The U.S Supreme Court has delivered a judgement that legislation against gay marriage is unconstitutional. This has added fuel to a rapidly growing inferno, in both America and here in Australia.
The sad thing for me personally is to see such anger and hostility from many in the Christian camp. These brothers and sisters seem hell-bent on defending God's moral standard, the sanctity of marriage and the rights of children to both a mother and a father.
But have we considered what people think of this approach and its effectiveness in actually reaching people? Will they know we are Christians by our love or by our determination to alienate and discriminate? Let's look at just a few of the arguments that Christians use to deny people in same-sex relationships the right to marry.
Defending God's moral standard
Christians in the early church knew what it meant to live in a society at odds with Christian values. They went about their lives, living out their faith with respect to their own immediate communities and living as best as they could in the context of society.
Some believers felt it was OK to eat meat sacrificed to idols. There was no inherent danger as the false god did not exist. Yet Paul encouraged these brothers and sisters to refrain from eating this meat in the presence of people who had problems with the concept. So we see that even in early faith communities, let alone in larger society, people were encouraged to give allowance to others and not impose their own ideals on them.
But ever since the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, Christians have seen it as their responsibility to lay down laws to protect God's moral standard and subjecting even those who do not adhere to the faith under these laws.
We've become accustomed (in the west) to being in charge and laying down the rules, expecting everyone of every faith to live according to our Christian values. It's a far cry from our early church fathers' and mothers' experience, who tried to live out their faith no matter what society was doing around them.
The sanctity of marriage
Marriage is God's intended design for a relationship between one man and one woman, for the purpose of intimacy and procreation. A good biblical argument perhaps, but hardly one we can defend without hypocrisy. With the rate of divorce amongst Christians on par with the rest of the western world, we can hardly lay claim to respect the sanctity of marriage ourselves, let alone demanding that unbelievers respect our ideas of what this means.
Would we seek to change legislation around divorce in order to protect this sanctity? In any case, what an opportunity Christians have to let the light of their own healthy, loving, God-filled marriages shine in a world that would not see him in theirs.
The rights of the child to have both a mother and a father
I'm sorry to say that the boat has already sailed on this one. There are many children and young people already being raised by parents of the same sex. Legalising marriage for these couples is not going to change anything in this regard.
That's not to even mention the number of children who are deprived of a mother and a father through death, divorce or otherwise.
If the Church is truly concerned that all children would see healthy, loving relationships modelled to them between men and women, what an opportunity we have to build close relationships with same sex and single parent families, and provide these children with surrogate fathers and mothers.
Let's not forget
Before we in the Church get on our high horse and denounce the evils of homosexuality, let's remember that there have been many people abused by people in the Church across denominations. We have created generations of sexual confusion and crisis. Is it loving to then condemn people for the sexual identity crises that we ourselves have forced upon them?
This is not to entirely blame the Church for immorality, but to hold us accountable for a lot of hurt and pain and shame that we fail to take responsibility for. Perhaps we could see our own part that we have played in this saga and act with a little more compassion.
Love keeps no record of wrongs
A little passage in 1 Corinthians declares:
'Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails'.
What a difference it would make if we consider how God calls us and helps us to uphold this kind of love. God is love and he models sacrificial and welcoming love to us.
Could we lay aside our anger, pride and defensiveness to allow this model of love to shape our view of the LGBQT community?
Russell Croft has a heart for community and reaching out to the marginalised and forgotten. He is getting to know the God of infinite goodness and is living the joyful, salubrious life of faith with his wife Belinda and three children in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.
Russell Croft's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/russell-croft.html
