I was upset with the Supreme Court's decision. Not merely on moral grounds (as I will no doubt be accused, as if that were some crime), but on grounds of how this country's political system was created to function. Up until this point, the redefinition of civil marriage had been a state-by-state issue. Some embraced same sex marriage by popular vote, some by legislative action. Most were under court order. Even in the latter, least-representative cases, it was a state issue.
Not anymore. All 50 states must now comply, not with a new law, but with the Supreme Court's reinterpretation of what the Constitution means and addresses. On the whim of five appointed justices, the entire country's law means a new and different thing than it did before. This is not the first nor last case like this, but it puts into stark focus the immense transformation (or decay, I would contend) our nation's political ideals and institutions have undergone. Whether one sees this as a good or bad thing, it is undeniable that America in 2015 is drastically different at its core from America since 1787.
I am also perturbed by the responses I've seen to this decision. Not from people making rainbow avatars or equals signs; I view that as, at worst, silly. I'm bothered by responses like those from Gawker, who vilely gloated in their supposed victory and told everyone who opposed this, and forgive my quotation of profanity, "Fuck you."
This makes me sad and angry. A movement claiming to espouse love and tolerance is revealing itself to be, though not universally, significantly motivated by naked hatred of Christianity and its followers. The people with this mindset will continue to press their advantage. There is already talk of removing tax exemption from churches that do not comply with gay marriage. I'm not just being paranoid, it's a real thing. Freedom of religion is rapidly eroding, not because of this ruling per se, but because of the societal and political mindset that made it possible.
All of this has troubled me and many like me.
Should it, though?
What is true and good does not change, no matter what a court, or an entire country, or the entire world says. God does not change. The world does. It is fickle, deceptive, and wicked. Why should we trust it to uphold goodness? Why should we even expect it to?
America was founded on many ideas, but the one it depended on most for sustained success was a virtuous and vigilant people. How many virtuous and vigilant peoples have existed in the world's history? God's own chosen people, through whom He kept his promise to deliver the world from sin, were so unfaithful that God likened them to a whore! Who are we to expect we can do better? To think, at any time, that we are better? We are all, individually and collectively, sinful, weak, selfish creatures.
Perhaps above all else, though, we are prideful and arrogant. So arrogant that we even try to take God's perfect will into our own hands. God promised to sustain us, His bride the Church, with the Holy Spirit. He didn't say anything about our Enlightenment-inspired political experiments. We thought we could be the protectors and preservers of goodness. We can't. That's why we need Christ.
God's kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). Even the best worldly kingdom will always fall short of our own ideals, much less God's. The plans and promises of men, even the best men, are like chaff. Only God's kingdom will reign forever.
So if I'm mad at what the Supreme Court says, or what the President says, or what Gawker says, or what even my friends might say, the fault is mine. Why do I care so much what the world says? I should be listening to what God says, even though—especially though—the world doesn't.
"What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
'For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." -Romans 8: 31-39
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