The Problem with 41% of Churchgoers Seeing No Biblical Problem with Same-Sex 'Marriage'
Since 1996, American analytics company Gallup has been polling the American public on their support for so-called gay “marriage.” That was the same year the Clinton administration signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, prohibiting same-sex marriage from being recognized at the federal level.
Far from any kind of Christian moral victory, DOMA played the role of Pontius Pilate, washing America’s hands of the debate and allowing the decision to be made at the state level (like that’s any better). Republican Sen. Don Nickles seemed to think that was a good thing, and introduced the bill to the Senate, saying, “If some state wishes to recognize same-sex marriage, they can do so.”
What followed from that point was an avalanche of state-after-state and governor-after-governor passing and signing progressively more affirming bills, starting with civil unions and continuing to full-fledged redefinitions of marriage.
The infamous California Proposition 8 in 2008 brought with it many millions of dollars in advertising that renewed the debate on a national level, which we could likely link to the drop in support observable by 2009. This bill, however, was almost immediately overturned in the California Supreme Court, and the progressive devolution continued.
By 2015, under President Barack Obama, the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling guaranteed the right for same-sex couples to redefine marriage in every state around the country.
In 2016, Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be elected on a pro-same-sex “marriage” platform.
Where We Are Today
In 2024, the war against progressivism has advanced so much further — now into the transgenderism culture battle — that the question of gay “marriage” seems like ancient, settled history. This is reflected in Gallup’s most recent and unsettling poll, which reveals widespread support for same-sex marriage.
Overall support of same-sex “marriage” currently holds at 71 percent of the general population, broken down by demographic below:
As might be easily guessed, those who attend church monthly or “less often” overwhelmingly support gay “marriage.” The answer to this is simple, albeit potentially offensive to some: They aren’t Christian.
However, there remains a harrowing figure amid the poll to explore: Forty-one percent of weekly congregants – Christians — believe homosexuals should be allowed to marry. How on earth is that possible?
What Are We Thinking?
The popular response here could be to take a verbal dump on the epidemic of apostate denominations and heretical pastors and priests throughout the nation.
We could discount this 41 percent figure quite easily by claiming all of those individuals are members of the modern woke, progressive churches that fly the rainbow flags and chant BLM — the “Lesbyterians,” if you will.
That would certainly be an easy explanation and would allow us to take our victory lap and move on. No fire here — Christian doctrine is A-OK.
If only that were true.
If you’ve ever received one of these survey phone calls (by Gallup or anyone else), you know how ambiguous the questions can often come across. So let’s be as specific as possible here: Gallup asked respondents, “Do you think marriages between same-sex couples should or should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages?”
When phrased that way, it’s actually very easy to imagine a great number of Spirit-filled Christians — I could name a host — that would quickly answer “yes.”
Sadly, the reason for this is that they are overcome with the cancer of Christian Libertarianism.
Christian Libertarianism
I can have sympathy here because I was once diagnosed with this same rot. It’s an unavoidable byproduct of the cultural syncretism between conservatism and Christianity.
But wait — shouldn’t Christians be politically conservative? Absolutely.
Gone are the days of the 2000s, when Christians could comfortably sit on either side of the political aisle and debate geopolitics or the like.
And while the love and compassion of the Lord can certainly drive a naive but well-intentioned individual toward a Marxist public policy, we no longer live in a country where any professing believer can align themselves with the Democratic death cult for their support of a few tertiary public welfare programs.
So please don’t hear my critique of “conservative Christianity” and mistake me for another “woke libtard” that you might enjoy mocking. Let’s think deeper here. I’m pleading with you for more intellectual effort, and I promise the reward will be worth it.
As the divide between right and left has grown, the right has taken in quite a few political refugees. It’s not uncommon to see “gays for Trump” signs at a conservative political rally. And there are several enormous conservative commentators and influencers living full-fledged homosexual lifestyles.
The predicament this poses for Christians is unfortunate. We are shell-shocked in the proverbial trenches of this culture war, bleeding and dying to the last man for every inch of ground. Reinforcements are desperately needed and welcomed with open arms — except, you see, this has meant welcoming those who have pinned LGBT flags to the lapels of their uniforms.
This doesn’t pose much of a problem during the fight itself. After all, they fire their rifle at the same enemy you fire yours at.
The issues arise in between the attacks, while you stand watch and make conversation, sharing your reasons for entering the fight. It’s when you share your dreams for the nation that you quickly realize you’re somehow not fighting for the same vision for the nation.
And so the Christian soldier is left with two options.
The first option is to have an uncomfortable conversation and risk losing the support you so desperately need, holding firm to the convictions of the outcome you strive for — even if that means losing your newfound ally; or, worse, the now ex-ally turns his rifle on you.
The second option is to keep your mouth shut, adopting a libertarian mindset that neither condemns nor supports your homosexual ally’s lifestyle. This way you can have your cake and eat it, too.
The latter option allows you to sleep well, believing you haven’t betrayed your convictions. And your friend sleeps well, believing he is in no danger of eternal damnation.
But Christians do not get to adopt a “you do you” attitude.
The Real Issue
I would wager that most of that 41 percent figure Gallup reports includes faithful believers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are recipients of His grace. The issue at the root of this with faithful believers is that they’ve bought one or more pernicious lies regarding their worldview.
Maybe they believe their faith is a private matter and they don’t want to seem like they’re forcing it on someone else. They’re cowards, and often, when they are asked for their view on gay “marriage,” they can hardly finish the sentence before blurting out something along the lines of “But it’s totally OK if you don’t believe that, it’s just me.”
