I remember when same-sex marriage was not a remote possibility. What social change is next, do you think, in the sexual mores in American culture?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #58 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
The Respect for Marriage Act, codifying same-sex marriage as federal law, already bequeathed to us by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, has now passed the Senate and the House.
President Joe Biden will sign it into law in our politicians’ mad rush to protect American culture from the evils of a perceived conservative backlash when the new Congress comes to power in the new year.
If this were not so serious it would in one sense be laughable. Canada, for example, approved same-sex marriage 10 years before it was made legal in the U.S. The Netherlands was first out of the progressive gate, legalizing same-sex marriage way back in 2001. Now, some 33 countries allow for legal same-sex marriage.
Prominent among those countries that do not permit same-sex marriage are Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, the so-called “Stans” in Central Asia, Russia, and all countries in Africa except South Africa.
“Some view acceptance of same sex marriage as a bold new step to a freer and more just society. But, despite Gallup now showing 71% in favor of same-sex marriage, 58% of those who attend church weekly are opposed.”
The so-called Respect for Marriage Act notably repeals the (1996) Defense of Marriage Act, which established a federal definition of marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.
Thankfully, the Respect for Marriage Act as presently written, “under the religious freedoms amendment, nonprofit religious organizations — including churches, faith-based social agencies and religious educational institutions — would not be required to ‘provide services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges for the solemnization or celebration of a marriage’.”
All this means there is going to be an ongoing free-for-all, or moral free fall, if you will, to push for more changes in what’s acceptable in public morality as understood historically by traditional Christian teaching and therefore also American culture.
This is happening now in Christian colleges. Those that oppose same-sex marriage could be in danger of losing their tax-exempt status.
A “movement is afoot to silence religious opponents of same-sex marriage. Just two days after the Court’s ruling (back in 2015), journalist Mark Oppenheimer took to the pages of Time to argue for the total abolition of tax-exempt status for religious institutions. The American Civil Liberties Union, meanwhile, announced that it would no longer support the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a federal statute designed to protect Americans against laws that ‘substantially burden’ the free exercise of religion, for fear that RFRA will be ‘used as a sword to discriminate against women, gay and transgender people.’
In public education, we’re experiencing a tsunami of pressure to endorse all manner of sexual orientation and gender identity changes. Virtually every public school in the country, from kindergarten to graduate school, has now radically changed, or is at least backpedaling on, any policy that seems to reinforce traditional, binary understanding of human sexuality, all this in the name of freedom.
Polymorphous marriages, sexual relationships with children, freeing children and youth to experience sexual expression at ever younger ages, is already a common theme in materials propagated by Planned Parenthood and others of its ilk marketing to public schools.
Age of consent laws, with California being the leader, are also changing. Recent Democrat political party platforms have included support for “medically accurate, LGBTQ+ inclusive, age-appropriate sex education.”
I’ll let you imagine what this material entails.
“More than half the states mandate sex education in Kindergarten. State boards of education are also blessing such approaches.”
“Sexualized childhood is the next frontier for the sexual revolution. It comes in the sheep’s clothing of pregnancy prevention and healthy lifestyles, but it is a wolf. It promises to disorder human sexual relations—and to undermine what remains of our marital and family ethic and subvert civilization itself.”
“Because the sexual revolution is about identity and the legitimation of sexual behavior associated with identity, it presents a serious challenge to religious freedom. Societies which have been reshaped by the sexual revolution will regard Christians who refuse to grant legitimacy to, say, homosexual behavior as those who are opposed to the common good…those Christians who hold firm on traditional sexual morality can expect their freedom of public exercise to be curtailed or even removed.”
Consider this example. Actor Candace Cameron Bure was recently asked by a reporter whether Great American Family, the new cable channel she joined after she left the Hallmark Channel this year, would feature same-sex couples as leads in holiday movies. Cameron Bure said no. “I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core,” she said.
For this minimalist support of traditional marriage, in which she did not attack, demean, or otherwise disrespect gay people, she has been vilified by several other actors and of course by the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, which said Bure’s comments were “incredibly dangerous” and “perpetuated the idea that LGBTQ people don’t belong.”
This exchange illustrates how many advocates now believe gay people have the right to make movies or other public expressions of art or entertainment or sports or business featuring same-sex couples, but at the same time, these same-sex marriage advocates believe others who support traditional marriage should not be allowed to make movies or any other public expression featuring traditional marriage without gay inclusion. Despite the fact Bure said nothing negative about LGBTQ people or same-sex marriage, she is still being called a bigot, hateful, and intolerant.
This is the culture in which we now, one in which millions, especially under the age of 40, no longer believe in God, Christianity, traditional religious sexual morality, or in anything other than their self-defined interests.
These Americans see nothing wrong with sexual expression in virtually any form as long as the people involved “consent”—which as noted earlier is a wide-open concept.
So, if same-sex marriage is here to stay, and other immoral sexual permissiveness is already in the pipeline, likely next on the hit parade of social acceptance, how should Christians respond?
- Remember that the sexually charged culture in America today is not that different from what Paul faced in Corinth or what the Early Church experienced in Rome and subsequent civilizations. As they let their light shine, so we must also amid darkness.
- Avoid rejecting or otherwise conveying to people who participate in sexually immoral practices that they are unacceptable, or worse, unloved. It is possible to maintain commitment to biblical teaching and doctrinal integrity, thus rejecting immoral practices, yet showing compassion. It’s called “speaking the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15).
- Assure your own life is characterized by righteousness, which is a witness of God's truth and redemption.
- Fix your thoughts on Jesus (Heb. 3:1) as Paul did in his day in the great immoral city of Corinth (1 Cor 2:4-5).
- Dig deep into the Word, learn not just the Scripture but theology, know what’s happening in the world but know the Word better, apply it to everyday life, and live in hope.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.