Suddenly Strangers in a Strange Land
If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary-wise, what it is it wouldn’t be, and what it would be, it would. You see? – Alice of Alice in Wonderland
We now are wandering a surreal wonderland: an obviously white woman becomes African-American because she identifies as such, a man is celebrated as a true woman by adjusting his genitalia, an oligarchy of five supremes discerns that the U.S. Constitution gives two men or two women a fundamental right to marry.
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, though he voted last week with the majority in the court’s 5-4 decision on so-called gay marriage, nodded to objections for religious grounds. He wrote that those who adhere to religious doctrines may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned. Last week, a bill introduced in the U.S. House and Senate would prevent the federal government from penalizing federal employees, contractors or religiously affiliated organizations that oppose gay marriage.
Even though a couple of other justices gave a similar nod as Kennedy to those whose religious convictions reject such so-called marriage, it is a dubious nod. The five supremes certainly know the reality to come and the reality already here. Their edict opens the gates for people of faith to be persecuted, vilified and otherwise marginalized even as they stand on their genuine religious convictions. People of faith are protected under the U.S. Constitution’s first amendment commitment to freedom of religion. Even so, if there is a fundamental right of two men or two women to marry, the ruling oligarchy of five could easily decide that a fundamental right of marriage between two men or two women trumps first amendment freedom to live by genuine religious convictions. The courts are sure to be overwhelmed with years of lawsuits and attacks against people of faith and the organizations they support. The secular and the pagan are uniting to unleash their vision of an irreligious, fascist utopia against those of genuine religious faith. The coming years of culture and legal wars will be similar to the ongoing battles that still follow the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion rights decision.
The irreligious and secular certainly will seek to punish pastors who refuse to marry two men or two women, they’ll push to strip churches of their non-profit status if they do not support such so-called marriages, they’ll seek to punish faith-based schools and teachers at those schools. Parents should beware of public school curriculum that will force the secular, pagan worldview on their children.
This is the way of those committed to willful blindness; they're blind to the sinfulness of sin. We in the U.S. suddenly are a long way from our constitutional republic rooted in 1776. The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland put it this way: You used to be much more . . . muchier. You’ve lost your muchness.
Infinitely better, the Lord Himself said it in Isaiah 3:8-9: For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their actions are against the LORD, to rebel against His glorious presence. The expression of their faces bears witness against them. And they display their sin like Sodom. They do not even conceal it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.
To make it plain, below is the FiveStone Churches conviction about marriage and human sexuality, as excerpted from our Principles of Doctrine, Governance and Practice:
The Scriptures teach and require that marriage be reserved for and restricted to a union between one man and one woman (Genesis 1:27, Matthew 19:4-6, Romans 1:26-27). God designed marriage between one man and one woman for four primary purposes: complementary partnership, relational intimacy, sexual fulfillment and multiplication (Genesis 1:27-28; Genesis 2:18; Genesis 2:23-25, 1 Corinthians 6:18, 1 Corinthians 7:9, Ephesians 5:31). The Scriptures encourage and honor sexual intimacy only within the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman (Matthew 19:4-6, Hebrews 13:4).
