Christian responsibility in a sexual revolution

Genesis chapter one details the creation of the heavens, the earth, and everything therein. There we learn that after making the various creatures of the land, air, and sea, God turned his attention to human beings. We are told three things about ourselves. First, we are made in God’s image. Second, we are created male and female. (Jesus, himself, will repeat this very verse.) And third, we are to fill the earth and subdue it. These three things are the most essential elements of being human.

Whenever the establishment of human governments happens, it happens AFTER the creation of human beings as male and female. Indeed, it can only be the case that government and politics occur subsequent to the existence of males and females. Aristotle gives a convincing account of the development of government in his Politics. It begins with the procreative pair, who then make families. Families build out extended families. Extended families make tribes. Tribes make villages. Villages make cities and so on. Government cannot come into existence without the procreative pair of male and female. The male-female pairing is pre-political. It is basic. It is not something the government has the right or privilege to alter because it is even more fundamental than the government, itself.

In 2015, when the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges declaring same-sex marriage to be a constitutional right, it exceeded the rightful authority God has given it. In his dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts reviewed the practice of thousands of years and asked with a note of incredulity, “Who do we think we are???”

Jesus was famously asked whether it was right to pay taxes to Caesar. We are to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. The immediate impact of the statement is that money comes from the system the government has set up and so we should pay the tribute that government then demands for its services. But Jesus could accomplish that teaching by simply instructing followers to “render unto Caesar.” He goes further. “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

It seems to me that what Jesus says in the passage is that there is a place for the government. It has a rightful task and a duty it should fulfill. There is a rightful zone of activity that belongs to the government, but it is not equal to the whole that is ruled by God and is derivative of His greater authority. When governments go beyond permitting things that go against God’s law and move to endorsement, they undermine their own foundation.

We live in a democracy. With great frequency, we debate, answer polls, watch political advertising, follow social media, track the news, and vote. Christians must never forget the greater truth that our democracy is far overshadowed by a monarchy.

When our leaders and authorities treat God’s law as a historical relic to be discarded, they act presumptuously, pridefully, and in ignorance. They imperil those who look to them for guidance and who indirectly take moral and spiritual lessons from them. Long before we had the entire legal inheritance of the western world that operates through our elected officials and judges, we had the Ten Commandments. Before we had the Ten Commandments, we had the essential reality of men and women as distinctive creations of God right in Genesis 1. Unlike the Constitution, the Bible does not contain an amendment process available to human beings.

Our governments have lost their fear of God. We should seek leaders who retain their humility before God and who do not mistake their offices for His throne and wrongly believe they have the right to redefine His creation order.

What should we do? First, we need to get our thinking right in the church. If we aren’t right here, there is little point in going out into the public square. We need clear teaching and preaching in the church and attention to the text of the Scripture. Second, we need to agree among ourselves that we will not enable those who clearly rebel against God’s law by not only permitting, but by endorsing transgressions against it. It might mean we have no one to vote for, but we will hope and pray that candidates present themselves who will not flout God’s authority and His law. We will seek candidates who are humble and who recognize that any authority they have is ultimately a reflection of God’s greater rule.

More important than any program of activism is the act of Christian evangelism. Seen in the right light, evangelism is the most political act you will ever engage in because it involves the proclamation of Jesus as Lord.