Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Marriage Debate: A Nation Hangs in the Balance

Yesterday it was Proposition 8 before the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS); today it was DOMA: the Defense of Marriage Act. Pundits from every side of this Rubric's Cube think they have twisted the cube around enough to figure out why the two came so closely together, and what the outcome will be. Someone may well pin the tail on the donkey, too. I mean, with so many opinions floating around in the cybosphere, someone is bound to get it right. Even a blind hog finds an acorn or two.

Many of us are shaking our heads, wondering how we ever got to this point to begin with. Who among us ever dreamed we would face the day when our courts would be asked to redefine marriage? Who among us ever dreamed we would face the day when our courts would be asked to determine something that could be so far-reaching that it actually erodes our first amendment rights?

Do think that is too far-fetched an idea? Well, just ask the couple in New Mexico what happens when you exercise your right to your beliefs.

If DOMA and Prop. 8 are overturned, you can bet some homosexual couple somewhere will find a small church with no apparent resources and will seek to force the pastor to marry them. Then that case will eventually wind its way before the courts and the courts will begin to determine what churches may and may not do. Or perhaps, as some have suggested, they will remove said church's tax exempt status. I could even foresee a scenario where the pastor would be incarcerated for contempt.

I am not alone in my fears. Consider Al Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: Just as urgently, such a decision would put a host of threats to religious liberty into action, threatening the rights of churches, religious institutions, and citizens who are opposed to same-sex marriage on religious grounds.

The issue before SCOTUS, ladies and gentlemen, as Dr. Mohler also said, is nothing less than a blow at the foundation of any society found in this world. If the institution of marriage is allowed to be redefined to permit the wholesale approval of perversion in our society, we will have successfully dealt a moral death blow to the greatest nation of modern history.

To be sure, the justices have voted. If the press is to be believed, the decisions will favor gay marriage. Now they will assign someone to pen the legal justification for their vote. We can only pray that during the next few months of research (done mostly by junior staff) someone will be stirred and come to themselves and return to the Father in Heaven, who will readily forgive and cleanse them of such perversion, and that said person will change their vote before the ruling. May they not be as Judas, who cried too late, "I have betrayed innocent blood!"