“the Christian religion and I have different views on social issues like abortion or gay marriage.”

DRAWING LINES

There are some who people make moral decisions based upon prejudice. We should not impressed with Christians who make moral judgments based solely on prejudice or squeamishness. Listen to this comment from a woman in Boston:

“They will have their preacher preach to them on Sunday and go, ‘This is what you think.’ Or, they’ll read their Bible and they’ll go, ‘Well, The Bible says that gay people are bad, so I’m not going to vote for equal marriage.’ They’ll just stop right there at that book instead of going out and meeting these people and talking to them and learning about them. I have an aunt who has never met a gay couple before in her life beside what she’s made up in her head and she’s seen on TV. She’s finally met my parent’s neighbors. She thinks they’re lovely. She thinks it’s a real shame that they’re still going to Hell, but this is the first time that she’s actually even interacted with them, and it’s been positive…. If she had allowed herself to have that fifty years ago, she might be a different woman. But, the church told her what she needed to believe and she just took that and ran. They stop people from thinking.”

I agree with this passionate woman that we should not decide whether any behavior is wrong based on our upbringing, personal preference, or lack of exposure to people different from us. I would also suggest that we not simply be swayed by people’s personalities, because nice people can still get mixed up in some pretty messed-up stuff. And I will defend my going to the Bible to determine my position on this subject because I am a Christian.

If you are not with me on that point, I hope you will hear me out. I know that this debate between Christians and non-Christians falls into a predictable ditch. The Christian quotes the Bible, and the non-Christian says they reject the Bible as any kind of authority. End of conversation. But we should all keep talking.

Since the public sphere dismisses any argument that relies on Scripture, many opponents of same-sex marriage—some Christian, some not—make their case based on natural law. They put forward arguments from what they observe in the natural world. But the lessons we derive from nature are problematic. Somehow, we have to pick and choose which aspects of the wild and wonderful world to imitate. Nature gives us plenty of patterns to justify sexual license. It also provides the example of lions ripping apart baby gazelles. Which example should we follow—and why? As a Christian, I argue that what we observe in nature is helpful but also fallen and imperfect. Not every “natural” proclivity is morally acceptable. As Rick Warren told Piers Morgan, “Sometimes I feel attracted to women who are not my wife. I don’t act on it. Just because I have a feeling doesn’t make it right. Not everything natural is good for me.”(1)

The long-running debates over sexual morality show that a case for or against various forms of sex outside of heterosexual marriage can also be made from history and the social sciences. But many arguments are easily dismissed and even refuted with counterevidence. The bottom line? I find arguments based on natural law, historical precedent, or the findings of social scientists helpful but also sometimes inadequate. For me as a Christian, the only cogent way to evaluate moral issues by holding them against Scripture. Christians hold the Bible as authoritative in their life and do not consider anything equal to or above it. To ask a Christian to think otherwise is to ask a Christian to become a non-Christian.

Before I became a Christian, I considered myself a moral person who believed in some vague concept of God. But in my public high school one group of people drove me especially crazy. The Bible thumpers had the guts to declare something is sin—like sex outside of marriage or getting drunk—but they lacked the know-how to back it up. I fought back with a simple question: “Where does the Bible say that?” They had no idea.

I shut them up. I was not kind. But if Christians claim the Bible says something they should know where to find it for their own sake and for others.