What If I Told You There Was A Reasonable & Non-Homophobic Case Against Same-Sex Marriage?

What If I Told You There Was A Reasonable & Non-Homophobic Case Against Same-Sex Marriage? August 24, 2016

Okay, this might be a tad late for friends in Ireland, UK, NZ, and the USA, but in Australia we are yet to legalize same sex marriage.

So the good folks at the Australian Christian Lobby have published a short article of mine where I try to set out a reasonable and non-homophobic case against same-sex marriage. I like to think the article is empathetic, winsome, and robust, but others will have to render a verdict upon it, esp. if it achieves its aim of being reasonable and non-homophobic.

Here is my conclusion:

I want my LGBTI friends to understand that when it comes to social equality, a fair go for everyone, irrespective of race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, I can proudly walk with you in the way. But when it comes to same-sex marriage, we have come to a fork in the road, and I cannot join in your journey. For in the precincts of my own conscience, I am not able to affirm same-sex marriage for the reasons given above. I am not convinced it is marriage and I am convinced that the consequences of redefining marriage will be socially injurious in the long term. While I earnestly believe in legal rights and protections for same-sex couples, I remain unpersuaded on the case for same-sex marriage on the whole. Now I certainly don’t expect everyone to agree with me, but I hope I have shown that my reasons are not rooted in prejudice or hatred. If you want to understand me then know this: In our cultural war about marriage, I feel like I’m desperately trying to salvage some relic of stability from the debris of an increasingly plastic culture that no longer agrees on what it means to be a human being. I see in the marriage debate one of the enduring structures of human existence being thrown onto the pyre of human desire. I’m not alarmed by notions of equality but by the realisation that the sexual revolution is slowly becoming the de facto state religion. Of course, if worse comes to worse, and mobs of progressive activists pursue me with pitchforks for my heresy, I can always seek refuge in that alternate reality. At least they know me there!


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