Marriage is God’s Justice for Gays and Lesbians
Not all men and women submit their same-sex desires to God and His purposes. Increasingly, we live in a day when ‘the only problem with homosexuality is the one you have with it,’ to paraphrase the curt response of a young Christian to his pastor.
In some circles—legal, academic, artistic, journalistic—you could say that homosexuality is even accorded a special status. Maybe it’s a response to past abuses to gays, or the threat of being perceived as intolerant. The ‘enlightened’ bend overbackwards to celebrate all things homosexual, including gay marriage. The reasoning is simple: How could you withhold marriage from such winsome guys and girls?
But clever and disarming personalities should not alter the truth of God’s design for His human creation.Marriage proclaims that design over and over again on the face of the earth. It bears witness of a greater reality: the holy ‘otherness’ of gender differences, creativity within boundaries, the only just context for the raising of kids.
State-honored marriage upholds that witness for gays and lesbians. Its truth honors the design of the universe. Honoring marriage restrains assaults on that design. The Psalmist declares: “The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.” (PS 12:8) Conversely, when we honor what is honorable, wickedness is curbed.
I recently engaged with a young man bound to homosexual addictions who was intent on pursuing a sexual relationship with me, or anyone who would attend to him. I simply and clearly defined how God in His mercy had freed me to live within His design for marriage. He was blown away; I created a boundary which freed me to be kind to him.
Marriage is justice for gays. It is a living witness of a truth that may be distorted or struck down in their hearts but not destroyed. Its wholeness restrains their brokenness. How? By offering them what they really need: the living witness of one man for one woman, pledged to permanence and fidelity, who include others in that life-giving offering.
Marriage is God’s justice for gays. It should also curb those who with misdirected compassion cede marriage to gays. A brilliant thinker on natural law, J. Budziszewski writes: “True compassion relieves his [the gay man’s] suffering, gives him what he needs. False compassion relieves what I suffer for him, gives him what he wants.”
Marriage is God’s justice to gays. Whether or not one is ready to admit it, marriage mirrors God’s design to those who fracture it. It bears witness of the better way. It gives one what (s)he needs, if not always what (s)he wants.
Honor marriage for the good of all. Vote YES on Proposition 8.
“Father, show us how whole marriage is one witness of truth and grace for gays. Temper our notions with justice with Yours. May we manifest that justice liberally.”
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