Thinking biblically about the death of DOMA

Rosaria Champaign Butterfield has written a thoughtful and thoroughly biblical reflection on the Supreme Court's decision to demolish DOMA and thus pave the way to make homosexual "marriage" the law of the land.

Also, her thoughts on the closing of Exodus International and reparative therapy are, in my opinion, exactly right.

Mrs. Butterfield writes:

This has been an electric few weeks for a former atheist, now Christian disciple. First, Exodus International closes down. Truth be told, this is fine by me. Reparative therapy was never part of God’s method, and Jesus Christ did not die to make any para-church his bride. But Exodus detonated with a colossal bang, and took with it gospel integrity, leaving even more theological turbulence in its wake.

Now the Supreme Court, using strong, cosmological, moral language defending the human dignity of same-sex unions, overturns DOMA and Proposition 8, sending a resounding rebuke to the Christian ideal of creation ordinance, and with it, the normative (albeit not always redeemed) heterosexuality that undergirds it...

So I did what parents across the country did — believing parents and unbelieving parents, gay parents and heterosexual ones. I gathered my children in close, and I talked with them. You probably did this, too. No big surprises in my talk.

No new news. No identity bombs were dropped. My children have always known that their mother used to be an atheist and a lesbian. They cut their teeth on this vocabulary, and could say the words before they knew what they meant. Saved by grace. Closets are for clothes, after all.
Here is what I know: God is bigger than my sin. And God is sovereign over Supreme Court decisions and shifting worldviews. He has had the first and he will have the last word on all matters of sin and grace.

The Church, Christ’s bride, is a God-made institution and will sustain herself in majesty in times of persecution or revival. Context matters not. Providence will paint the walls of this worldview.

Read the entire piece HERE.

SCOTUS on DOMA

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...Continue Reading

Enforcing Laws, Defending Marriage...

In what can only be described as a cynical political move, the Obama Administration informed Congress that they will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA]. That means that any challenge to DOMA in the courts will not be countered by the Administration even though the President and Attorney General took oaths to defend the law of the United States. Of course, this is an egregious violation of the Executive's responsibility to enforce the laws passed by Congress. The President and Attorney General simply do not have the power to act as the judiciary and decide which laws are or are not constitutional. What is more, this happened while hundreds of United States citizens are unable to escape an increasingly dangerous situation in Libya. How can it possibly be a Presidential priority to attack the historic and, yes, biblical understanding of marriage during a time of profound challenges in foreign policy?

The Defense of Marriage Act provides much needed protection for states by allowing them to deny the legitimacy of homosexual marriage. For instance, if two homosexuals get married in San Francisco or Boston, Pennsylvania is not required to recognize that marriage. DOMA was passed by congress, signed by President Clinton and upheld by the courts. President Obama's decision to not defend DOMA in the courts all but guarantees that homosexual marriage will become the law of the land. There is now nothing protecting Pennsylvania or Texas or Iowa from having to accept as legitimate the marriage of two homosexuals married in San Francisco.

Scripture makes clear that homosexuality represents the lowest forms of human foolishness and degredation as man drifts farther away from honoring God as God (Romans 1:18ff). The state is not the church. However, any nation which celebrates or honors what God has clearly condemned as an abomination stands under His condemnation.

Al Mohler writes:

Clearly, the President believes that he has sufficient political support to make this move. While gay rights groups have been pressuring the administration for this kind of action, in the first two years of his term, the President clearly felt that such a move would be too politically expensive and risky. No longer.

Is the President right in thinking that he will not be hurt politically by this action? The game played by many liberal politicians in general, and by Democratic politicians in particular, is to say that they are personally opposed to same-sex marriage, even as they work to remove all defenses against it. The political game played by many conservatives, by the way, is to pose as defenders of marriage without taking any action that would draw political risk. Remember that when conservative politicians now call for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as exclusively the union of a man and a woman. Where were they when such an action would have required courage but was politically viable and clearly needed?

In the press briefing, Jay Carney said that the President’s personal position on same-sex marriage is “distinct from this legal decision.” Last December, President Obama told reporters that his personal position on same-sex marriage is “constantly evolving.”

Well, there may be issues in which the distinction between the legal and the moral arguments makes a real difference, but this is not one of those issues. To suggest that President Obama does not personally support same-sex marriage is to posit a dualism within him that is nothing less than Gnostic. Mr. Carney would do better to stick with his argument that the President’s support of the gay rights movement is consistent. It is not credible for the President now to play Hamlet on the question of his own position on same-sex marriage.

The most immediate meaning of this announcement is two-fold. In the first place, it means that the constitutionally appointed defender of the nation’s laws, the Attorney General of the United States, has now been ordered to cease defending this single law in the courts. That alone is almost surely sufficient to spell the doom of DOMA in short order.

In the second place, this announcement means that President Obama and his advisers now believe that the full legalization of same-sex marriage is both inevitable and without major political risk to the President and his plans for re-election. That, in itself, represents a moral earthquake. The President clearly believes that a sufficient number of Americans will either support or accept same-sex marriage — and this comes just a few years after a majority of the states passed constitutional amendments prohibiting same-sex marriage, and most by huge margins.

The President has made his decision. The Attorney General has now made his announcement. Mark your calendars for yesterday. That day now represents a tragic milestone in the betrayal of marriage.

Read the entire post HERE.