The victory recently granted the gay lobby by the U.S. Supreme Court parallels a particularly disturbing shift in public opinion toward tolerance for the idea of “homosexual marriage.”

Countering Christian Support for Gay Marriage

by Joshua Brotherton

More than by such political maneuvers, however, the popular consciousness (which also affects Christians) seems to be influenced (often unconsciously) by the crafty use of artistic skill like that displayed in the new and wildly popular pop song by rapper Macklemore and singer-songwriter Mary Lambert, “Same Love.” 

The song’s lyrics articulate a thought pattern that already deeply pervades society. (I have personally encountered it at universities, churches, pubs, and family gatherings.) 

This essay seeks to challenge those Christians who may find themselves influenced by this recent tidal wave of societal pressure, to ask themselves this question: 

• Can a Christian in good conscience support governmental approbation of sexual activities traditionally thought to incur divine wrath—even when they take place within the bounds of legally sanctioned same-sex “marriage”?

Some Christians may take the political attitude of then Democrat Party presidential candidate Barrack Obama, at a town hall meeting with Rick Warren (and then Republican candidate, John McCain), when he responded to another hot-button ethical issue (the question of life’s beginning) with the infamous “that is above my pay grade.” 

Others have evidently already yielded to the temptation to dismiss biblical arguments against homosexuality with the flippant “we paraphrase a book written thirty-five hundred years ago.” 

And yet many of these same Christians do not want to relinquish the ideal of gospel charity; for example, the concluding verses of “Same Love” are from Paul’s hymn of charity in 1 Cor. 13. 

Macklemore’s song thus attempts to give a “Christian” voice to the popular civil rights mantra of equality of race, gender, and sexual orientation, as if the last was equivalent to the first two. 

The thought that is conveyed with such powerful sentiment is precisely that homosexuals too have the right to marry the ones they love.

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