Fool’s Gold in California

California, which gave us the Gold Rush, has apparently discovered a modern fool’s gold. The State Supreme Court voted 4-3 to mandate same sex marriage. Unless there is a last-minute injunction, marriage licenses will be issued to same-sex couples beginning on June 14, 2008. The ruling has accelerate our nation’s skid down the slippery slope of moral collapse. California has become the second state (Massachusetts was the first) to grant homosexuals equal marital status with conventional heterosexual relationships. New Jersey will likely be not far behind.

This split decision effectively overturns every law against gay marriage. It is praised by the sodomite community but denounced by traditional moralists, who have to opt for long-range legal reversal through a legislative amendment to the state constitution. California governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, who had previously vetoed two bills legalizing same-sex marriage, has said he will respect the ruling and will not support such an amendment. Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he will perform same-sex marriage unions even as numbers of homosexuals cued up for marriage licenses, among them actress Ellen DeGeneres and her female partner.

In 2000, 61% of California voters approved a ballot measure that stated "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California." The City and County of San Francisco and individuals sued the state of California, and the result was the recent state supreme court decision. Matt Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, called the decision "outrageous" and "nonsense," adding, "No matter how you stretch California’s Constitution, you cannot find anywhere in its text, its history or tradition that now, after so many years, it magically protects what most societies condemn."

We have another case of judicial activism where laws are not judged but made. The split court ruling overturns an existing state law against gay marriage. We also have a case of a one-vote margin, underscoring the importance of a single vote. The issue is obviously going to be a major campaign concern in the U.S. presidential election, and everyone’s vote will be significant.

The issue is, first, a Biblical one. Scripture is clear in Genesis that God’s precedent is one man and one woman in a legitimate marriage as in Adam and Eve (Gen. 2). However, with Biblical influence apparently now waning, any immoral preference stands equally valid. (Sadly, even some in the Emergent Church movement have called for a five-year moratorium on what they see as Christians’ judgmental attitudes toward homosexuality. They say they need time to determine what Scripture really says.)

Changes in language have encouraged the shift. What is now known as the "gay" lifestyle used to be called "sodomy," harking back to the dismal chapter of such behavior and violence of Sodom as found in Genesis 19. God had enough, and Sodom blew up in fire and brimstone. When traveling from Amman, Jordan down to Petra some 180 miles south, the road traverses an area where light colored rock abruptly turns to black stones spewed from a great distance. Archeologists believe it is the residue of the explosion of Sodom and Gomorrah. Our tour bus stopped at the site, and the guide invited us to walk through the debris. It was a warm day, but it gave me chills.

A fundamental abuse of God’s norm that is given the force of law will surely not escape God’s attention or His judgment.

Further, if two men or two women can form legitimate marriages, why not two men and one woman, or two women and one man, or a foursome, a quintet or any other numbers of multiple unions? And who is then to say that bestiality (sexual unions between humans and animals) is illegal? After all, we are told that we humans are just advanced animals and animal rights are ultra-important. Breaching God’s norm of heterosexual monogamy destroys any valid objection to other variant unions. This also brings up questions regarding the fuss against the polygamists in Texas. Are laws against polygamy next to be struck down?

Other issues will surely arise. What about "hate crime" charges if churches speak against this "legal" lifestyle? What about religious tax-exemption if churches speak against "accepted public policy"? That is what the courts decided in the Bob Jones University case where they lost tax-exemption over what the school held as a sincere Biblical belief.

These changes are already evident in Canada. A court there decided in January that a child could have two legal same sex parents in a three-way parent relationship (one father and two mothers, one of whom was the biological mother and the other her female partner). A Christian ministry in Canada was fined $23,000 for trying to fire an employee who entered a homosexual relationship. In Canada, a person can be arrested, convicted and jailed if he speaks out publicly against the homosexual lifestyle.

Where does this erosion end?

What has happened in America is that Biblical morality has been eroded by the "baloney method"—a slice at a time. First, divorce is legal, then fornication is legal, then same-sex marriages are legal. What is next? I hope it is revival arising out of a renewal of Biblical allegiance and a rebirth in the human heart through genuine repentance and regeneration accomplished only through cleansing by Christ’s precious blood and a reborn life through the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 5:17 covers it: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

And there is the best of hope for the worst of us sinners. "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. 6:9-11).

I have written a more detailed commentary on the issues of gay marriage. Contact us for a copy of "Moral Madness: A Biblical Response to Gay Marriage," which outlines all of the Scripture references on homosexuality, its affect on our society and what Christians can do about it. A suggested donation of $2.50 helps to cover our costs for materials and postage.

Dave Virkler