W. Frank Walton
05/19/12
by Ken Weliever
“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties,” said Vice President, Joe Biden, on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He went on to say the situation is “evolving” and that the “social culture” is changing.
On Monday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, when asked if he thinks gay couples should be able to legally marry, said, “Yes, I do.” And our President has been on record for some time saying that his views of same-sex marriage are “evolving.”
Well, Mr. Vice-President, I’m not comfortable with men marrying men and women marrying women. I don’t care if “social culture is changing. And Mr. Secretary, I don’t support the legalization of homosexual marriage. And for you, Mr. President, my views are not “evolving.” They remain constant. Unchanged. Enduring.
The Bible, God’s eternal Word, says that fornication, adultery, and homosexuality are sins. Although society has changed in the past 50 years God’s Word has not. The Bible in Romans 1:18-32 severely condemns lesbian and homosexual acts. The depravity of this sin is emphasized by the words that God uses to describe it: “unclean” “dishonor,” “vile passions,” “shameful,” “debased,” and “not fitting.”
In November of 1997 President Bill Clinton, spoke at the “Human Rights Campaign dinner” for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people, and said moral law is evolving. Conservative columnist Cal Thomas was right when he responded with a column entitled “Repealing Morality?”
God designed norms for behavior that are in our best interests. When we act outside those norms-such as for premarital sex, adultery, or homosexual sex-we cause physical, emotional, and spiritual damage to ourselves and to our wider culture. The unpleasant consequences of divorce and sexually transmitted diseases are not the result of intolerant bigots seeking to denigrate others. They are the result of violating God’s standards, which were made for our benefit.
So what can Bible believers do? There is an old Chinese proverb that says, “Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” Instead of wringing our hands and saying how awful the world is, here some things we can do.
1. Remain faithful to the moral standard of God’s Word. Live “soberly, righteously and godly in this present world” (Ti 2:11-12).
2. Unashamedly stand firm for truth. Don’t be ashamed of the Gospel. Of Jesus. Of old-fashioned Bible-based morality. Jesus prayed to God, "Your Word is truth" (Jn 17:17).
3. Preach the truth, preachers! Shepherd the souls of the flock, pastors! Let the leaders of our church family speak up and speak out (2 Tim 4:1-4).
4. Teach your children the truth. More than ever parents must be moral guides in their homes. Don’t assume your kids know what is right. Talk about it. Teach them (Eph 6:4).
5. Use whatever platform you have to speak the truth on moral issues. In government. Schools. The workplace. Social media. The voting booth (Matt 5:13-16).
6. Be loving and kind to those with whom you disagree. Jesus loved sinners. He cared for them. Be kind. Compassionate. Caring (Matt 7:12).
7. Seek the conversion of the lost. And that includes homosexuals. The Bible says to the Corinthian Christians, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor 6:9-10)
Paul’s words serve as both a warning and a comforting promise. God will judge the sinner. But thanks be to Jesus for his cleansing blood. And they remind us, we are not here to conform to culture, but to change culture through the Gospel of Christ.