Marriage at the high court and the American crisis of conscience

This week, I talked with John Stonestreet of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview about the arguments over marriage at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. Stonestreet said the debate before the court was illuminating, if not surprising.

“Wherever the law lands on this, the cultural imagination is such that the question, ‘What is marriage?’ is not even seen as a relevant one,” Stonestreet said. He added that it’s up to Christians to offer marriage back to a sexually broken culture as the gift from God that it actually is.

We also talked about the implications the court decision could have on non-profit organizations. During the arguments, Justice Samuel Alito asked Solicitor General Donald Verilli whether a religious school that took the position that marriage was the union of husband and wife would lose its non-profit tax status if the high court imposed a national regime of same-sex marriage. Verrilli answered, “It’s certainly going to be an issue. I don’t deny that.”

“Maybe this will wake up at least some of those on the left to this idea that same-sex marriage does affect everyone. It does impact people,” Stonestreet said. Though the right of conscience was embedded in the American experience from the earliest days, a national definition of marriage that includes same-sex couples will put people of faith in a crisis of conscience.

“I do think that there’s going to be limits at the doors of the church. I don’t foresee, at least in the near future, pastors being forced to perform same-sex weddings,” Stonestreet said. But the same pastors need to be ready to counsel their parishioners through the conflicts that will arise as they live out their faith in daily life.

“Pastors now, if they are going to shepherd their flocks, absolutely have to get in the game,” Stonestreet said.

Listen to “Culture Friday” on The World and Everything in It.

Recommended reading

John Stonestreet of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview recommended the following authors and commentaries for Christians to brush up on the legal debate about marriage.