ZOT II: A Question of Morality?

I ask this question without a flinch: Why are such issues as pornography, gay marriage, and other moral issues something government should regulate? One of my beliefs is that a person should be free to do want they want so long as they do not inhibit another person's freedom. This is a good rule of thumb, but it does mean some people are going to say or do things I would not personally do or do not personally agree with. A popular issue today is gay marriage. Although I would not personally engage in homosexual practices, I am obligated to supports gays' right to do this because otherwise they would have a valid reason to prohibit something I do. Additionally, state-sanctioned marriage gives gay couples more happiness without upsetting anything more than some conservative consciences.

”My question amounts to why should we prohibit such social issues?”

Here is a fairly comprehensive response to your question of why we, as a society in America should prohibit, particularly gay marriage.

Even though you have been banned from the forum as a troll, I am hoping you may read this position paper, from my church, the Presbyterian Church in America. It was adopted as a statement on Marriage and Sexuality at its meeting on Thursday, June 17, 2004 at the 32nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, meeting in Pittsburgh, Penn.

"God is truth.

God's truth is firmly rooted and grounded in His immutable Nature and Being; it is not a construction of men; it is not variable, nor relative, nor dependent upon social or cultural context.

God has made His truth known to human beings most necessarily in the Holy Scriptures.

Among the truths that God has declared to human beings is the truth that the institution of marriage has been created by Him, from the time of the creation of human beings, and that it is ordained and defined by Him to be the lifelong union of one man and one woman (Genesis 1-3; Matthew 19:5-6).

God’s ordinance concerning marriage is binding upon all human beings in all places and at all times; it cannot be altered by legislative, judicial or cultural action. It is possible to deviate from God’s ordinance, but it is not possible to change it.

God has ordained civil authorities “under Him, and over the people, for His own glory and the public good” (Westminster Confession of Faith 33-1), to the end that good (as defined by Him) may be encouraged and defended and evil (as defined by Him) may be suppressed and punished.

"God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). God will hold those whom He has placed in authority accountable for their actions, and He has declared:

Woe to those who call evil good
And good evil,
Who put darkness for light
And light for darkness,
Who put bitter for sweet
And sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And shrewd in their own sight! (Isaiah 5:20)

b) Call upon the Presbyteries and Sessions of the PCA to strengthen the marriages in its own churches and exhort its elders to be bolder and more caring shepherds of Christ’s flock that we might help stem the scandalous rising tide of divorce in the church.

c) Call upon the Presbyteries and Sessions of the PCA to encourage all men and women, boys and girls within the PCA to live chastely for the sake of the Savior who bought them, whether in marriage or in singleness, whether they must do battle against heterosexual or homosexual temptation in seeking to be faithful to their Lord who loves them.

d) Call upon its members to be "the salt and light of the earth” in this context by exercising their full responsibilities as citizens including:

(1) Communicating the biblical faith of the PCA on this matter;
(2) Protecting and defending the biblical teaching on marriage, according to their own best judgment as citizens, in all spheres of public and private discourse.

Whereas the Church of Jesus Christ is sent into the world as salt, light, and witness to the full counsel of God; and

Whereas the Church—specifically, any branch thereof, including the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)—is called upon at particular, extraordinary times to speak prophetically and serve compassionately with regard to particular public issues; and

Whereas the PCA has set precedent for boldly stating the demands of biblical justice for the civil commonwealth, while at the same time refraining from endorsement of particular legislative strategies, for example in its 1978 statement against legalized abortion; and

Whereas we the PCA, at this particular time and in the particular socio-political settings of North America into which God has sent us, are encountering much confusion over sexual matters in both private conversation and in the current public debate about so-called “gay marriage”; and

Whereas we should seize the opportunity to speak into this void, saddened that there has been so much erosion of the once-strong moral consensus that marriage is the divinely instituted, complementary human relationship of one man and one woman legally joined in a life-long, potentially procreative, monogamous commitment and that such family units are foundational for a healthy society; and

Whereas while the fundamental civil rights for all citizens also is foundational for a healthy society, the battle for “gay rights” is more and more being wrongly championed as the logical sequel to the fights of racial minorities and the fight for the rights of women, in spite of the fact that a person’s homosexuality is a characteristic fundamentally different than one’s ethnicity or gender; and

Whereas the real nature of homosexuality is obscured by the current preoccupation with the question of legal rights such that:

a) the longstanding assessment, even among those who do not accept biblical revelation, of homosexuality as disordered, unnatural desire hardly comes into the discussion at all; and
b) the stark biological reality that homosexual relationships by nature are sterile and incapable of passing on the gift of life from generation to generation is virtually forgotten; and
c) the stunning scarcity of sexual monogamy within the homosexual community (candidly acknowledged even by proponents of homosexual love) has not been given due consideration in the public debate about the meaning of marriage; and

Whereas homosexuality, being unnatural desire, is not something to be celebrated but something from which Christ wants to redeem people by the great healing and restoring power of his grace (Romans 1:24-27; I Corinthians 6:9); and

Whereas it is not the promotion of human freedom but a form of cruelty, in the final analysis, for a society to encourage its citizens in the pursuit of desire which is, in essence, an affliction, and behavior which is offensive to God; and

Whereas certain civil magistrates have petitioned our church, wanting to know its mind on how marriage should be legally defined in the civil commonwealth of the United States; and

Whereas it is right and proper that the church should respond to such queried by bearing witness to the biblical truth that civil laws and courts should promote and protect marriage as a unique, male-female, monogamous community of two because of the way it propagates the human race and benefits the public in so many other ways.

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