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The Definition of Marriage, the Supreme Court, and Christian Responsibility
By: John Stonestreet|Published: December 7, 2012 5:33 PM
Topics: Marriage & Family, Politics & Government, Religion & Society, Sexual Ethics

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The Supreme Court of the United States has announced that, in the coming months, it will consider two cases that deal directly with the definition of marriage. The Court will take up the issue of Proposition 8, in which lower courts invalidated the will of the people of California to legally define marriage as between one man and one woman. The court will also take up the case of the Defense of Marriage Act, which the Department of Justice has refused to defend under President Obama.

What this means is that, on a legal level, 2013 will be a very important year for the institution of marriage as publicly defined in the United States of America. It’s also, therefore, a very important year for the issue of religious liberty. As we have seen with the HHS mandate, any exemptions will not be sufficient to protect the long-standing freedom of conscience that religious Americans have enjoyed.

Christians must be prepared to talk thoughtfully and winsomely about what’s at stake when it comes to the legal definition of marriage, and to dispel the myths that are often perpetuated. Helpful talking points can be found at the Heritage Foundation, the National Organization for Marriage, Alliance Defending Freedom, Christian Medical Comment, the Ruth Institute, and CrossExamined.

In addition to speaking out whenever we can, we must also remember that the Supreme Court will not able to solve the marriage problem in America. Don’t get me wrong. What they decide in these two cases is extremely important. Still, if traditional marriage is upheld legally, marriage as an institution is still collapsing around us practically. Cohabitation is on the rise, divorce is normal, and the birthrate continues to dive.

So, it’s important that we ask: what else can we do?

  1. Churches need to educate their congregation on what marriage is. It’s stunning to me how many Christians think marriage is primarily about personal happiness. It’s not. And once we embrace that false notion, the institution has already been dangerously redefined.
  2. Churches need to surround young couples preparing for marriage with older couples who can mentor them. The benefits here will be mutual.
  3. We need to pray for government officials, including the Supreme Court, in this particular area. There will be other challenges regardless of how these two decisions turn out.
  4. We need to stay married. Period. Christians need to embrace that marriage is bigger than couples, bigger than personal happiness, bigger than we think. Marriage is how God builds and rebuilds civilizations. It’s really that serious.
  5. We need to financially support a broad range of organizations and ministries that are working to rebuild the personal, social, legal, and cultural status of marriage. The victory will be won only when Americans have, in the words of Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, “embraced the beauty of lifelong married love.”

Comments:

In any case the danger of an activity does not in itself make it immoral. Otherwise mountain climbing is immoral too.
Posted By: jason taylor on December 08, 2012 11:13 AM
Euthyphro's Paradox is a little harder to answer then that Kerry. In any case it is hard to think that the biological aspects of morality could not have been different. At best one can say that given human biology and psychology in the form we know it, that is true.
Posted By: jason taylor on December 08, 2012 11:11 AM
Most people have the mistaken idea that God arbitrarily set up certain standards and parameters and called anything outside of those bound¬aries sin. Not true. Sin is not bad because it's forbidden—it's forbidden because it's bad. It's forbidden because it will destroy us corporately and individually.

The high rate of disease among homosexual males is due to unhealthy sexual practice. Ninety-eight percent of homosexuals engage in oral sex, ninety percent practice sex with their partner in anal sex. This is biological suicide since the rectum was not designed to accommodate a thrusting penis or sex toys. During such activities the anal wall is torn and bruised, giving sperm and germs direct access to the blood stream. Since the anal wall is only one cell thick, sperm quickly penetrates the wall, causing massive immunological damage to the body’s T and B cell defense mechanisms. This doesn’t happen during vaginal sex because of the multi-layered construction of the vagina.

Seventy-eight percent of male homosexuals have or had a sexually transmitted disease. Two thirds of all the AIDS in the US are a direct result from homosexual behavior. Fifty percent of all homosexuals have gonorrhea. Homosexual young people are twenty-three times more likely to get a sexually transmitted disease. In San Francisco, the sexually transmitted disease rate is twenty-two times higher than the national average. Lesbians are fourteen times more likely to contract syphilis, four times more likely to have scabies, and three times more likely to get breast cancer.

