A prominent Baptist minister stood in the pulpit of his West Baltimore church recently and told his Sunday morning congregation, “Sooner or later they [gay couples] are going to come to me and ask me to perform a ceremony and the answer is ‘no’.” Like some others who oppose legalizing marriage between homosexuals, Reverend Wright (not his real name) has all but conceded victory to the proponents of the proposed “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act (HB175, SB116)” coming up for a vote this week in the Maryland General Assembly. By general consensus, and with the support of nearly all of Baltimore’s elected senators and delegates, it is almost certain to pass. Governor Martin O’Malley, a supporter of the bill during his recent reelection bid, will most likely sign it into law. To challenge, opponents will have to call for a referendum vote on the November ballot. An uphill fight, but not insurmountable as California voters have demonstrated.
How did it come down to this?
But beyond the politics, the question is, how did it all come down to this? How is it that the definition of marriage is in jeopardy of having to expand to include a reprobate variation, which bears no resemblance in spirit or letter to the biblical model originally ordained by God when he created man and gave him a woman to be his wife for the propagation of humankind? How is it that the ordinance of traditional marriage has come under such attack? The answer lies in what I refer to as the “weakest link theory.” Military strategists know that to best an enemy, you attack him at his point of weakness. Consider the state of traditional marriage in America. We have become a nation that turns a blind eye to divorce, to couples living together without marriage, to single women having children without husbands, and now, to persons wanting to “marry” persons of the same sex, even among Christians. All of which are against God’s laws and basic Judeo-Christian principals. And yet, those who cry out the loudest against gay marriage are themselves guilty of at least one of these offenses. If future generations are to value traditional marriage as the norm, this generation must do a better job of preserving its sanctity so that the next generation will see it as a viable choice for themselves. Upholding the standard God has set for marriage puts a unified face on traditional marriage that says unequivocally...what God has joined together no man can pull asunder.
