What is the Worldview Basis of Homosexual Marriage?

Marriage amendments have just passed in three more states. Up until now, we have not seen much backlash from the militant homosexual community. But with the recent passage in Florida, California and Arizona, the militants are up in arms. In some cases the response has even turned violent.

Shortly after the election, there was an article in my local newspaper about a protest planned in Tallahassee. In the online version of the paper it is possible to respond to published articles, and with this one there was quite a lively discussion concerning the passage of the amendment. I decided to put in my two cents worth and gave a very calm and reasoned explanation as to why homosexual marriage is not good for society.

Even though I did not attack anyone, I was roundly attacked with emotional outbursts and even lies. People were deliberately misrepresenting the things I said. On top of that, they were interjecting new topics into the discussion which had nothing to do with my points in order to try and discredit the Christian viewpoint.

So, just what was going on with this? Why the emotional outburst? Why the attempt to lie about what I had said and discredit me? After all, this was supposed to be an open forum to share diverse ideas, right?

The simple answer is that the Christian position I was advocating struck a nerve with a group of people who were operating from an entirely different worldview platform. Basically, I was threatening their “religion” by expressing my point of view. A worldview position is the basis for a person’s faith, even if that faith is “secular” in nature. In this case, it was not simply a matter that my beliefs were different than theirs, my disagreement was actually seen as a threat.

But there is a tricky element here. Many people who are homosexual claim that they are Christians and that they love God. They also reason that since “God made me this way,” he is not upset when they live a homosexual lifestyle.

This is where our understanding of worldview becomes so critical. When we examine a worldview position, the first place we have to look is the authority source. For Christians, our authority is the Bible. Scripture clearly teaches that homosexual activity is contrary to God’s intention. So, when homosexuals say that God does not object, where does that viewpoint come from? It is clearly not from the Bible. In fact, it comes directly from their own personal reasoning. By that, they have made their reasoning to be an authority equal to the Bible.

So, what worldview is represented by homosexual activists? Basically, it represents a Naturalistic point of view – the belief that there is no supernatural reality. As such, they believe that there is no one outside of the human race available to reveal a moral code, so humans have to make up their own.

Some homosexuals may claim to love God and that they are Christians. But they make that assertion based on beliefs which are outside of Christianity. They want to be included in the Christian camp and express homosexual behavior at the same time. So to justify that, they try to create a new hybrid belief that accommodates their viewpoint – one which is not purely Christian or Naturalist. It calls itself Christian but uses a Naturalistic authority source to redefine the term Christian.

If that were the only issue it would be bad enough. But this kind of thinking is not uncommon even among many in our Christian churches. Modern America has become so saturated with Naturalistic thought that many Christians do not even recognize that their faith has gone off course. It is not at all unusual to hear Christians say that they like their Christianity, but if other people want to follow another belief, that is just as valid.

This is a very charitable point of view, but it flies in the face of reality. There is a way that reality is actually structured and it is not structured in any other way. If the Bible does not express the truth about that reality, then what the homosexual activist asserts possibly could be true. But the evidence shows that Bible does represent the truth and that those trying to redefine Christianity to include acceptance of homosexual behavior are found to be separated from God.

So just how do we, as Christians, deal with this? We have to get up to speed regarding our understanding of the worldview possibilities. We need to know what we believe, what other people believe and why our faith is the truth. Armed with this knowledge, we put ourselves in a position which gives us confidence in our own faith and the tools we need to effectively share Christ with those separated from him.

So, just what are the reasons why homosexual marriage is damaging to society? There are two categories of reasoning where this plays out. There is one line of logic based on a secular approach to understanding the problem and another based on a Biblical understanding.

Secular Reasoning

Many Christians may, at first, resist the secular logic not seeing any particular reason to use this approach. After all, if God says it in the Bible that ought to be enough, right? Well perhaps so, but if we are trying to convince people who do not accept a Biblical approach we must have a different set of tools if we want to get a hearing. As the percentage of people declines who are willing to accept a purely Biblical answer, we must have a way of presenting our argument which has a different basis. Be aware, though, that even this secular argument is based on Biblical principles. It is just that it is presented in a way which uses a secular approach rather than a religious one.

