Gay Marriage…..(It’s not real)

Whoa Nelly!!!!  You’d think that all of Christendom was falling apart around us yesterday.  Just to clear the air, I thought it’d be good to remind everyone what marriage really is….

For starters, marriage is an institution created by God.  Right after God created Eve, marriage was instituted….  Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 

And Jesus repeated the theme that marriage was an institution involving a man and woman in Mark 10:6-8  But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. ’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. ’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 

So let’s be clear….Marriage is a religious institution.  Full stop.  End of story.

Somewhere along the way, and I suppose with good and well intentions, the civil government got involved in marriage.

• When lawsuits arise about alimony payments and child support….the government needs to know who is actually married.
• When people die and arguments come up about who gets their possessions….the courts need to know who was actually married.
• When you’re sick in the hospital and only “family” is allowed to see you….the hospital wants some form of official document that says who the “family” is.
• And perhaps most importantly….When insurance companies have to provide medical coverage for a “spouse”, they’ll lobby the government very hard to get an advantageous definition of “spouse”.  (Make no mistake about it, there is / was a TON of lobbying money getting thrown around with this issue)

So the well-intentioned government decided to start getting involved in a religious institution.  But they didn’t need to.

The government’s involvement in marriage has absolutely no bearing on marriage.  Any marriage of any bizarre flavor you can imagine.

If the government says that you’re divorced and free to marry anyone you want just because “the spark is gone”, does that make it so?  Of course not.  If the government didn’t issue a “marriage license”, would that mean that you couldn’t get married at all?  Of course not.

The government’s determination of the right & wrong in marriage is pointless.  So why are we freaking out about it?

And while we’re talking about “marriage licenses”….Why are we putting up with that nonsense to being with?  Do we go down to the county courthouse and get a license to assemble with saints on Sundays?  Do we get a license to partake of the Lord’s Supper?  Do we get a baptismal license before immersion?  Of course not.

So why do we go along with the absurd notion that the government can license the religious union of marriage?

The obvious solution to this whole hot mess is to tell the government to get out of the marriage business.  It’s really that simple.

But Christians need to realize that until that happens, nothing the government says or does has any bearing at all on what a marriage is.  Or when a marriage begins.  Or when a marriage ends.

It’s very plain to me that there are two kinds of marriages in this country.  There are the religious unions of a man and woman sanctioned by God and there are the civil unions sanctioned by the government.

Both of these unions are called “marriage”, but they’re not the same thing.

Read that again people.  Especially any Christians out there who are stomping their feet and shouting that the Supreme Court has “ruined marriage”.

The “marriage” that the Supreme Court ruled on yesterday is the civil union sanctioned by the government.  It’s not the marriage that God instituted at creation.

There are two completely different things happening.  People are getting married, and people are engaging in an activity that the government is also calling “marriage”.

Personally, I highly recommend doing both.  Marriage is a wonderful blessing and I’d be lost without my wife.  The civil union that our government also happens to call marriage comes highly recommended from I’mAGiver as well.  It has wonderful tax advantages.

So do both.  Get married.  Become one flesh.  And also get a “marriage license” and participate in the civil union that our government calls marriage.  BUT DON’T CONFUSE THE TWO.

If the Supreme Court issued a ruling tomorrow that baptism was only for left handed people, would it negate the salvation of all the right handed people in the world?  No…..  If the Supreme Court issued a ruling that the church could only be made up of left handed people, would it mean that all right handed people were church-less?  No…..

So if the Supreme Court can’t redefine baptism or the church, why do so many Christians think that the Supreme Court can redefine what marriage is?

So if you’re a Christian be mad if you want to, write a letter to the editor, call your Congressman, but don’t misunderstand what happened in the Supreme Court yesterday.  It’s the government redefining a legal term that the government uses.  That the legal term also happens to be a homonym for a religious institution created by God at creation is just beyond unfortunate.  But it has no effect on that religious institution.

There’s no doubt that the Supreme Court made a terrible decision yesterday.  But the decision they made has no effect on me, my faith, or the religious institution of marriage.  And anyone who thinks otherwise has a tragically flawed view of who God is, who man is…..and between the two, who’s in charge.