Liberty Means a Lack of Coercion.

There is much, at least in the minds of many fundamentalists, ‘righteous indignation’ over the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on ‘gay marriage.’  And honestly, the whole idea is silly in the extreme.  The very notion that the Supreme Court, or any other court for that matter, can redefine something which God has already clearly defined is ridiculous.  It demonstrates an incredible lack of self-awareness {‘I’m not God’} and an incredible amount of arrogance {‘But I like to pretend I am’}.  The same God who created Man “in His own image” and “likeness” and Woman in this same “image” and “likeness” {Gen. 1:26-27} created the very concept of marriage and set its defining parameters when he brought the Woman to the Man and said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united [‘cling to and cleave desperately’] to his wife, and they will become one flesh” {Gen. 2:24}.

Jesus reestablishes this ideal for His own wayward generation when He strikes a blow against their hardheartedness toward spouses and callous attitude toward divorce.  “Haven’t you read ...that at the Beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?  So they are not longer two, but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate,’” Matthew 19:4-6.  The point here is that for those who believe in the Word of the Living God, we have an adequate and precise definition of marriage as man and woman, male and female.  This definition covers both the Old Covenant and the New.  We don’t need a new one.

Even culturally speaking, if we were to remove marriage from any Christian {New Covenant} or Judaic {Old Covenant} definition, we still see it unfolding through Time in culture after culture as fundamentally male and female, a man and a woman.  Sometimes these relationships are polygamous, meaning one man and several women, or even one woman and more than one man, but they are always male and female.  This is precisely my point: No culture, society, or nation in History has ever attempted to define the concept of marriage as two men or two women.  Marriage has always been seen as the foundation of family, the foundation of community, the foundation of cities, of states, of nations and empires.  Viewed through the lens of science, the idea of ‘gay marriage’ is biologically illogical, biologically ludicrous.  If a nation, a culture, a society, a community were to embrace this re-definition across the board and decide to put it into universal practice, you want to guess how long that nation, culture, society or community would last?  One generation.  One.  So much for longevity.

I believe there’s a simple, common sense solution to problems the gay and lesbian community are complaining they face because of not being ‘legally married, legally wed.’  Civil unions.  Each state, or even individual counties within a state, can decide for themselves by popular vote whether to offer a ‘civil union certificate’ to gay and lesbian couples, thus giving them whatever legal rights and / or advantages withheld from them now.  You could have ‘civil union certificates’ for the homosexual community on one hand and the traditional ‘marriage certificates’ for the straight community on the other.  The State of AR, e.g., might offer them both at the same price and with no religious affiliation whatsoever.  This way no pastors, priests or clergy are compelled by the State to officiate any ceremony they don’t personally choose to be involved in.  There is no force involved, and no crisis of conscience.  Gays can have sympathetic clergy officiate their ceremonies or, as many straights do, a justice of the peace.

Either way, no one is forcing anyone to do anything.  This, my friends, is the essence of Liberty.  It’s a simple, common sense solution— something not readily available in the Halls of Government today.  And apparently, from what one can discern from the outside, not readily welcome either!

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
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