Supreme Court Opens Pandora’s Box

America’s founders correctly asserted there are some things clearly established by Nature’s Law and Nature’s God. The Supreme Court’s two rulings Wednesday concerning marriage ignore this fact and open Pandora’s Box, paving the way for a flood of detrimental policies and practices.

Before there were cities, before there were governments, there was marriage. It was established, and the first book of the Bible states, “A man leaves his father and mother, cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.” As long as there have been human beings, there has been marriage between a man and a woman. It is the foundation for every other human institution. God created them to uniquely fit together, and that beautiful, sacred, intimate union produces children to be blessed and guided by a mother and father. Given the nature of marriage, it makes no sense to refer to a relationship between people of the same sex, no matter how intimate, as marriage.

We should be careful not to confuse the question of marriage with separate issues. It’s not about whether homosexuals should have the same legal rights as everyone else. (They should.) It’s not about whether homosexuals should be treated with love and respect. (They should.) It’s not about the origin of homosexuality. It’s not about what consenting adults do in their homes. It’s not about “homophobia.” It’s not even about whether homosexual acts are a sin. It’s about the nature of marriage and its role as a public institution.

Why would traditional marriage be harmed by same-sex marriage? Does it affect your marriage in Texas or North Carolina for two men to “marry” in California or New York? This is like asking if the value of a real dollar in Texas would be affected by flooding the market with counterfeits in New York. Yes, it would be, because counterfeits degrade the value of all real dollars and the economy. As economists say, bad money chases out good money.

Enshrining a false definition of marriage in our laws will inevitably harm all marriages and society. Same-sex marriage does not expand the meaning of marriage, but replaces its historical meaning with a counterfeit.

If people of the same sex can legally “marry” each other, we will lose any rational basis for barring polygamy, group marriage, and incest, and for encouraging marriage to be exclusive and permanent. The reason for restricting marriage to one man and one woman is that it takes exactly one man and one woman to make a complete pair. That logic of completion evaporates if people of the same sex can marry. The arguments used to defend same-sex marriage work just as well for defending any voluntary relationship imaginable.

We’re not just fear-mongering. The jump from same-sex marriage to polygamy, group marriage, and open marriage is already happening. Most same-sex “marriages” that have already been performed in some US states are not monogamous for long. And in those places that recognize same-sex marriage, few gays even bother to “marry.”

The cry for marriage “equality” is a sham because a gay man already has the exact same rights as every other man: he is free to marry one woman at a time. The honest term would be marriage “choice,” meaning one can define marriage any way they choose. If this goes legal, then every other “choice” must be legalized to avoid any kind of discrimination. This is a Pandora’s box that needs to stay shut.

Redefining marriage would foment culture wars in every hamlet, city, and school district in the country, ending with a draconian loss of religious freedom. What was once prohibited is first tolerated and then required. If same-sex marriage is defined as a basic human right, a matter of justice and equality—as its advocates claim—then no one could publicly defend real marriage for long. Government would have to treat traditional views as irrational bigotry. Parents who complain about their kids being forced to read Heather Has Two Mommies would be viewed like racist white parents who didn’t want their children to attend school with black children. Everyone who holds the view of marriage heretofore held in every culture would be opposed by this culture. Ministries would be forced to revise their principles or close up shop. Catholic Charities already has had to abandon its adoption services in California, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia to avoid being forced to place children with same-sex couples.

If we don’t reverse the trend, quoting the Bible concerning homosexuality could soon be illegal. It’s already happened in Canada. Just months after same-sex marriage became legal there, a bill that criminalized such statements became law. “Antigay” speech crimes can now be punished by up to two years in jail! In 2008, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal ordered Rev. Stephen Boisson to pay a $5,000 fine and apologize for a letter to the editor he wrote in 2002, before same-sex marriage was legalized. A higher court eventually overturned the ruling, but the incident is a foretaste of the future if defenders of traditional marriage don’t succeed in reversing the trend.

