the church does not accept. We work with how to do that for situations involving divorce (for non-biblical grounds). We need to apply the same kind of energy here. (And I do not mean simply accept what society does, which is why this is not about adaptation).
VanillaGorilla
how to minister
Thank you for clarifying your position.
The Church needs to do a better Job debating the issue. All to often, Christians just states God views Homosexuality as a sin or abomination when engaging homosexual activists. If Christian had been giving reasoned and logical arguments from the beginning, support for changing the definition of marriage wouldn't be where it is today.
The activists essentially used a slight of hand trick to show discrimination. They redefined marriage from the union of one man and one woman to two people who love each other before they make their argument.
A man or women can marry anyone of the opposite sex they are in love with, homosexuals cannot marry a person of the same sex whom they are in love with, therefore it's discriminatory not to allow homosexuals
The problem with their argument is the definition of marriage is not two people who love each other. It is the union of one man and one woman. It is false to claim homosexuals are being denied the right to marry. No one is telling a gay person they can't marry someone of the opposite sex.
What they are really asking for is the right redefine marriage. If they have a right to redefine marriage, their own argument under the equal protection clause dictates that anyone who wants to change the definition of marriage has a constitutional right to do so too.
Their own rationale dictates that polygamists are being discriminated against too and a judge should declare people have the right to marry multiple partners.I have made this point to many manny gay marriage proponents and they will not address it. Their argument is for the total deconstruction of the institution of marriage.
If Christians just accept that the sentiment in the culture is in favor of redefining marriage and believe the ship has set sailed on the issue, what is going to happen is the Church will be viewed as bigots. Not allowing homosexual members in the Church will be viewed as the equivalent of not allowing minorities into the Church.
Gay Activists are also attacking the Church by using deconstructionism on Biblical doctrine. Does the Bible really say that homosexuality is a sin? That is only one way to interpret it…… etc. Rob Bell recently took this position. The Church is being attacked from the outside and from within.