Christians: The 'Respect for Marriage Act' will be used against you

Now “all of you who are convinced by Scripture or natural law or common sense that marriage is the union of a man and a woman are no better than a racist who opposes interracial marriage.” - Michael Brown

Discussion

That this bill passed, and that it puts gay marriage on the same legal level as interracial marriage, is not surprising. I don’t find it all that alarming either. … because it’s all very much to be expected.

We lost the “hearts and minds” battle long ago on the specialness of marriage and also on the differences between sexual proclivities and race as categories.

Post Christian and largely post-truth culture. It figures.

I think our focus needs to be on the way forward. Christians need to focus on discipling believers in what “Christian marriage” is and the fact that this is a different thing from “legal marriage.” It’s really not a difficult distinction. We already have all sorts of moral, ethical, and spiritual things of great importance to us that are not legally recognized at all.

There was never much chance that the Christian understanding of marriage was going be preserved by law alone without winning over the beliefs of the populace. In the long run, laws always fail to preserve what nobody believes in.

So: 1) Disciple, teach believers about “Christian marriage.” 2) Strengthen the persuasive efforts on the culture front and dial back the coercive efforts. Use natural law, outcome arguments. There will continue to be plenty of evidence that families thrive better on the traditional husband+wife+kids model that has worked for millennia.

Dial down the doomsaying and the disgust gushing. It doesn’t solve anything.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.