I experienced another such omen decades ago. In early 1979, our weekly television program was airing nationally on network and independent stations. For a few minutes on one episode, I said that homosexuality was outside of God’s plan for us. I also speculated that it would prove to be a detriment to people’s health. (This was prior to the AIDS epidemic.) In response, our flagship station in Dallas, a national network affiliate, cited the Orwellian “Fairness Doctrine” and took our program off the air. The next week, a gay advocacy group was given the entire 30-minute time slot.

We didn’t go quietly. The Dallas–Fort Worth public rose up to support us. More than 11,000 people gathered at “The Freedom Rally” in Dallas to defend my “Freedom of Speech, the Right to Preach.” Major advertisers protested the action of the affiliate and its corporate owner. The station’s decision eventually became national news, making its way into People magazine, and onto the Tom Snyder, Jerry Rose, and Phil Donahue shows. Protests by a diverse group of citizens—Catholics, Protestants, and Jews—plus legal pressure persuaded the station to restore our program after several weeks. The incident contributed to the demise of the Fairness Doctrine. Its official purpose was to preserve freedom of speech on TV and radio, but its effect was to silence conservative voices—so it’s no surprise that some liberal lawmakers want to bring it back. We won the skirmish in 1979, but it is a portent of how bad laws could be used to silence us if we fail to preserve marriage as a union of one man and one woman.

If we allow the state to redefine marriage, we should expect to see marriage collapse as a public institution. Some people will still marry, but it will be like a private pact with little or no larger social effect. Several European countries in which same-sex marriage is legal show what may come. Laws have permitted same-sex marriage in the Netherlands since 2001, and rather than a marriage paradise, with straight and gay couples typically living in long-term, monogamous bliss, fewer and fewer Dutch bother to get married at all. Children are no longer connected to marriage. People just live together, and many have a hard time figuring out why marriage is even relevant.

Many well-meaning people think same-sex marriage is just about equality and spreading the benefits of marriage. Its more radical supporters know it’s about destroying marriage itself. Here’s what one activist said in OUT magazine:

 “The trick is, gay leaders and pundits must stop watering the issue down—‘this is simply about equality for gay couples’—and offer same-sex marriage for what it is: an opportunity to reconstruct a traditionally homophobic institution by bringing it to our more equitable queer value system, …a chance to wholly transform the definition of family in American culture…. Our gay leaders must acknowledge that gay marriage is just as radical and transformative as the religious right contends it is.”[1]

So here we are right now with our highest court approving that which is against Nature’s Law and Nature’s God. In order to stop the oncoming flood propelled by the court’s decision, Christians united together in truth and love sharing the gospel that can transform lives and renew minds. It is the only way to overcome the damaging effects of twisted thinking and unnatural practices.

 

Part of this article is adapted from Indivisible by James Robison and Jay W. Richards (FaithWords), Chapter 8: “A Man Shall Cling to His Wife.”



[1] Michaelangelo Signoria, “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do,” OUT (May 1996): pp.30-32 (emphases in original), quoted in Stanton and Maier, Marriage On Trial, p.35.

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8 comments

  1. James, America needs your Voice on National news like it had years ago. Please pray about this matter as I will also. A Voice is Needed Now !

  2. Although I almost entirely agree with your opinions here pastor, I try to take a more optimistic viewpoint.
    The more the culture moves away from the traditional, the more valuable and beautiful the traditional becomes. We need to continue to be a light shining on a hill. Gays will never have babies like we do, never be able to have a traditional family like we do. We are unique and it will never be taken away from us.
    Although I have sorrow for the turns the US has taken, it doesn’t define me as a patriot, a wife, a christian. It makes me better.

  3. God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. When marriage and family are redefined, when fornication and “shacking up” become the norm, when having children is discouraged, and when marriage becomes cheapened with no fault divorce laws, the traditional family is destroyed. As there become fewer and fewer traditional families where the father is the provider, the government steps in to fill that role and the whole nation becomes one big nanny state where responsible citizens are taxed to pay for the irresponsible behavior of others. Sexual license destroys liberty. The more sexually deviant a nation becomes, the less freedom there is.

