WASHINGTON (BP)–If God does not condone homosexual behavior, He must not condone homosexual marriage.
This is the clear teaching of the Bible. Some have tried to explain away the Bible passages about homosexuality, but the Bible also provides principles that help us understand God’s attitude toward homosexuality. Three principles that homosexuality and homosexual marriage violate are:
— The principle of exclusivity. God created man and woman. These two comprise humanity. God did not create homosexuals.
— The principle of fertility. Homosexuals are not capable of producing offspring on their own.
— The principle of complementarity. God created the male and the female to complement and complete each other. Homosexual relationships do not provide this complementarity.
Now, I’m not a traditionalist for the sake of tradition. We should always seek progress, but change is not always progress. The abolition of slavery was progress. The right for women to vote was progress. True civil rights was progress.
The question we are about to answer in our nation is whether a redefinition of marriage is progress. We do not see any way in which homosexual marriage can be progress, for such reasons as:
— It is not progress for the institution of marriage. Homosexual relationships are less stable than heterosexual relationships.
— It is not progress for children. Children need a mother and a father.
— It is not progress for society. Studies in the Scandinavian countries reveal that homosexual marriage undermines marriage as an institution, which puts an even greater burden on government to take care of people.
Marriage is about more than love. It is about commitment, sacrifice, children, social stability.
If marriage is no more than a symbolic expression of love, then how can we stop with homosexual marriage? We could not. If marriage were no more than a symbolic expression of love, we would have to allow any people, whether minors and adults, or groups to marry if they said they loved each other. Everyone who has thought through this issue understands that.
Marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Anything else is not marriage. No one can change that, not even the courts. We call on Congress to settle this issue by passing the Federal Marriage Amendment.
–30–
Barrett Duke is vice president for public policy and research with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
