Tomorrow will be the fifth anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision which guaranteed the right to marry for same-sex couples.
In the years preceding the decision, state after state after state voted against it. 32 of 33 states where this was voted on, voted no. In 13 of those states, the vote wasn’t even close, with more than 70 percent of people voting to ultimately preserve the traditional American definition of a marriage. The will of the people was ignored and five justices -who are no more virtuous than the rest of us – declared the law by fiat.
Many years ago, the argument for recognizing the legal validity of same-sex marriages and unions was the “what if two people are in a loving relationship for many years and one is in the hospital. Their partner can’t visit them?”
We’re so far beyond that now. A celebrity says something critical of same-sex marriage and there’s a backlash, efforts to boycott and essentially destroy the person. If a business owner doesn’t want to support it, he’s a hateful and bigoted. The conversation has been crushed on this issue. In the popular cultural narrative, the only accepted response is enthusiastic support and affirmation. Dissent is not tolerated.
Last week, the Supreme Court enshrined LGBT rights into federal employment law.
This week, California banned state funded travel to Idaho due to Idaho’s transgender laws. In 2016, the NBA moved their all star game with Charlotte, due to a state law that disallowed transgender people from using the bathroom which corresponded to their selected gender. The World Health Organization, which had viewed gender dysphoria as a mental illness decided it no longer was last May. In several states, transgender identified females (biological males) have dominated women in athletic competitions. And this is all being seen as more and more normative.
This would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
In coming years, I expect the popular culture to have more and more support for the LGBT community. I expect more court decisions to go in favor of the LGBT movement. As I look around and survey our current climate, I see destruction in our cities, statues coming down, calls to defund the police. I see people going after our fundamental institutions. These are attacks on our society, our history, and our system of law and order. But the church is another major institution in our society. The church and our religious tradition is fundamental to our history and worldview.
There have already been attempts to force Christian businesses to go against their moral beliefs and provide services for same-sex weddings. We’ve seen more pressure on Christian adoption agencies to work with LGBT couples. With the latest rulings on employment law, churches and Christian organizations will continue to face opposition for their beliefs.
I do expect the culture to more and more come to be at odds with evangelical Christianity. Instead of coexisting, I think the church and Christian organizations will increasingly become targets of legal action.
I look at those who want to attack our society and institutions and see the LGBT movement more and more coming at odds with evangelical Christianity. Certainly there are members of the LGBT community who want to coexist and can agree to disagree, but as Marxist thought runs prevalent within the radical progressive movement, the LGBT movement will be used to undermine religious liberty while pushing a progressive ideology that runs contrary to the gospel.
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Josh Benner 