The following letter was originally posted on Jul 2, 2015.
My Dear International Friends:
I have gotten to know many of you over the years and am grateful to God that I know you. Your presence in my life has greatly enriched it. As you know, this past week the U.S. Supreme Court declared that people of the same sex may legally marry. This decision will reverberate across American culture and eventually affect your cultures as well. America exports more than just grain and goods.
I want to talk briefly about this decision and do so from a Biblical perspective. I know that many of you have told me that America is a Christian nation. You may be wondering, then, how a Christian nation can justify an idea like homosexual marriage. Others of you may think that since America is a Christian nation, this decision shows that the Bible approves of homosexual relations. After all, these “Christians” approved it.
Please, my friends, do not confuse American culture with Christianity. I have said to many of you in the past that America is not a Christian nation, and perhaps this recent Supreme Court ruling will put to rest forever the notion that American culture and Christianity walk hand in hand.
I do not have time here to discuss the many Biblical texts that deal with homosexuality or with marriage. Forgive me for not fleshing those out here. Maybe that is another blog for another day. Suffice it to say that the Bible in the clearest of terms commands God’s people to love, respect, and show kindness and grace to homosexual people, for such people are created in the image of God. The Bible also, in the clearest of terms, condemns homosexuality as sin and defines marriage as the one flesh union of a man and a woman. From a Biblical perspective, the idea of a gay marriage makes as much sense as a square circle. The United States may now call such a relationship a marriage. God does not.
The mantra you keep hearing in the media is that “Love Wins.” But the “love” that won has nothing to do with Biblical love. Biblical love “does not rejoice in evil” (I Cor 13:6). Biblical love obeys God’s commandments (Jn 14:15). Biblical love is not focused on personal gratification but on the glory of God. Make no mistake. The “love” that won has been divorced from righteousness, which means that it is no love at all. Please do not confuse the language of love with the love of Christianity. They are different things. The love of God cares about holiness and obeys what God says.
In addition, if you have been listening to the narrative that the media has been feeding the public, you know that the culture repeatedly accuses us Christians of hatred and bigotry. You know us. You are intelligent enough to see that the accusation is nonsense, but it does show that the Christian side is not the only side that sees a great divide between American culture and Christianity. Here in America, the culture at large acknowledges this as well.
Therefore, I ask you again, please do not confuse American culture with Christianity. My concern in emphasizing this distinction is to preserve in your minds the purity of Christ. I do not mean that you can truly sully Him. Christ is holy, and nothing you and I do or think will ever change that. But just because Christ is holy does not mean we see Him as such. I want us to see reality. But when we confuse American culture with Christianity, we tarnish Christ. When we start to wonder if Christianity approves of things the Bible clearly condemns, we are on spiritually dangerous ground. Please do not go there.
In saying these things, I do not deny the historical contributions Christianity has made to American culture. Just as a good teacher impacts her students, so has Christianity impacted this nation. But the students have grown up and gone their own way, and they now oppose their teacher without knowing truly how much they owe her. And the teacher sees what has happened and weeps.
