Here is an answer that I used on my Christian Ethics final regarding the recent (now passed - at the time I wrote this voting had just started) Defense of Marriage Act in Texas:
The issue that I would like to address is that of a state law forbidding marriage for ‘homosexual couples.’ For me this issue boils down to the question, ‘where do I place my faith?’ Is it in the government or is it some where else? The issue with using the government to define marriage, is about giving power to the state that it does not possess. That is why this issue fails from the beginning. God has already defined marriage as being the joining (both spiritually and physically) of one man and one woman in a life long monogamous relationship. As to why He has deemed it this way, that is not for me to say, instead I will affirm the declaration of Job, “Who am I to question God?” He is God and I am not, amen.
That being said, the issue for me is whether I agree that the state should have the POWER and AUTHORITY to define marriage. To this I would say that, while I will abide by the laws of the land that God has placed me in, I do not feel that it is necessary to work through the government structure to uphold what God has already declared. In other words, I do not believe that a declaration by the State of Texas defining what an ‘official marriage’ is makes it any more or less valid in God’s Kingdom. In fact I would even say that (evidenced by the divorce rates in Texas) a number of what the state currently calls marriages really are not marriages because there has not been a covenant made between the two people whereby they are willing to leave and cleave in order to become one flesh.
To me regardless of whether there is a so called ‘defense of marriage’ act the sacrament of marriage will not change. Further more I would say that based on the combativeness of those in the ‘Christian Right’ who claim to speak for ‘Christian Values’ there is more damage to the gospel being done then there is a proclamation of it. This damage is particularly true in the way many conservative christians view the homosexual community (based on the christian rights dogmatic pursuit of laws like the defense of marriage act) because they see gay people as an evil that must be eradicated from our so called Christian nation. Our emphasis should be on the gospel, defined as the message of God’s love and the praxis that must be a symptom of that love, because of this I do not see how using the government to marginalize one group of people can be in line with the message of Christ.
For me the attempt to pass this definition of marriage in Texas is nothing short of the same legalism that Christ spoke so harshly against in the gospels. Let’s not forget that Christ was offered a political revolution and turned it down in order to die on a cross. For Christians to attempt to use the government to change the hearts of people is nothing short of idolatry, because we are saying that the legislature is more powerful than the Holy Spirit.
That is why, based on my discernment of God’s message of love and the praxis of that love to those who are on the margins I would have to say it is unethical for Christians to attempt to pass a definition of marriage in the Texas legislature.
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