  4. “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
    Thank you sir for speaking the truth of God’s word in love! May the Lord revive America that we may be a blessing to God first and to our neighbors as well. God bless you!

  5. thanks for these thoughts today and I think you are right on target! I think that polygamy is right around the corner and sadly there are plenty of people out there that have no problem with that either. The new “to each his own” mentality with no regard for what it is doing to the fabric of our society is frightening. It bothers me that this destruction of the family probably actually began with the ease to which people can get a divorce which does not line up with God’s plan at all.

  6. Well stated Pastor, I wholeheartedly agree with you. May God have mercy upon us and help us to be faithful ambassadors if His grace and truth, in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. Praying for those who preach the Gospel, to be bold as lions and instant in season and out.

  7. Dear James, I live in Canada since 1953. Our parents left Roumania (Sibenburgen) as refugees in 1947 after Russia was given the eastern bloc countries..Ukraine..Roumania. We are a small group Transyvania Saxons who came for religious freedom, freedom pf speech, freedom of life liberty and happiness. At 65 ther is time to reflect…Since 1970 Roe vs Wade 60,000,000 lives of in the womb babies have been aborted US and 6,000,000 in Canada (1999) We no longer are allowed Bibles prayer or Christmas nativity displays in front of churches. Focus on the Family had TILLY on the radio 20 years ago and it is still a popular CD …story of woman had abortion as student finds small gave TILLY…great story Dr Dobson “God can forgive anything if we ask Him,” Chuck Swindoll SANCTITY OF LIFE good solid information…still God will forgive anything if we ask him…
    In Canada gay activists found a way for federal government to approve same sex marriage…Marriage in the constitution and Bill of Rights was never a federal matter…Family Law including mariage is provincial and part of any faith community… many donot have faith atheist, agnostic…anyone who worships anything animal or person breaks God’s heart and the first commandment. You shall have no other god’s before me.”…there is no limit to depravity of men and women…they deserve compassion and friends to help them with a matter of the heart…Dr Caroline Leaf has been invited to Kitchener as guest speaker for K-W Suport group. We are still trying to fit some pieces together…She has found a small brain on the heart..free will/ choose life or death/ conscience / character/ soul. If a person has a lot of pain in life that is covered over by alcohol, drug, fear, loneliness..hopelessness and suicide. Dr Tony Campollo & Shane Clairbone sent me a video 19 year old guy + 3 friends stayewith girl about to commit suicide and after that on her own free will she decided to live. Some of my friends are gay / lesbian…each is an idivdual created by God in their mother’s womb…K-W support group meets with people who are dealing with depression suicide stories and long term toxic memories. I have been aware of pain deep in the soul/spirit of boys and girls sexually abused and beaten as children by their dads or other men/women. Yesterday I met a friend we walked and a woman said “Hi Mike. Nice to see you.” It’s been over 10 years so I went to give a hug she ran away with fear in her eyes, soul. My fault. I forgot here story her dad raped and sexually abused her as a girl. This isn’t the first time. My friend said You knew her story why did you have to touch her? I’m aware of a lot of stories like that…I don’t know who will come to one of our meetings but we want to offer acceptance hospitalityto strangers and welcome them each time with prayer and praise..Let God’s Holy Sprit flow Jesus came to heal the broken hearted and bind up their wounds. We are the hands and feet of Jesus…I really appreciate you and Betty and have a photo somewhere when you came to Toronto. It was a good memory…Thanks for all you do. peace, [SHALOM] Mike Wolf

  8. I believe as a nation, It is all over but the crying. Abortion, Rampant Immorality,and now, state sanctioned homosexuality God will not hold back His Judgment. These acts are not just occurring in the world, but also within the body of Christ. Scripture tells us that Judgement begins in The House of The Lord. May God have Mercy upon us and The United States of America.