History was made today by the Supreme Court of the United States. The door is now fully open to require all 50 states to recognize homosexual marriage. Time will tell how this will further our decline as a society. But in the short run it will certainly speed the rate at which Christians are dismissed as bigots and haters. There is nothing new about that. The tricky difference is that very soon pastors and churches will be faced with the fall out of standing against state and federal law. We must be ready for the new challenges this will present.
We also must keep in mind that the state is not the church. The state does not bear the same responsibilities nor exist for the same purpose as does the church. However, this does not lessen the state's obligation to God Almighty. His laws are not rendered irrelevant outside the church or Christian home. Sin is a blight on any nation. And we should expect dire consequences as a nation when we affirm and celebrate what God abominates.
Earlier today, Al Mohler offered an initial reaction to the SCOTUS decision:
Even though the Court did not rule today that all states must legally recognize and allow for same-sex marriages, the handwriting is on the wall. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion implicitly invites any citizen who resides in a state that does not allow for same-sex marriage to claim that his or her constitutional rights are violated on the basis of the Court’s opinion handed down today. You can count on a challenge of this form arising in short order.
As Justice Scalia noted in his dissent today, “As far as this Court is concerned, no one should be fooled; it is just a matter of listening and waiting for the other shoe.”
The Court’s majority did not want to pay the political price that a decision as immediately sweeping as Roe v. Wade would have cost. Instead, the majority decided to send a clear signal that such a case will now be well received. It struck down DOMA by employing a logic that, as Scalia noted, cannot stop with the striking down of DOMA. It can only stop with the full legalization of same-sex marriage in all fifty states by judicial fiat.
But wait, for there are more shoes to drop...
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