While I think this percieved gay revolution that is been brought about by the Supreme Court Justice decision will have an effect for a time, it will only be for a short time.

There have been, and always will be, only a certain amount of people that are born with a gay inclination. This SCOTUS decision will not change any of this. Eventually the “faddish” thing brought about by the  acceptance of this governmental decision will die off. Yes, young people may experiment here and there, but their nature will win over. People are by nature heterosexual. This is the way God created them.

So many people are referring to this as a part of God’s national judgement spoken of in the first chapter of Roman. In Romans 1:18-27, it says that God will give people over to their hearts desire to do the things which are not proper (in this case, gay sexual fulfillment). But this “giving over” is judgment to the individual, not necessarily to the nation or society (maybe the the exception is Sodom and Gomorrah). And this goes for a multiplicity of other sins, including gossip:

Romans 1:26-232
This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions. For even their females exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 
27 The males in the same way also left natural relations with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error.

28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong. 29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful,inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. 32 Although they know full well God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

But, thankfully for us (and I think we forget this so often) the government is not the major line of defense with respect to our understanding of morality. The imago dei (“image of God”) within people is and will always be very strong. His image does much too keep people out of many moral ditches.

Same-sex sexual attraction is a terrible sinful plight and is a result of the fall. It represents some of the worse of sinful sexual depravity. But we always need to learn how to deal with this with grace and truth, keeping in mind the more serious sins that we may have in our heart (pride, greed, unforgiveness, etc).

Ultimately society will be self-regulating. I do not believe that anything that is going on in this culture is doing anything but exciting, for a time, people’s desire to experiment with this sin. But once all is said and done, most of those who suffer with this sexual sin will be back “in the closet” (which I am not so sure is good either).

Frankly (while we are at it), there really isn’t any such thing as homosexual sex. There are sexual “acts” between same-sex partners, but the ultimate redefining may not be with the word “marriage” but with the word “sex.” There is no lesbian sex or gay sex. Just erotic acts that they perform on one another. But it is biologically impossible for them to become “one flesh” in family or sexual intercourse.

Finally, if you are a believer in evolution, you know how the survival of the fittest is going to go here. No “sex” equals no procreation. No creation equals no society. This is why just about every civilization that, as a nation, in one way or another, finds a very natural way to self regulate this issue (do a quick study of nations that accept homosexuality as a norm).

I suppose the point is this: I wish we would quit worrying so much about what the government calls “marriage.” The government is and never has been the Webster’s dictionary of terms anyway (and, neither is Webster for that matter). What matters is how we respond with grace, mercy and truth the way God has responded to us with grace, mercy and truth. Just as he has done so with all of us through our own sexual prideful hateful lustful and an unforgiving nature.

The only answer for all of us is the cross of Jesus Christ.

Stay involved in the government, fight for what you believe, but don’t lose your poise though as our God in heaven is very calm and his knuckles are not getting any whiter.


C Michael Patton
C Michael Patton

C. Michael Patton is the primary contributor to the Parchment and Pen/Credo House Blog. He has been in ministry for nearly twenty years as a pastor, author, speaker, and blogger. Th.M. Dallas Theological Seminary (2001), president of Credo House Ministries and Credo Courses, author of Now that I'm a Christian (Crossway, 2014) Increase My Faith (Credo House, 2011), and The Theology Program (Reclaiming the Mind Ministries, 2001-2006), host of Theology Unplugged, and primary blogger here at Parchment and Pen. But, most importantly, husband to a beautiful wife and father to four awesome children. Michael is available for speaking engagements. Find him everywhere: Find him everywhere

    4 replies to "A Personal Note on Gay Marriage"

    • peter

      I agree with your argument. Regarding homosexual sex, what if one same sex person has a sex change? would that be homosexual sex or hetero?

      • David D. Dockery

        I do not think changing a person’s sex is possible. Sure, you could change physical resemblance, but we have a powerful intuition that tells us changing the physical does not alter personal identity. My getting a tattoo does not make me a canvas.

        A person’s identity is objectively determined by God’s perception of an individual in their place in time. “Caitlyn” Jenner will always be Bruce Jenner because narratively, she fulfills the role of Bruce Jenner. You cannot honestly hold to a continuation between Bruce and Caitlyn and simultaneously hold he has really become a she.

    • David D. Dockery

      I understand your point, Michael, and it makes sense from a purely spiritual perspective. However, we have to live under this government. Their redefining of marriage does not have any objective spiritual effect, no, but it does have an effect on how they will govern the people. Their delusions will make it much more difficult to spread the gospel among the people. Is it impossible? No, but I would rather work with tilled soil than rocky soil.

      The point is not specifically about homosexuality. It is about the rapid decay of godliness in Western civilization. I have no delusions. We never have been, nor ever will be, a Christian nation. However, I hold out hope that we will be a nation that is receptive to the gospel. Taking leaps toward considering Christianity a hate group will not further that goal.

    • John P

      I think DDD has made some very good points, which express my thoughts on this matter.

      During my lifetime I have noticed how the attitude of the government (I’m from the UK) affects the thinking of the population. This was brought home to me with Mrs Thatcher’s focus on ‘individualism’ rather than ‘society’, do what you want to do and never mind about others. If homosexuality is normalised by the government the population become a lot more accepting of it, and the result is that Christian thinking seems very out of touch with society and unloving.

      That said, I do agree with Michael that we should not be homophobic and haters of homosexuals.

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