Bill Anderson

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Welcome, America, to “Same-Sex Marriage”!

No, the same-sex “marriage” ruling by the American Supreme Court is not the end of the world.  It is, however, the end of the world as you and I have known it.

For starters, no one should be surprised.  The death-beetles (which infest all human attempts at governance) in the great American oak have been intensely active since the ‘60s, with notable outbreaks in Supreme Court decisions Roe, and two recent decisions on “Obama-care,” but this case is in a class by itself because it poisons the roots of the essential institution of civilization.  Five centuries of recorded history have taught us the significance of the institution of covenant marriage between one man and one woman, permanent monogamy.  Confessedly, that institution has always been an elusive ideal, but it has served as a bulwark against personal and societal anarchies of all sorts. 

The central certainty of the decision promises unintended (or intended?) consequences which truly boggle the mind.  One could write a tome on serious implications for public and private schools, for ministers and ministries of every sort which must now (impossibly) attempt to function without offending the current “law of the land,” forever broadening definitions of “marriage,” etc. endlessly.  Writ large, for a further destabilization of a crumbling culture.  One is reminded of that horrible attribution of Jeremiah to Israel, “…you have a whore’s forehead, you refuse to be ashamed.” (Jeremiah 3:3)

How should people of faith, specifically evangelicals, respond, not to the tectonic shift itself (which was going on underground anyway), but to the act of codifying it into law?  (Although not technically a “law;” it will function as one.)

(1)  The real surprise is that any knowledgeable Christian is surprised!  Read, very carefully I Timothy 4 and II Timothy 3 for starters.  And then perhaps Revelation 13 for the end of the story.  (Psalm 82 is especially appropriate here in re perverse judges.)  God has told us from the beginning that human society will degenerate until the cataclysm at the end.  One of our essential problems is that, while millions of Christians around the world have been called to die for their faith, we have lived in a safe bubble in the west.  The bubble is leaking!

(2)  We should expect America, increasingly, to be ruled by “judicial activism,” that is, for the court to continue to pursue, with avidity, a leftist agenda.  It is difficult to imagine that the court will reverse itself, although it has reversed or revised its actions more than a hundred times.  The slide will continue, producing many new interpretations of the law “at the edges,” meaning “where you and I live every day” and which will be, often, grindingly onerous.  “Marriage” will, in fact, lose it meaning; a word that means everything will now mean nothing. 

(3)  We shall increasingly, in personal and corporate contexts, be the butt of  jokes, the jest of the cultural elites, “the hopeless defender of lost causes.”  Get this: much of what our ministers now say is already criminalized; the laws simply are not being executed against us. 

(4)  Let all churches prepare to lose, in time, tax-exempt status.  We should not worry about that or base ministry on it.  We must give, in every sense of the word, while we can and more generously than ever before.  The day of our current measure of opportunity may well be closing.

(5)  We must remember that God has not abdicated His throne!  Our watch-word is Revelation 19:6, “Alleluia! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns.”  He has, does, and will finally and eternally reign, subduing everything and everybody to His perfect rule.  (Heb,12:25-29)  The American Supreme Court is not THE Supreme Court at all; it is manifestly (hang on for that revelation!) a very low court.

(6)  We will be called on to what the Babylonian captives did, i.e., to “sing the Lord’s song in a strange land.” (Ps. 137:2)  In fact, we must sing it more passionately, more persistently, more persuasively, more believingly, than ever! 

(7)  All of this will place immense pressure on churches to come into congregational conflict; the enemy will fracture every church-family he can.  The answer?  Simply this: stay in the book and let its message prevail.

(8)  To my own clan (four children, fifteen grandchildren, and five great-grand-children (with two more on the way): God must love you in a special way to allow you to live in such a critical cultural context!  It’s tough, but you’re tougher.  You’re champions and I love you and am proud of every one of you!  A man once prayed for “London Grace.”  A friend asked him later what that meant.  “The grace necessary,” he said, “to live effectively for God in London!”  Your Mom and I have, and will, pray for “America grace” on all of us!  And God will give it!

Bill Anderson

(see my article on Tony Campolo, on this subject, at billandersonministries.com)

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