The first thing that must be established is the very purpose of marriage. The purpose of marriage is not to give people rights but to create an environment where children can be raised to become healthy adults. If you examine the main arguments of the homosexual activists, you will notice that the entire topic of discussion has shifted from the that of raising a family to the denial of rights for a certain group of people.

In order for homosexual advocates to make this shift, the first thing they do is tamper with the language. The very concept of homosexual marriage requires that we change the definition of the word marriage. Marriage, by definition, requires one man and one woman. Changing the definition turns marriage into something that did not previously exist. It also shifts the purpose of marriage from raising a family to the acquisition of a set of “rights.”

But marriage is not about rights. Making it about “rights” puts the focus on self-centered individuals and takes it off of the children it is meant to foster. Rather, marriage is about forming society in a way which provides stability for the social order into the future.

When the family breaks down, society breaks down. In order to have a stable family situation, and thus a stable society, children need a mom and dad living together in a committed relationship. When families do not have this arrangement, children are damaged. This is true whether the situation relates to divorced or separated parents, heterosexual cohabitation, homosexual cohabitation or single parent situations.

Unfortunately, there are some situations which have occurred in which individuals have no choice but to accept and deal with an undesirable family situation. Sometimes a parent will die or leave their spouse. But while sometimes these things happen, most bad situations result from deliberate choices people make to divorce or live together outside of marriage.

The fact is, society has a vested interest in promoting strong families. This promotion can be done in a couple of different ways. First, governments can discourage acts and lifestyles which damage the family. A second approach is that they can incentivise acts and lifestyles which promote healthy families. The benefits the state provides married heterosexual couples is a just and right means of promoting healthy families.

Christian Reasoning

While the secular reasoning is important when taking our case to society, Christians must also remember that our ultimate reason for not accepting homosexual marriage is because God has revealed to us that this goes contrary to his purpose and his plan for mankind.

When God created the world, he created it to operate in a particular way. There is a natural way that things exist and this represents the reality that God created. Those who live contrary to God’s way may get away with it for a time, but will ultimately destroy themselves and others, including the next generation of children, by their rebellion against the natural order.

The structure of God’s creation involves using the family as the basic platform for carrying out his plan. In addition to the ability to express the ultimate form of relationship, the family exists to produce individuals to populate God’s kingdom.

In specifying the structure of the family, he specifically sanctioned marriage as the union of one man and one woman to produce this population. As such, the creation of family is an element of nature – that is, procreation is a natural, biological process. Homosexual relationships run contrary to the natural order.

Marriage certainly involves a sexual joining of a man and woman, but it goes way beyond that. It also expresses an element of the very image of God in mankind. Gender is an element of the personhood of God, but he, himself, is neither male nor female. Male and female together represent the fullness of this gender characteristic. Human beings, though, find themselves representing one gender or the other. In humanity, it is only by the joining of a man and a woman in marriage that the ultimate expression of gender, as it relates to the image of God, is able to be displayed.

Marriage, then, is such a central part of God’s plan that he declared all non-married sexual unions to be contrary to his will (sin). This includes heterosexual relationships as well as homosexual.

Conclusion

The issue of homosexual marriage is not simply a matter of the rights of individuals. It involves the fulfillment of the very purpose for man’s existence. A Naturalistic worldview begins by denying the existence of God and his purpose. As a result, it does not acknowledge any reason why homosexual marriage should not be advanced. A Christian worldview, on the other hand, not only acknowledges God’s purposes, but provides motivation to see that it is carried out in the world.

As long as the Christian and Naturalistic worldviews exist side by side in society, there will be conflict. But Christians must be willing to strand strong for our position. The consequences of losing this battle in society is the destruction of the family. Along with this comes the destruction of many lives as the next generation suffers the consequences of a society without a foundation based on reality.