Gay Marriage, What’s at Stake for America

Gay marriage.  Right or wrong?

According to Chick-fil-A’s Dan Cathy and many Americans of faith, the Bible has the final word.  Marriage = man and woman.  End of story.

This simple statement, and still widely held belief, has infuriated homosexual activists and become a focal point of the culture war that is engulfing America.  Gay marriage zealots, who claim to preach tolerance and love, instead hurl insults and openly wish financial ruin, injury or death upon anyone who dares to support a biblical definition of marriage.  The preachers of tolerance themselves have become wildly intolerant.  Accusing others of “hate” while in the same breath spewing forth a cocktail of profanity ridden vitriol, they become the very thing that they rail against.

Purveyors of hate and intolerance.

It’s an ugly scene.  Volatile.  And it’s going to get worse.

The proponents of gay marriage claim that their struggle is about equal rights, equal treatment under the law and the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

But, the issue is not about equality.

It’s not about rights.

It’s about right and wrong.  The question of morality.

Who will define it and by what moral standard should we, as a nation, live?

Ultimately, almost every law has a moral component to it.  Some more than others.  Since long before 1776, the colonies and their inhabitants looked to a single source for their understanding of right and wrong.

The Bible.

The American Revolution itself was kindled by the contradiction between the actions of King George III and the pronouncements of Scripture.  A simple reading of the Declaration of Independence confirms this in its most recognizable passage. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It was a radical statement for the time.  Rooted in biblical truth.

“…all men are created equal…”.  A not-so-veiled swipe at the superiority of the Monarchy and the institution of slavery.  The statement is drawn from numerous passages of Scripture that clearly indicate that we are all viewed equally in the sight of God.  We are all equally accountable to our Maker.

“…endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…”.  A clear declaration that all rights descend to all men from God, not from the throne and not by edict from any ruler or institution of man.  Anyone who tramples on those rights is guilty of an offense to God and man.

While early America’s view of morality and law was certainly based on biblical principles, it took 89 years for the nation to end the cruel and immoral practice of slavery.  Once again, as in the Revolution, the effort was led by people of the Bible—Christian abolitionists—and paid for by the blood of over 600,000 Americans.

It’s clear that Americans have always looked to the Bible as the source of moral teaching.  It’s part of our national heritage.  It’s in the American DNA.  It’s who we are.  It crafted our nation and our national identity.  One cannot understand America without understanding the role that the Bible has played in our development as a nation and as a people.  Over time, our nation has begun to stray from its biblical roots, but in large part the people of the nation still view morality from a biblical perspective—even if they are not aware of it.

So, is gay marriage moral?  Is it morally equivalent to the marriage of a man and woman and therefore deserving of the same status, rights and benefits?

Proponents say “yes,” that America has evolved beyond our dependency on the Bible as the source of truth and morality.   They believe that our laws should reflect the moral behavior of the current culture.

For gay marriage supporters and their Democrat party brethren, truth and morality are moving targets and are dependent upon the whims of society at any given moment.  In reality, what they advocate is a world where absolute truth does not exist and morality is determined by the behavior of the masses.

This is the horror of moral relativism.  And it is incredibly dangerous.

History is filled with examples of nations and peoples ruled by “of the moment” morality, whether it was imposed by executive order or simply embraced as the common, everyday behavior of the average person.

Dictators have murdered millions in the name of their own twisted moralities.  Nations have descended into decay and disorder as an unquenchable thirst to fulfill every human desire spread like a cancer, corroding cultures and shattering civil societies.

America, on the other hand, has been the greatest success story the world has ever known.  Rising from obscurity to become the dominant economic, military and cultural powerhouse of the world.  Why is that?

Is it our political or economic system?  The strength of our military?  Not so, say Chinese researchers.  According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, an official government institution, Christianity is where our strength lies.  “…Christianity. That is why the West is so powerful.  The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.”

In other words, America is successful because of our biblical heritage.  Our Christian culture and society.

Will America continue as a nation that draws its sense of morality from a biblical perspective or are the concepts of “right” and “wrong” simply to be determined by ballot or public opinion?

If the Democrat party and gay marriage advocates are successful in enacting gay marriage laws throughout the country, we will have started down a road of ruin where morality is not determined by any objective standard, but by political tactics, advertising and relentless publicity campaigns.

We will be vulnerable to continued attempts to define morality downward in an ever expanding search for unlimited personal freedom and the “right” to do all that we might imagine.  The freedom and right to do anything and everything that the human heart desires will drive our understanding of right and wrong, effectively removing “wrong” from the equation altogether.

Unleashed from our archaic understanding of biblical morality, we will then be free to express our darkest desires under the protection of law and with broad, societal acceptance.  We will be emancipated.  Free to live as animals do, without regard to our Creator and without concern for such things as decency, goodness and honor.  Our moral code will be limited only by the cravings of our corrupted hearts.

This is what the gay marriage issue is really about.

What is right and what is wrong.

The moral code upon which our society shall rise, or fall.

If that code is cracked, we are in great peril indeed.