God’s Love for His Church Distorted in Same-Sex Marriage

Labour MP, Louisa Wall’s bill to ammend the Marriage Act to allow all people to marry regardless of their gender is set to have its first reading in Parliament on Wednesday.  According to a Herald Poll today, the bill looks like it will be voted through to select committee stage with 61 members of parliament likely to vote in favour.

Homosexuals and their supporters have never been content with the Civil Union Act, which grants unions between both heterosexuals and homosexuals the same legal protections as married couples.  Satisfied they cannot be until the homosexual lobby has successfully redefined the meaning of marriage in New Zealand, and throughout the world.

On Friday, the Human Rights Commission released their support for the changes to the Marriage Act, and once again aired the view that our adoption laws are discriminatory against same-sex couples.  (As an aside, many heterosexual couples might be able to say the same given the huge hurdles they need to overcome when faced with a rare opportunity to adopt a child in this country).

Many people are speaking up and defending the traditional view of marriage.  Currently 40,000 people have signed the petition to protect marriage.  Oftentimes, the opinions of those who oppose same-sex marriage are disregarded as religious, and therefore have no standing.  There is great value in speaking out from just a secular point of view.  However, many of the so-called “churched” are struggling with the reasons why it is wrong for two people of the same gender to marry.  There is an attitude that couples of the same-sex should have the same rights as heterosexuals to be married.  Sadly, I think this ammendment to the Marriage Act is supported by good Christians who simply have been lead by the media and the prevailing attitude of society.

Certainly, the rejection of Humanae Vitae has had to have had an impact on why people in the pews are supporting efforts to legalise same-sex marriage.  For those who contracept, or have willingly been sterilized with the intention of preventing the conception of further children, it must be a simple step to think that the marital act should be open to every adult who loves each other and wants to commit to each other, despite their gender.  Further, with the common use of IVF now to create children, the marital act is no longer needed.  By rejecting Humanae Vitae, and the natural law, society has removed the need to respect the marital act as being sacred and special only to a man and a woman.   Christians must understand that God’s love for His Church, which true marriage reflects, has been distorted.

So, we should not be surprised if the ammendment passes its first reading this week, but we must do all we can to convince those who support same-sex marriage, especially those in our churches, that marriage is a sacred gift of self to another, a gift of love so great that it naturally begets life.