Enslaving Justice
‘By appealing to the lustful desires of human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity.’ (2 Peter 2:18, 19)
‘Gay marriage’ advances in the USA promise justice but deliver oppression. To champion ‘gay selves’ and bind them together in a mockery of marriage diminishes humanity.
Real justice cannot be separated from what it means to be human, bearers of God’s image. To Him we are accountable as to how we live out the purpose of our gendered and sexual selves. These involve moral decisions as to how we form relationships and to whom we surrender our bodies. We either expand our humanity by staying true to His command or we contract our horizons and those with whom we partner.
‘Gay marriage’ represents such a contraction. Two members of the same gender cannot create a sexual whole. God cannot bless what He did not intend. Scripture, Church tradition and the most basic evaluation of human bodies attest to this truth: God created us to create life and that can only occur with the opposite gender.
My good friend and theologian John-Mark Miravalle makes this point beautifully (download his whole talk on this topic at the end of this blog): in order for a gender ‘gift’ to be authentic, it must be different from that of the receiver. Otherwise it is not a whole gift but rather a supplement, a ‘slice’ of what I already have. Same-gender gifts can empower or reinforce one’s own gender wholeness. But they cannot illuminate the contours and complementary gifts of God’s whole image. Nor can same-gender friendship create something altogether new. That belongs only to the realm of male and female.
Homosexual intimacy represents a sincere but misbegotten effort to achieve wholeness. These attempts result in brokenness: morally, spiritually, and often physically. Certainly gay unions are not the only expression of sexual brokenness. But they are one, and for the USA to enshrine these unions in ‘marriage’ is an expression of injustice and oppression that misleads her citizens.
Justice cannot be separated from the truth. Many Christians want to do just that: give gays ‘marriage’ and we shall keep our ‘holy’ version of it. That reveals a truncated and false morality, as if God’s truth only applied to the ‘saved.’ Truth is truth, and for Christian citizens of a democracy to sit lamely by as activists vaunt a skewed vision of humanity in ‘gay marriage’ is unjust.
Since the recent Supreme Court rulings, gay couples around the country have begun to plot to overturn ‘marriage as male and female’ laws in 30 states. Please pray with me for justice to be done. Hold the line with your state! Life, health and peace govern those who live according to the Creator’s will for their gendered and sexual selves. Let us set a precedent of true marital justice for generations-to-come.
‘But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of Your justice, of Your salvation all day long…I will come and proclaim Your might acts, O Sovereign Lord; I will proclaim Your justice, Yours alone. Since my youth, O God, You have taught me, and to this day I declare Your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I declare Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.’ (PS 71: 14-18)
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