Since Friday’s SCOTUS decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, social media have been inundated with rainbows, tweets, quips, and essays both celebrating and decrying our new culture that has been officially codified in these United States. With a strong LGBT community in our city, we, no doubt, will see a great deal of celebration and will face some stronger challenges than we have in the past. Only a few days into this (even though we knew it was coming), many of us are still reeling a bit and trying to sort through emotions.
As Christians committed to Scripture, we are working through a whole range of emotions. We are angry because sin is not merely being tolerated in our society, but it is being celebrated; declared to be a valid expression of humanity. We know that homosexual unions are contrary to our creation and re-creation in God’s image. They are unions of death, inherently unable to bring about life. They are expressions of the love of death. Our culture has loved death for a long while, having tolerated fifty million babies being slaughtered. It is only natural in the progression to slide down into further expressions of death. We are angry because we love life and hate all those forces that fight against it.
We are also saddened because we realize that, according to Romans 1, we are being judged by God and just might be in the last days of this nation’s existence as it has been known for the past few centuries. This nation is our home. We have roots here. It is heart-wrenching to watch it being torn apart.
And let’s admit it: we are afraid. We are afraid at some level because we sense that we have been put more on the defensive. They now have a strong upper hand in the legal system. Our position in the past was tenuous at best, but at least we had some way to hold the tide of sin at bay. It doesn’t feel like that since Friday. We know that equal legal standing and tolerance are not all that they want. They will not be satisfied until we are all evangelized and converted by their gospel. Our churches must reflect these new cultural trends, realizing that our Biblical views are antiquated. When we don’t comply, they will take our tax exempt status or shut us down.
But because of their fruitless unions, needing adherents, they will come after our children. These children can’t be taught this intolerance. They must be educated by the government. These fears are not irrational. One doesn’t need to be a prophet to see this. They are publicly telling us that these are their intentions. They have said these things in the past, but now they can come after us with the full power of the federal government.
What do we do? Start a revolution? As those who’ve grown up in a revolutionary nation, this seems to be in the air that we breathe. Revolution is not the answer. I’m not saying that we “give up on America.” I’m saying that our warfare is conducted in a different way. America is dying. She has made strong commitments to death. We need to let her die. This is not giving up for us. Paul tells us that death belongs to us (1 Corinthians 3.22).
Death serves us Christians as well as the cause of the kingdom. We shouldn’t be afraid of it. Yes, it is uncomfortable to move through these changes. Yes, many of us will probably suffer in some form or fashion. But it is all serving the greater purpose of the kingdom. We serve a God who uses death for the good of his people, granting us resurrection into new and more glorious life. Death is an enemy that works for us. America will die. The kingdom will continue. Since we are citizens of the kingdom of Christ, neither we nor our heritage will ever die.
While America is dying there are some things we need to which we need to be attending. As a church, we need to prepare ourselves the best we can in the present legal system to stand against the wickedness of same-sex unions. We will be clarifying our statements on marriage to reflect specifically our opposition to these legal abominations. We will proclaim that which we will not tolerate as a church in our service to this city. These legal barriers we put in place are not merely for self-preservation; a way to hole up and stay within protective walls not to be touched by the undesirables. The new legal status given to same-sex unions gives us an opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Christ in new ways. As Paul used the Roman legal system to further the gospel, so we now have the opportunity to proclaim the gospel of life into this culture of death, welcoming those who will forsake death and choose life.
We should not live under the delusion that legal statements and having some standing in the courts of America will ultimately shield us from all harm. We need to be realistic. Laws don’t protect people. People protect people. When our appointed leaders decide the law should no longer apply, they will work around it, ignore it, or change it. Wicked men always find a way. Our help is in the name of YHWH, maker of heaven and earth. He is our shield. He is our refuge. He is our judge. He is our protector. We trust in him and use the opportunity he has given us to call this culture to repentance. One way we can do that is through preparing ourselves to stand before the civil magistrates without compromise, appealing to them to repent of their wickedness and protect the righteous as they have been called to do.
We fight this war through daily faithfulness. Ranting on social media has its place. God has given us opportunity to proclaim his gospel in various ways. We should use all the means God provides to us. But long screeds and righteous rants are no substitute for daily faithfulness. There is not much that is more powerful in proclaiming the mystery of the gospel of Christ than when a husband is loving his wife and a wife is loving her husband. This is the gospel incarnate. Proclaim it with boldness.
As a church, though we will address this sin specifically, we will continue to do what we have been doing for years: gather in prayer around Word and Sacrament. We will continue to pray for all those in authority (1 Timothy 2.1ff.). We will be transformed by the renewing of our minds and invigorated by the Spirit to live faithfully. As we do these things, we will expect in faith that God will hear our prayers and take the appropriate actions (cf. Revelation 8.1ff.).
In all of this, there might just be a felicitous consequence for relationships between Christian churches. We have a tendency to be territorial, fighting with one another or at least ignoring one another. With the rapidity of the culture’s descent and the increasing pressure on the churches to comply, it will be difficult to stand as a singular, local church. God may use this pressure to make us stand together with other Christian churches. That is a good thing.
Be encouraged; not because God promises that he will turn back the moral clock in America fifty or one hundred years to a time in which we could be more comfortable, but because God promises that no matter what we endure as Christians, it is all in service to us and for the kingdom. We can’t lose.
Bill Smith is pastor of Cornerstone Reformed Church in Carbondale, IL.