SCOTUS Will Rule

In today’s paper we learn that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has decided to rule on gay marriage in the coming session. This should come as no surprise to culture-watchers. It has never been a matter of “if,” but “when.” At issue is the legality of same sex unions in every state. Currently, 36 states have legalized these marriages. If SCOTUS decides in favor of gay marriage, that decision will overturn the ban in the remaining states.

Obviously, this ruling would have serious implications for organizations that seek to uphold marriage as defined scripturally as one in which a “man shall leave his mother and father and cling to his wife” (Gen. 2:24). Jesus repeated this in Matt. 19:5 so that the principle can be located in both Testaments. For example, many Rescue Missions, (the ministry with which I am affiliated), have family units that provide emergency shelter for families. If family is redefined, these shelters will need to decide which definition will prevail.

I predict that SCOTUS will rule in favor of gay marriage, allowing same sex couples across the country to enjoy the legal rights and privileges of any married couple. And when this happens, a lament will be heard throughout the land that we have lost ground in the cultural war. Being a contrarian by nature, I offer these observations:

·         We lost the culture war a long time ago. It is doubtful if we were ever winning. While evangelicals were fighting and protesting against same sex marriages and abortion (which we should have done), heterosexual immorality (an archaic phrase if there ever was one) crept in to the church and has become an accepted practice. I know of individuals who are violently opposed to homosexual immorality, but thought little of their own heterosexual immorality.

·         It seems to me that Christianity thrived and flourished and “turned the world upside down” in a culture that was hostile to faith. That Christians would have even considered that they were losing the culture was foreign to them. They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims.

Not only do I predict that SCOTUS will rule in favor of gay marriage, I also predict that, when they do:

• The gospel will still be the power of God for salvation.
• Christians will still be called to live counter-culturally
• Truth will still continue to be offensive to a world estranged from God.
• Jesus will still be King of Kings and Lord of Lords. SCOTUS will only be SCOTUS.