Hello?!? Same-Sex Marriage and Civil Rights—Not the Same Thing
Almost sixty years ago, there were many places in this country where a black person couldn’t sit at the lunch counter of a local diner. Sometimes they were forced to sit in the back of the bus or give up their seat to a white passenger. Blacks often couldn’t use the same restroom, find a vacancy in the same hotel, or take a drink from the same water fountain as that used by white citizens.
Those were certainly some of the bleaker days in our nation’s proud history.
However, in much the same way that slavery was abolished in this country, the scourge of segregation was also eventually condemned to the ash heap of American history.
But let’s be clear about one thing: these great and dramatic changes in our nation’s history were not brought to us by our secular society.
Instead, they were given to us by people of deep and abiding faith in God, firm believers in the words of Holy Scripture, and dedicated followers of Christ.
Today, however, we actually have a great number of misguided people in this country who are falsely trying to draw some kind of a direct correlation between the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the failure of our country to allow same-sex marriage.
The two of them have absolutely nothing in common.
Sixty years ago in this country, when a man walked into a room, the color of his skin might immediately determine the kind of treatment he would receive from a proprietor in his place of business.
The same cannot be said of homosexuality.
Throughout our nation’s history, there have been homosexuals eating at the same restaurants, sleeping in the same hotels, drinking from the same water fountains, voting in the same polling places, using the same restrooms, and choosing their own preferred seat on the bus.
In short, they were living their lives largely unencumbered by the tribulations faced by those in the black community.
In this country, homosexuals have never been subjected to the same level of abuse and humiliation as that suffered by people of color. In fact, that claim should be downright vile and insulting for every black American over the age of sixty to hear.
The reason for this is simple: whenever a person walks into your place of business, you cannot immediately tell if that individual is homosexual, particularly if he chooses to give no indication of it.
A person cannot choose not be black; a person can choose not to be a homosexual.
It’s not a matter of birth. It’s a matter of behavior.
Good people of faith opposed and ended slavery and segregation because the Scriptures taught them that they should. Moreover, those people in our churches should be applauded for it. But those same sacred words of Holy Writ also place the same condemnation on adultery and homosexuality, a pair of sins for which the Savior shed his innocent blood.
And no proper reading of the Bible ever implies that it’s a sin to be born with a different pigment to your skin.
Despite the nonsensical claims of many in today’s society and increasingly coming from the nitwits in our nation’s pulpits, it certainly isn’t judgmental or un-Christian to abhor those things which God has already condemned.
Traditional marriage isn’t only mandated by God; it is the chief cornerstone of a healthy society.
We’ve all heard the excuses given by self-serving and supposedly open-minded people for allowing same-sex marriage:
–“They deserve the right to live the way as they see fit.”
–“Who are you to decide how other people live?”
–“What do you have to fear from two loving people being together?”
–“People have the right to love whomever they want.”
–“We shouldn’t judge others.”
–“It’s just the right thing to do.”
But let’s just suppose for a minute that you discover that your once-beloved spouse is carrying on an affair with the honey down the street.
Nearly all of the reasons routinely cited for allowing same-sex marriage could also be equally applied to the behavior of a cheating spouse.
Will you also choose to apply these same standards of tolerance to the one who’s sworn to be faithful to you “until death do you part?”
If there truly is a Creator, then there are most assuredly a set of moral absolutes in this world. And if there is no God, then there can be no moral absolutes, no clearly-determined standards of right and wrong, and nobody to whom we ultimately must answer.
Moreover, we have traditionally determined what right is from the Ten Commandments and other portions of the Bible.
Therefore, how can the legalization of same-sex marriage be the “right” thing to do and adultery be wrong when we willingly choose to disregard the words of Scripture?
Same-sex marriage is a behavior, not a Civil Right. Like adultery, it is clearly forbidden in Scripture.
As a Christian, I have a moral responsibility to treat homosexuals and adulterers with the same level of kindness. However, I don’t have to embrace their behavior, endorse their choices, or sanction their actions by the rule of law.
And neither should our society.
Image: Courtesy of: http://dmpsushistory.wikispaces.com/An+Era+of+Social+Change
