Boulder County clerk to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses
Same-sex marriage has made it’s way to Colorado, and unsurprisingly, the first place it will begin is right here in Boulder County.
Boulder County will begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses immediately, County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall announced Wednesday afternoon.
The action was in response to the 10th Circuit U.S. Appellate Court ruling earlier in the day that Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process.
There are a lot of opinions out there, even amongst Christians, as to what our stand on this should be.
Earlier this week, a Methodist pastor, who had been defrocked for going against church regulations and officiating his son’s wedding to another man, was reinstated.
Some Christians might say: Who cares? If homosexuals want to get married, why should I care? There are plenty of things that are legal, but are not in accordance with God’s will or desires. It doesn’t affect me – I’m just trying to follow Jesus.
My guess is that this is the majority opinion amongst most in the younger generation.
Others might say: Our laws shape our society’s understandings of what is acceptable and normative. Redefining marriage is bad for our society.
Here’s one thing I noticed: on social media there’s tons of praise for this. That doesn’t mean that everybody is in favor of it – it means that those who don’t like it are less and less willing to speak up and voice their opinion, because they know the kind of backlash that will come upon them if they do.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)
Theology for the People 
The people who don’t speak out about it are living up to societie’s expectation that Christians should, as we say in the military, “shut up and color.”
I refuse to be silent on the issue regardless of the backlash, Jesus said we would be hated, He was right, spreading His message is worth that price.
“Shut up and color.” Haha! I like that.
I don’t think same sex marriage is even possible because marriage is the union of a man and woman… Anyway… Let us say same sex marriage is becomes a legal thing everywhere and is protected by anti discrimination acts, what do we do then? Our biggest revenue maker for the video production company I freelance with is weddings. We are all Christians and the company is run as such, but it is not advertised that this is the case. We legally can refuse to do business with whomever we choose, but all kinds of legal stuff comes up if it is for a reason that is protected under a non discrimination act. What do we do if we turn down a same sex couple because it is against what we believe and get sued for it?
This same line of thinking would apply to pastors as well.
That’s absolutely right, Chris. This is a discussion that I have been having with pastor friends of mine for years. It is not so much a concern when it comes to officiating weddings as it is for churches who rent out their buildings for weddings. If there is any sense that a church is refusing to rent to a couple BECAUSE they are homosexual, you can bet that there will be a lawsuit. That time is coming, and churches are preparing for it.
One church I know has a chapel that they rent out all the time for weddings, very often to people from outside of their church. This church (like ours) has no official membership – so technically, everyone they rent to is not a member of their church. Their solution is to change their policy and institute a membership in their church and only make the chapel available for rent to their members.
For pastors, the bigger concern is about when the time will come when to preach the biblical viewpoint on homosexuality or even just on marriage will come to be seen as hate speech.
All these clouds are already looming on the horizon.
We live in post-Christendom. Which poses unique challenges and unique opportunities. The challenge of every generation and every culture is to live faithful to the Gospel in their given context.
The media has been actively working for years to make homosexuality an accepted way of being. Most TV shows have homosexual characters and/or acts of homosexuality. It is so pervasive throughout our society that most families have members within their extended families who are gay. I. for instance, have three nephews who profess to be gay – one of which is “married”. It makes communication within the family much more….intense….since everyone knows that Sue and I are Christians and project how we might feel about our nephews circumstance. We love our nephews, but obviously don’t accept their lifestyles as “natural”. In Romans 1, the apostle Paul wrote:
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
My belief is that, as Paul wrote, there is nothing “natural” about homosexual relationships….not just in God’s eyes, but in also within the natural realm that He created. Gay marriage is not a natural occurrence, so supporting it would be objectionable to all who believe God created marriage for a purpose – to produce Godly offspring (Mal 2:15).
Shelby, you would find N.T. Wright’s arguments against homosexual marriage interesting. Check out this article, which contains a video of Wright speaking on the subject: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankviola/ntwrightonsamesexmarriage/
Wright points out, that one of the scariest things – as you mention too, is the legislated redefining of words, e.g. ‘marriage’.