“But as for the cowardly […] their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8)
Or perhaps they’re pragmatists, real “big picture” guys, and don’t want to get hung up on something so settled and trivial as gay “marriage.” That’s only something fundamental Christians take issue with, right? We wouldn’t want to sound like a fundamental Christian. What’s more important is just getting our guy into office, and then everything will be better.
This whole issue was magnified during the 2016 election cycle when Donald Trump ran on an openly LGBT-affirming platform, the first time this has ever happened. Moral dissenters were condemned as “never Trumpers” and disregarded. Christians, by and large, put their moral convictions under a lampshade and locked arms with gays at political rallies and the like.
Let me clarify again, so that I am not misunderstood: Voting for a third-party candidate or abstaining altogether is an utterly foolish and stupid exercise. Donald Trump was the superior candidate to Hillary Clinton, and is a far superior candidate to Joe Biden, and I personally will be enthusiastically casting my vote for the candidate with the best chance of ousting that barely animate corpse of a Democrat.
Again, I plead for intellectual effort here.
My issue is not now, nor ever has been, with presidential candidates, but with the slippery slope upon which American Christians have seemed to place their moral values. You will not give an account for your politics when you get to heaven. You will give an account for your loyalty to Jesus Christ.
It’s not only possible, but downright required that you cast your vote for the candidate that has the best chance of ousting the worst president America has ever seen — for the sake of human life and flourishing.
The Christian, however, does this without removing their convictions from the forefront of their rhetoric and blindly locking arms with an enemy of God.
And enemies of God they all are, as we all once were before Jesus saved us and changed us. God could not be bothered with our trivial complaints of “electable issues.” His morality is clear.
What God Says about Homosexuality
“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” (Leviticus 18:22)
Leviticus? Isn’t that the Old Testament law that Christ came to fulfill? Do you also abstain from eating shellfish, and do you stone adulterers?
To put it briefly, there are three kinds of Old Testament laws: ceremonial, civil and moral. The ceremonial laws regarded ritual cleanliness for Temple worship. Don’t eat shellfish, because shellfish are bottom-feeders, and that makes you unclean by imputation.
Because we have a new high priest in Jesus, who has made us clean by His imputation; ceremonial cleanliness is no longer a concern.
Civil laws regard the day-to-day management of the Israelite people: punishments for crimes, recourse for lawsuits, etc. If a man and woman commit adultery, both should be stoned to death. We don’t live in their ancient Jewish society and these civil laws are not proscriptive in perpetuity.
Moral laws are set apart. Moral laws define what God has declared to be inherently good and inherently bad. Don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t covet.
Moral laws do not have an expiration date. Morality, by definition, does not change. God is not a moral relativist. If something was an “abomination” in 1300 B.C., it is still an abomination now, and for the same reason.
To be sure, this particular morality is repeated in the New Testament. When speaking of towns that reject Christ’s disciples, Jesus Himself condemns them by threatening the same judgment God poured out on Sodom (for its rampant sexual degeneracy), “I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.” (Luke 10:12)
Even more specifically, St. Paul addresses the sin of homosexuality directly in Romans 1, as he refers to the passive wrath of God — the people have pursued rebellion for so long, God finally withdraws His restraining grace from the human psyche, and people naturally devolve into degeneracy.
“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” (Romans 1:26-27)
You’ll often hear LGBT apologists attempt to reconcile scripture and homosexuality by making claims that New Testament passages around homosexuality contextually refer to temple prostitution or sexual abuse, and that the act itself is not condemned.
While their arguments bear no linguistic or historical merit — and that’s an entirely separate conversation — understanding the significance of God’s moral law offers a bedrock text in Leviticus 18:22 that cannot be shaken by any reimagining of New Testament theology.
The Real Answer
In medieval times, the Pope crowned sovereigns. In post-revolutionary America, many states required of their magistrates a professed faith. The motive was the same — the recognition of a higher moral authority over oneself. No one can rule autocratically when even kings bend the knee to Christ.
When laws were passed, they came with the enforcing legitimacy of divine authority. St. Paul tells us in Romans that magistrates — Christian or not — do the will of God by punishing the evildoer and protecting the righteous. All authority they had to govern was actually borrowed from God Himself, Who is the only person with the inherent right to have authority over any man.
God lends this authority to all government to create societies that allow human life to flourish. In return, government is held accountable to God. The laws government creates are the legislated morality of the God, who imputed the authority necessary to create the laws.
Currently, in America — and in contrast to the time of its founding — the state thinks it is God. The state does not believe in a higher power over itself. However, the state still creates laws, which legislate morality.
This begs the question, whose morality?
As Christians, it is our obligation to see to it that the counterfeit authority the government imposes is replaced with legitimate authority. Not through revolution, not through imposition, but through the democratic process established long ago by men who, at the very least, believed in a moral God who establishes common law.
That Gallup 41 percent would likely argue that the reason for their answer was to promote the health and wealth of American life — to let people pursue personal happiness. The Christian, however, must believe that the only way human life truly prospers is when it is in perfect obedience to the will of the God who created it.
The Libertarian promise is a counterfeit of the freedom offered in Jesus Christ. How free is that homosexual “married” couple actually if they are still slaves to their sin?
Our obligation as Christians who love our nation must be to seek that end through all peaceful methods we have at our disposal. We must earnestly yearn, not for the day when personal liberties multiply and capitalistic economies are in full bloom, because that’s putting the cart before the horse, my friend.
Instead, we must pursue diligently the day when God’s law is the law of this land; for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. It is then and only then that mental illness will decrease, when absent fathers will return, when crime will be nearly extinct — and when each child will have one mother and one father.
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