WHO GIVES THIS BRIDE?
Here is how the new marriage thing can work in the new USA the Supreme Court just created. The Same Sex Marriage ruling is the release valve just opened in our country.
Release valve means there was pressure. The pressure?
Big pressure: Non-Christians, very often atheists and agnostics, being required by law to have anything to do with a church or religion.
The law in Scotland now allows “Humanist” participants to perform marriages. This is so popular there that the Humanist Society now marries more couples than the Church of Scotland. Scotland is now the world leader in “Non-Religious Belief” weddings. While Ministers will often perform marriages for the Non-Religious, (60%) it seems that the consciences of the couple to be married are not so malleable. They feel hypocritical even when the Minister/Preacher/Priest may not.
Why the Minister/Preacher/Priest may not is a subject for another day.
THE AMERICAN BRIDE AND GROOM
All indications are that the rest of Europe and all of America will be where Scotland is today.
Post-Christian America is conceding that expecting people to “act” Christian when they are not, and when they have no intention to be, is not acceptable.
The America that was established on freedom from England and State Religion… well, she is taking advantage of that freedom. If we were ever pluralistic in fact, it is now.
So then, what can we do about marriage for the “non-religious” in America?
I want to suggest 5 steps.
Step 1- Truly separate the religious institutions from state-law and business. This must be the first order of business.
Step 2- Do away with the words “marriage”, “divorce” and “adultery”.
These are biblical terms, distinctly theological in origin and practice. So-what if a few of our founding fathers thought that they would be good to use in a pluralistic society. Leave them for the church and for the Christians who choose to follow Jesus Christ. Biblical words remain defacto for those who believe the bible to be God’s Word.
Step 3- The State might consider promoting Civil Union / Partnership license as the replacement for marriage. No minister is required, only someone who is duly authorized by the State.
Step 4- Christians (and all “religious” types), after receiving their Civil Union papers, may proceed on to their church, synagogue, mosque, etc. for their separate ceremony of choice. Their ministers, priests, etc. sign no papers relative to State law.
Step 5- Get ready to fight. Those who sell rings, dresses, flowers, divorces, etc. will not like the idea of the “wedding” going away. And if you think that this whole marriage, LGBTQ–SSM thing is about spirituality and not money, think again. It is as much about taxes and medical benefits.
But as for our pluralistic, SECULAR HUMANIST society, marriage as we have known it must go away. Even though they have tried, marriage cannot be redefined by a court any more than Salvation or Communion can. Society must find its own legal means and descriptive for two (or more) people, in any combination, (people and whatever) joining together in whatever they want to call it.
The burden is now on our society to do such work, not the church or other religions whose definitions and practices have stood for time as we know it. What the Supreme Court just did in usurping the word and meaning of marriage was a flagrant abuse of their perceived power. Such a decision was far beyond their pay-grade. Equally, the church is wrong for having performed marriages in the church for those not professing to know Christ or who would not follow Him in obedience.
Marriage is a biblical directive and distinctive, just as is divorce and adultery. Think about it. Christians want the right to maintain the biblical definition of marriage because being married is distinctly biblical.
The Supreme Court, (5 to 4) without God’s or the churches permission, just redefined marriage to suit popular trend. Their arrogance and thumb of nose to God is nothing short of astounding. We will suffer for this belligerent act and the church (followers-disciples of Jesus Christ) must remain defiant.
Don’t be surprised when the church says, “Marriage is for Christians—one woman—one man.” They are merely honoring the decrees of God himself. They are bound to honor the God who created marriage in the first place.
“But in the beginning God made a man and a woman.
That’s why a man leaves his father and mother and get’s married.
He becomes like one person with his wife.
Then they are no longer two people, but one.
And no one should separate a couple that God has joined together.” Mark 10:6-9
The law of our land is attempting to steal what belongs to God, repackage it under their terms and labels, and then resell it to the marketplace as new and improved for profit and popularity.
And don’t be surprised when politicians and misguided zealots for Christ hold hands in public to demand that all people bow to their god and believe the way they do. Thankfully, our law presently protects us all from such efforts.
For centuries we have been assuming that people making wedding vows to one another in the context of all things “Christian” were indeed Christians. Our divorce rates reflect that many, if not most, were indeed people with no ambition of serving a Christian God and honoring their vows as such.
Why should non-Christians continue to submit to a distinctly Christian ceremony they have no plans of honoring, to a God they have no intention of worshipping? They should rebel.
They must write new equivalents of vows that say what they need to say without invoking and mocking God. To take such attitudes and unbelief into the church for blessing is like walking into a Shriners meeting and celebrating the glories of atheism. And what Christian desires to be joined in matrimony by a professing Humanist?
The State must be distinct in absolving itself away from biblical marriage. And please, no more church leadership at the conclusion of a marriage ceremony saying:
“by the power invested in me by the State of______”.
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“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:25-27
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