I have at various points in the blog and on facebook shared my feelings regarding homosexuality. I have made no secret of the fact that I believe we are told in the Old AND New Testaments that living a homosexual lifestyle is a sin and like all sins, if unrepented of it will lead its participants to hell. I have also made it clear, most notably in the blog "A Resounding Gong", that I believe it is the church's responsibility to love these men and women and to love them enough to be honest with them about the path they are on. But please know that this blog is not a rehashing of ideas I have shared before. This is of a practical matter now.
I have listened as many of my Christian friends have turned a blind eye on the "marriage equality" debate, even to the point of not "wasting" their time going to the polls. I'll admit, there was a time in which I felt much the same way. It's not that I didn't care because I am okay with legitimizing gay marriage, far from it. My reason for not caring about this issue was two fold:
1. God legitimizes marriage, not man. Marriage was created and ordained by God. Signing a piece of man-made paper doesn't make you married, your commitment to God does, in my opinion. So as far as I was concerned, whether or not homosexuals were allowed to have a notarized form claiming them as spouses didn't matter, because it wasn't a real marriage in the eyes of God and since He created marriage I figured His opinion was the only one that mattered.
2. The church (read:body of Christ) lost its voice on "the sanctity of marriage" a long time ago. We ceased to be the moral authority when we stopped preaching the sanctity of ALL marriages. We can't talk about God's judgement against homosexuals when we no longer teach against premarital sex, co-habitation, quick divorces, and multiple marriages. No one listens to us when we say that marriage is sacred because, well, it doesn't appear that it is sacred in our churches anymore. Am I saying we should mistreat or shun people participating in these sins? No, but I am saying we need to call sin a sin no matter the form. Until we do, our voice is irrelevant.
So now that I've laid out the case for why the church shouldn't care about gay marriage, let me explain why we HAVE to care about gay marriage, and why I was wrong in my quick assessment of the matter.
Right now, the Hawaiian legislature is voting on their marriage equality act. If this bill passes, it will not only devalue marriage, it could close churches. How? State law mandates that any church profiting from ceremonies in their facility can't discriminate against groups or couples. Which means that if gay marriage becomes legal and a church refuses to allow homosexual weddings in their facility, they can't profit from ANY ceremony that takes place there. Now you may be wondering "that doesn't mean they have to close, they just can't accept money." But remember, this is Hawaii, a destination wedding capital and many churches finance their facilities through rentals.
You may still be wondering why we should care about Hawaii. The reason we should care is that this is JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG. If the government can say a church has to allow gay marriages in order to retain ministry-sustaining profit, what's to stop it from saying we have to allow these marriages even without profit? Further, as a minister, it concerns me that the day is rapidly approaching when the government says "You make money as a minister of the community. If you want to continue receiving offerings and honorariums, you have to carry out your services for all the members of the community, regardless of your convictions." See how slippery the slope gets?
So I'm asking you as a Christian and as a minister, take this seriously. This could very well be the issue that drives the U.S. church underground and her ministers to jail. I know it seems like I'm over reacting, but can we really afford to risk it?
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