Posted on 02/27/2011 8:24:18 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Though many Christians are going to try to deny "the obvious," evangelical leader Dr. Albert Mohler believes gay marriage is going to become normalized.
"I think it's clear that something like same-sex marriage is going to become normalized, legalized and recognized in the culture. It's time for Christians to start thinking about how we're going to deal with that," he said Friday on the Focus on the Family radio program.
Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was speaking in response to the Obama administration's decision this week to stop defending the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act – federal law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman – in the courts.
Conservative groups and Christians have criticized Obama for going against his duty as president to defend the law.
"When a president takes oath of office, he's upholding ... defending the laws of the United States of America," said Mohler, who also noted that DOMA had passed as a bipartisan effort.
"The White House has clearly made a calculation that it can do this now with far less political risk than it could even two years ago."
Though Obama has always expressed his desire to repeal DOMA, his personal view on marriage had been traditional.
While on the campaign trail, running as the Democratic presidential nominee, Obama asserted his belief that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. He added, while being interviewed by Pastor Rick Warren, that "for me as a Christian, it's also a sacred union. God's in the mix."
Recently, however, he has stated that his views on gay marriage are "evolving."
The Obama administration has been pro-gay since taking office two years ago and Mohler noted that there has been a long trajectory on the issue of gay marriage pointing to this day.
With the Justice Department now pulling its defense of DOMA, pending legal challenges against the federal law will likely result with the nullification of DOMA, Mohler predicted.
"You can say, the cards are pretty much stacked against DOMA," he illustrated.
He warned that when Christians feel threatened, they have to be careful not to lash out with a predictable response.
The Southern Baptist made it clear that he was not saying that they are giving up. Marriage is still an institution Christians need to save, particularly in their own community. But Christians also need to start learning how to deal with the shifting culture and even face the fact that they may lose a few from their flock.
"I think we're going to be surprised and heartbroken over how many people are going to capitulate to the spirit of the age," he noted. "We're going to find now that there may not be as many of us as we thought."
Nevertheless, Christians must be prepared to make marriage one of the many topics where parents have to have "the talk."
"It's interesting now that the world is so morally upside down that when we talk about marriage we have to make a distinction between natural marriage – heterosexual marriage – and this new thing that people are calling marriage," Mohler said.
"We have to prepare our children to be in a context in which they're going to be in a playground with children who have two dads or two moms or who knows what kind of combination will come."
Ultimately, the worldview or the belief that God designed marriage to be between a man and a woman only makes sense if one understands the Gospel, Mohler pointed out, which raises a critical point:
"This whole situation reminds us that we are, first of all, to be Gospel people who are fellow sinners ... saved by grace, with the responsibility to share the Gospel with others."
I knew gay marriage would eventually become reality but I had no idea that it would happen so quickly. Yieks!!! I have no doubt that gay marriage will become commonplace, but I still think that they should only have gay marriage at the court houses or Vegas and allow the pastors and priests, rabbis and others to say no if someone wants to get married in the church as a gay couple.
Next step - force churches to hold gay wedding ceremonies for those who wish to married in the church.
It sounds like he's ready to jump on board the homo-wagon.
hogwash
hogwash
hogwash
hogwash
hogwash
hogwash
Next step - force churches to hold gay wedding ceremonies for those who wish to married in the church.
We have been losing this battle big time. However, we cannot lose the battle of having gays getting married in the church unless the church is accepting of that. They should not have churches forced to perform these marriages.
What is hogwash????
another goal- pull tax exemptions for religious faiths that will not
participate in blessing sodomy with a sacrament
Evangelical leader? Surrendering to Sodom is not my idea of leadership. Dr. Mohler should take up reading the Bible some time.
Same as divorce and premarital sex. Became normal in the society but not supported by most Christian denominations. I do not believe that any church will be “forced” to perform gay marriages but there will be many willing to do so.
No, they do not want to get married (too stifling for the sexual libertine lifestyle that is part and parcel of the culture.) They want the right to get married; in order to thumb their noses at a Judeo/Christian heritage that they plan to attempt to deconstruct further.
Marriage was just in the way of their true goal.
“Christians Need to Prepare for Normalization of Gay Marriage”
No. those who support and sanction this perversion and abomination need to prepare for God’s judgement by repenting and seeking His forgiveness.
Baloney. Also, wait until the complete financial meltdown finally hits, people will have more important things to worry about than homo marriage, PETA, AGW, etc. Those issues will all fade away as people try to survive.
Name one denomination which won't marry someone who is divorced.
We “deal” with it the same way we “deal” with any sin. We call attention to it, teach and preach against it, and work to remove tolerance to sin from our culture.
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