The American electorate has spoken, reelecting President Barack Obama to a second term. If you voted for President Obama, congratulations, your man clearly won. I want to visit with Bible-believing Christians who did not vote for President Obama. Now what? It is time to prayerfully reflect on our choices and responses about core issues, how we listen, how we speak, and to whom we look.
Core Issues
The church must speak boldly, but lovingly, concerning issues that are core to our biblical interpretation. Although there are many contemporary issues that are of core importance to us I want to address three.
Sanctity of Life
We have made great strides in framing our position as for life rather than just against abortion. We must continue to sharpen our focus on the sacredness of life, that life is a gift from God to be valued, respected, and honored. The pulpits of America spoke forcefully about the sinfulness of slavery. When Abraham Lincoln signed the act freeing slaves it was not called the abolition of slavery proclamation, it was called the Emancipation Proclamation. We are for more than the abolition of abortion; we are for the emancipation of unborn infants whose lives would be terminated. We must continue to contend for life.
Same Sex Marriage
We have our work cut out for us. Same sex marriage advocates have been stunningly effective, over a relatively short period of time, in framing their cause in civil or equal rights terms. It was as recent as 1996 that Congress, on a bipartisan basis, approved the Defense of Marriage Act, and President Bill Clinton signed it into law. What a rapid descent since then! Americans, painfully aware of our history when the rights and dignity of people groups were abridged, abused, and denied, are vulnerable to the misapplication of civil rights to same sex marriage. When successfully framed in constitutional rights terms, judges are persuaded to ignore centuries of a commonly understood definition of marriage. America is in the process of washing away any definition of marriage, which means not only are same sex unions increasingly recognized by states, we are also removing a rationale or case for denying any other relational aberration of marriage. As we erode a commonly accepted definition and standard for marriage, how can we also not sanction polygamous marriages and virtually any other union?
Just politically and legally resisting the same sex marriage tide may leave the church with a marginalized voice, not unlike the largely ignored Papal edict regarding birth control for Catholics; it is mostly passed off as irrelevant. Bible- believing churches need to begin taking a page from what we have learned about our battle for unborn infants – we must contend for Holy Matrimony, not just rail against same sex marriage. As we reach the stage where government
