Kristin Rudolph (@Kristin_Rudolph)
Two weeks before the Supreme Court announced its decision on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the Southern Baptist Convention hosted discussions on the topic of marriage at its annual meeting on June 11 – 12 in Houston, TX. Dr. Russell Moore, the new president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) directed conversations considering the implications of redefining marriage, and the broader challenges Evangelical Christians face in a culture that devalues marriage.
Moore said in a panel discussion that evangelicals “Have been slow train sexual revolutionaries. We adapt to whatever the last generation already accommodated to when it comes to marriage and sexuality,” which is why “homosexuality seems as normal to a 15 year old right now in our culture as divorce seems to a 45 year old in this culture.”
David Platt, a pastor and author emphasized the importance of consistency regarding all aspects of marriage, including divorce, within the church. “If we are not willing to do church discipline when necessary … then it’s going to ring very hollow,” he warned. To single out homosexuality and ignore other areas of sin amounts to “selective moral outrage.”
Moore urged pastors to get serious about wedding ceremonies in their churches, and recognize from a Christian perspective they are not intended to be a “celebration of the love of the couple … [instead] the marriage ceremony is about the people of God gathered as witnesses saying we are holding this couple accountable for the vows that are being made.”
Pastor J.D. Greear pointed out “We’re in a unique moment for the Gospel” with the differences between Christians and the culture growing increasingly stark. In response to holding to convictions concerning marriage, Greear said “We know we’re going to be spoken about as evil doers.”
In another session addressing questions from the “next generation” of SBC leaders, Moore criticized evangelical attempts to mold cultural mores to appear more Christian. In this process, he lamented “Evangelicalism was watered down.” He explained how “the last generation of evangelical Christianity wanted to remove the freakishness of Christianity in order to say ‘we’re really just good old Americans just like you are and if you add a little bit of Jesus to this you’re going to have an even better life than you have right now.’”
But this “freakishness” is the very thing that gives Christians a voice. Moore said “the influence that we have is not going to be because we are so big, it is not going to be because we have so much power, it is going to be because we are so strange.”
Further, instead of extreme sexual practices such as polygamy becoming mainstream as a result of redefining marriage, Moore predicted it is more likely that marriage will simply “become relatively meaningless in the way that it is in some more secularized societies right now.” As less people marry into lifelong, life producing unions, and cohabitate, marry multiple times, or are generally sexually permissive, Christians who live chaste lives in singleness or marriage will indeed look “freakish.”
Rather than focus narrowly on raising money for political campaigns and agendas, Moore said evangelicals should “love the people around us enough to have conversations with them. Not just have conversations about them.”
He pointed out that “we’re going to say things that are so strange that they are going to prompt further conversation. They’re going to shut down some conversation, but they’re going to prompt conversation.” Moore continued: “I honestly think the things that are going on right now in American culture, as sad as they are in the short term, in the long term, enable a very good recovery of evangelical Christianity.”
Following the Supreme Court’s rulings, the ERLC released a document outlining the changes resulting from the decision and the faithful Christian response. The brief document urges churches to love their gay and lesbian neighbors, remain calm in the face of shifting cultural morals, and strengthen their own commitment to preaching and practicing Christian marriage with integrity.
Comment by johnhughmorgan3 on July 2, 2013 at 2:22 pm
“The brief document urges churches to love their gay and lesbian neighbors.” That one sentence reinforces the misplaced notion that homosexuality is not a choice. To refer to them as “gay” puts them on the same level as marrieds. You can’t get any more unbiblical that that. Divorce seems normal to a 45 year old? At 50+ and never married, Moore is not speaking for me We have a culture that devalues marriage because it devalues singleness. Marriage has as much meaning as two pieces of flesh grinding together and singleness has as much meaning as a single pencil on a desk. And singles who live chaste lives will look freakish? How do you know who we are? I thought the ERCL’s response to the ruling was no more than a sugar-coated donut. Empty.
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Comment by Kay Glines on July 4, 2013 at 8:48 pm
Definite “Amen!” to what Moore says about evangelicalism getting watered down – the churches’ embrace of people with multiple divorces is a big part of this.
Speaking as a long-time married lady, I think there will always be an attractiveness about stable marriages. Even if people accept cohabitation and hookups and easy divorce (and obviously they do, even in the churches), I still think most men and women really do hope that in their own cases, the words “till death do us part” will be fulfilled, so Christian couples who are in it for the long haul may be “freakish” in a positive way.
Also, in response to johnhughmorgan: evangelical churches haven’t quite learned how to deal with the issue of celibacy, despite both Jesus and Paul putting it forward as a viable option for Christians. I wonder if part of the problem is economic, i.e., pastors love to see mom, pop, and kids walking into church because they assume mom and pop are more generous donors than the single man and single woman. I’m glad the churches stress the Christian family, and I think it would be great if every Christian finds the happiness of a stable marriage, but in this very broken society of ours I think churches need to stress that the options for people of faith are not limited to marriage, shack up, and hook up.
Comment by John Morgan on July 23, 2013 at 7:43 pm
If the reason for churches discrimination against singles is economic, then no amount of money will be able to buy their souls out of bankruptcy.