Only three percent of homosexuals are fifty-five years and older. And only one percent die of natural causes, a la, old age. The life expectancy of a male homosexual in America is forty-two years old.

Please consider just a few of the medical articles I found in the medical journals on the health affects of this life style:
Youth HIV Rate High, Testing Low, CDC Says, November 27, 2012 (“The "shocking" data, reported in a Vital Signs article from Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, detail the prevalence, incidence, and risk factors of HIV among youths”); Discussion of HIV Status by Serostatus and Partnership Sexual Risk Among Internet-Using MSM in the United States, Journal Article, J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr, September 2012; The Association of Intimate Partner Violence, Recreational Drug Use With HIV Seroprevalence among MSM, Journal Article, AIDS and Behavior, April 2012; Condom Use Declining Among Subgroup of MSM, News, Medscape Medical News, March 2012; Young MSM Are at Risk for Syphilis and HIV Coinfection, News, Medscape Medical News, March 2012; Alarming Incidence of Hepatitis C Virus Re-infection After Treatment of Sexually Acquired Acute Hepatitis C Virus Infection in HIV-infected MSM, Journal Article, AIDS, December 2011; HCV Infection in HIV-positive MSM, Journal Article, AIDS Clinical Care, April 2011; Demographic Characteristics and Sexual Behaviors Associated With Methamphetamine Use Among MSM and Non-MSM Diagnosed With AIDS in Los Angeles County, Journal Article, AIDS and Behavior, September 2008; HIV Prevalence, Unrecognized Infection, and HIV Testing Among Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM)- Five U.S. Cities, June 2004-April 2005 June 24, 2005 , Journal Article, Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report, June 2005 ; Prevalence of Unprotected Anal Intercourse among HIV-diagnosed MSM in the United States: A Meta-analysis, Journal Article, AIDS, September 2009; Intimate Partner Violence and Social Pressure Among Gay Men in Six Countries, Journal Article, Western J Emerg Med, November 2012; Hepatitis E prevalent among MSM with HIV, Infectious Disease, September 13, 2012; Black MSM in Africa 15 times more likely to have HIV than general populations, Infectious Disease, July 26, 2012; USA300 MRSA may be sexually transmitted in MSM, Infectious Disease News, February 1, 2008; Unprotected anal sex may increase risk for hepatitis C in HIV-positive MSM, Infectious Disease News, July 1, 2011; Structural factors present major challenges for reducing HIV burden in MSM, Infectious Disease News, July 25, 2012; HIV and syphilis rates were highest among MSM, Infectious Disease, March 10, 2010; HIV prevention programs should focus on young MSM in committed relationships, Infectious Disease News, July 1, 2011; HIV more prevalent among black MSM despite fewer risk behaviors, Infectious Disease News, January 2008; HIV incidence on the rise among young black MSM in US, Infectious Disease News, September 1, 2011; Severity of depressive symptoms may impact HIV risk among black MSM, Infectious Disease, September 1, 2009; French MSM continue to be greatly affected by HIV/AIDS, Infectious Disease, February 18, 2010; CDC: Youth account for one-quarter of new HIV infections, Infectious Disease, November 28, 2012; HIV and syphilis rates were highest among MSM, Infectious Disease, March 10, 2010; Risk for HIV, STDs associated with anal intercourse merits more attention by health care providers of young adults, Infectious Disease News, October 1, 2009; Increased resistance to ciprofloxacin observed in gonorrhea among MSM, Infectious Disease News July 18, 2012; ; Global epidemiology of HIV infection in men who have sex with men, Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 2012 Jul 28; CDC Analysis Provides New Look at Disproportionate Impact of HIV and Syphilis Among U.S. Gay and Bisexual Men, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 10, 2010; ; Considerable number of deaths caused by sudden cardiac death in HIV, Infectious Disease News, May 17, 2012
Posted By: Kerry South on December 07, 2012 11:13 PM

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