I read an article today entitled Religious Liberty vs. Same-Sex Marriage: Is There Really a Conflict? in which the author, Marianne T. Duddy-Burke discusses the latest rhetoric against the promotion of LGBT rights and gay marriage. Christians everywhere in the U.S. cry foul against their religious freedoms claiming they will be infringed upon if gays get their rights. Marianne comes at this from more of a political perspective. Today I will approach this from a Christ-followers perspective.
The issue many Christians are concerned about is what will happen to them legally if members of the gay community are allowed to marry. If the church in which the gay couple want to be married doesn't believe gays should be married and refuses to provide the service, can that church be sued? If the florist or photographer or cakist (I assume that is what a wedding cake baker is called) refuse service to a gay couple, will the gay couple have legal rights against those businesses? If an organization is strongly opposed to a gay couple, do they have the right to refuse service, or can discrimination be claimed. Marianne states that she thinks legislation can be written in a certain way so as to allow homosexuals the freedom to marry while protecting Christian organizations that oppose gay rights from being sued for refusing to serve them. I think this could take place as well, but then "separate but equal" comes to mind. You see, to say that legislation can allow the freedom of gays to marry while protecting Christian business from having to service them is like saying we will free the slaves but businesses are not required to service them. I can see "straights only" signs being placed up around floral departments and churches. Instead of the Jim Crowe laws, perhaps we could have the Elton John laws (he is a gay Christian by the way). It would certainly be legal to implement such laws, but is that what Jesus did do? Absolutely not.
Jesus broke down walls that the religious leaders of his time built up in order to exclude people. The Temple in Jerusalem which served as the center of worship for Jews at the time was set up with different divisions. The farther in you went, the more exclusive it was. In the outside of the Temple, all people were allowed. In the next level in, only Gentile men and all Jews were allowed. In the next level in, only Jews were allowed. In the next level in, only Jewish men were allowed. In the next level in, only priests were allowed. Eventually, when you got to the Holy of Holies, only the High Priest was allowed.
When Jesus overthrew the moneychangers at the Temple, he was showing his harsh disagreement with such an exclusive system that held people back from entering into the presence of God. When Jesus said he would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days, he meant he would destroy the current system of exclusion when he died, and would institute a system of inclusion when he rose from the dead and would unite people as the body of Christ. Finally, when Jesus ascended up into heaven and gave us the Holy Spirit, we became the Temple. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:16, "Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" Being that each person that accepts Jesus as his or her Lord and Savior immediately receives the Spirit and therefore becomes the Temple of God, there is now no exclusion. Jesus is the God of inclusion, and to withhold that grace from gays and lesbians is to do dishonor to the grace we receive from Him. Whenever there was a situation in the Bible where a system of exclusion took place, Jesus turned that system upside down and instituted instead a system of inclusion where everyone felt loved and accepted for who they were.
If you are worried about your religious freedoms being impinged upon, think of the religious freedoms being excluded from gay Christians. Think of the religious freedoms being excluded from those of other religious bents that see nothing wrong with homosexuality. And think of what Jesus did. Jesus made people feel welcome, he made them feel loved, and he made them feel accepted. That is the least we could do.
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Blessings,
-Brandon
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