After the Obergefell v. Hodges decision last April that wrote in a right to same-sex marriage in the Constitution, there hasn’t been much talk about the marriage issue. This decision was a punch in the gut to Christians who have been fighting for decades for biblical marriage. Christians and conservatives expended time, money, and energy to pass natural marriage amendments in 31 states. After all of those efforts, five judges struck down what millions of Americans had already decided. Prior to this decision, it was clear that the American people recognized marriage as between one man and one woman. Yet the five Supreme Court judges usurped “We the People.”
Biblically, the definition of marriage was determined by God. In Genesis 2 God saw that it was not good for man to be alone, thus He created a helper for him called woman. Verse 24 reads, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” In the New Testament, Matthew 19:5 upholds this concept: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” The definition of marriage as between one man and one woman is a non-issue among most mainline evangelical Christians.
Where there is differing of opinion is whether or not Christians should get involved in the lawmaking process of defining marriage. My answer to that would be, absolutely we should. Any time Christians can shape public policy to align with biblical principles we should. Abortion is a prime example. If abortion had not been legalized in Roe v. Wade (another discovery of something not mentioned in the Constitution) then millions of babies would not have been systematically and conveniently terminated. Christian involvement in public policy is a must.
Constitutionally, the definition of marriage is nowhere to be found. As you read the U.S. Constitution the word “marriage” is absent along with any mention of civil unions etc. The 10th amendment says “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” In laymen terms, marriage isn’t mentioned here thus it should be a state by state issue, not a Supreme Court issue. The Supreme Court construed the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment to somehow validate homosexual marriage. As I’ve mentioned before, there was equal protection (application) of the law regarding marriage prior to this ruling. Thus the court was wrong in two areas: marriage law isn’t within their authority and the fourteenth amendment was taken out of context. Not to mention, dozens of states had settled this question via marriage amendments.
Some might say “I’m beating a dead horse” or “this ship has sailed.” Let me remind you, many were saying that with Roe v. Wade. Yet the pro-life issue is one of the most debated in modern politics to this day.
For Christians who are taking the defeatist attitude and suggesting topics like marriage, life, and religious liberty are a waste of time let me ask you this: what makes you believe these issues are over? On what basis can you predict these highly debated moral issues are a dead horse? Lastly, if we can’t debate and convince the public that life, marriage, and religious liberty is important then what are we to do?
