Should Christians Legislate Against Same-Sex Marriage and Abortion?
Christianity has had a major role in the foundation of our country and continues to prevail as a reckoning force, most notably through the republican party. Basically if you live in America and claim to be an Evangelical Christian the odds are you're a Republican. As a result the Republican party has adopted and heavily promoted legislative actions that fall in line with their biblical convictions, among them being anti-abortion and sanctity of marriage laws.
I believe in the inerrancy of the Bible and so I also agree wholeheartedly that life begins at conception and that God intended marriage to be solely between a man and a woman. So what's a young, Bible believing, boy to do? According to the unending (mostly annoying) posts I see on Facebook and big haired preachers on television I'm supposed to start signing petitions, picketing outside of abortion clinics, protesting at gay soldiers funerals, and supporting my republican representative so that we can finally have laws to do away with all of this sin......
Does anyone else feel like we're missing something here? Is this really how God wants us to deal with sin in the world? Through legislation? Didn't we try that already? When God's people were given the Law they tried to become justified through that Law, not realizing that it was never meant to perfect them. A great pastor named Matt Chandler describes the Law as a CAT scan in that it isn't meant to cure you but instead show you just how sick you really are.
"(for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God." Hebrews 7:19
It's only through Christ that we are justified because only he was perfect enough to fulfill the Law and atone for all of the evil that we've done. Where the Law is the CAT scan revealing the cancer that is sin living and thriving inside of us, Jesus is the cure.
So since we Christians have been justified by Christ and not by the God given Law...Why are we trying to justify others through man made laws? Could it be because it's so much easier to make a law telling homosexuals that they can't marry than to build a relationship and love someone in the gay community? Could it be that it's so much easier to post a quick tidbit about the evils of abortion rather than showing a young woman in a scary situation Christ-like compassion? To be blunt it's just lazy Christianity.
More than lazy it's cruel. You have received such mercy from Christ and yet you would hoard that love and mercy to yourself? Perhaps we find it so hard to share the truth of Christ with these people because in seeing their brokenness we are reminded of our brokenness. We have a hard time remembering that Christ came to heal the sick not the healthy (Matthew 9:12) but we have a harder time remembering that WE are the sick and that we need him just as much as the ones we condemn.
I don't think it's bad to support laws that align with our Christian beliefs but we just can't afford to make that our main focus. After all, let's just say every law in support of Christian values passed...Would we really be done with sin? Would homosexuality cease? Would abortions stop? Of course not! The problem isn't the law, it's us! The solution isn't a new law, it's the love and hope of of Christ.
14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? Galatians 2:14
We've screwed up as the Church. Let's ask forgiveness from God and those we've tried to conform to a law that we don't even follow. Let's repent and start sharing the same grace that saved us with those sinners that need Christ just as much as we do.
