Dealing with gay marriage

Al Mohler, a consistent defender of traditional marriage and sexual morality,  says that, despite his and other conservatives’ efforts, gay marriage will soon be legalized across the board and that Christians and their churches need to figure out how to deal with it when that happens:

Though many Christians are going to try to deny “the obvious,” evangelical leader Dr. Albert Mohler believes gay marriage is going to become normalized.

“I think it’s clear that something like same-sex marriage is going to become normalized, legalized and recognized in the culture. It’s time for Christians to start thinking about how we’re going to deal with that,” he said Friday on the Focus on the Family radio program.

Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was speaking in response to the Obama administration’s decision this week to stop defending the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act – federal law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman – in the courts. . . .

With the Justice Department now pulling its defense of DOMA, pending legal challenges against the federal law will likely result with the nullification of DOMA, Mohler predicted.

“You can say, the cards are pretty much stacked against DOMA,” he illustrated.

He warned that when Christians feel threatened, they have to be careful not to lash out with a predictable response.

The Southern Baptist made it clear that he was not saying that they are giving up. Marriage is still an institution Christians need to save, particularly in their own community. But Christians also need to start learning how to deal with the shifting culture and even face the fact that they may lose a few from their flock.

via Christians Need to Prepare for Normalization of Gay Marriage, Christian News, The Christian Post.

Assuming that this happens, that same sex marriage is fully legalized and becomes culturally acceptable–with all of the legal rights and protections that this implies–what will it mean for the church?  How should Christians deal with this?