As court orders and legislation authorizing civil marriage for homosexual couples multiply, many Christians are uncertain as to what position they ought take on the question. As a controversy within the Orthodox Presbyterian Church a few years ago illustrated, one can simultaneously object to violations of the 7th Commandment and believe that marriage is a civil right to which all are entitled, regardless of whom one chooses to marry. Thus, a much deeper question lies beneath that of homosexual unions: namely, what is marriage?
In thinking through this question over the last number of years, I have been greatly helped by essays appearing in First Things. As a Protestant, I think these can occasionally lean too much on Roman Catholic natural law assumptions, but generally I find them useful guides to getting past the rhetorical exaggerations which pass for public debate today. The most recent of these was recently posted on the First Things website: "Deciding Not to Decide What Marriage Is." It helps us see the real problem is not gay marriage, but no-fault divorce and the entirely self-centered assumptions of Americans who enter into marriages in these dark days.
The case against homosexual marriage can't be conveniently summarized on a bumper sticker, which is why it behooves Christians, today more than ever, to begin reflecting on their own contributions to the cultural decay which has led us to this pass.
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