Reformed Response(s) to Gay Marriage

Got an interesting email the other week:

With the current issue of marriage being pushed into the fore front of social and political debate, I find myself struggling with what the Christian position should be with regard to how the State/Government should be involved in this. It seems like the social issue of homosexual marriage is clouding the legal issue in which the case should be ruled. When looking at the opinion put forth by Judge Walker, there is not a shred of legal reasoning, but rather, a treatise on homosexual social philosophy. Based on the absense of Judge Walker’s abdication of legal reasoning in the case, it could/should be overturned based on that alone.

With that being said, what is the reformed perspective on the construction of Government and the manner in which it governs over social issues? Should the State/Government be involved in defining marriage or should that be left to the church? A democratic vote to define marriage is completely and totally constitutional, but what if Judge Walker had overturned Prop 8 based on a ruling which said that the State should not define marriage but leave that to the churches? Is such a ruling had taken place, should the Church rejoice or should they cry foul?

Thanks for your time and I look forward to your response.

Respectfully,

LW

My response:

I don’t have alot of time for a well thought-out response, but I’ll give you what comes to mind.

There is no “reformed” perspective on this issue, there are “reformed perspectives.” There are Lutherans, Kuyperians, and a variety of Calvinists who are more socially liberal and some who are libertarian. Kuyperians are mixed over this issue. For example, Julia Stronks gave a provocative lecture on the subject at the Calvinism for the 21st Century Conference, essentially arguing that the mechanism (I forget the name of it, its some kind of “test” to see if a law is legit) in US law that protects most of our religious freedoms is what also supports gay marriage, so to try and shoot down gay marriage on the basis of something other than this law (ie “God says its wrong”) would eventually lead to the undermining of several other “freedoms” (religious, ethical, etc.) that we hold dear.
Others obviously see a massive separation between church and state (“spheres” for Kuyperians, “kingdoms” or what have you for Lutherans and other reformed folk) so that the state should have nothing to do with marriage or its definition; thus, it shouldn’t even recognize heterosexual marriage as an institution because to do so is not even its role.
One could go on, but my opinion can be in the following affirmations:

1. I don’t think its the government’s job to regulate, define, or recognize the institution of marriage.
2. But, since our government in the US does this, and recognizes marriage as an institution, there is probably nothing wrong with voting that it recognize and support only heterosexual marriage.
3. However, this leaves Christians in a strange position because it suggests that it is the government’s job to do such recognition and to define right and wrong in this arena – and if there is nothing wrong with legislating morality on this particular issue, we ought to be consistent and apply all biblical law (ie the stoning of active homosexuals). Indeed, ideally, the government would recognize not merely marriage, but all of God’s law.

So, I am sympathetic to libertarians who say that the government shouldn’t define marriage in any sense (the covenant of marriage is before God more than before men, so to speak). And I am sympathetic to conservatives who say that we should vote to ban gay marriage and define marriage in our constitution as male and female only. And I am sympathetic to theonomists who believe all biblical law ought to be the law of the land (since it is never our place as creatures to pick and choose what laws and realities the general public should and shouldn’t recognize). And I am sympathetic to Stronks and those Kuyperians who say if we’re going to try and ban gay marriage, we have to do it without shooting ourselves in the foot.
All Christians believe gay marriage and homosexuality in general is wrong. But question is how to approach it, which as you can see, is no easy matter. I tend towards either the libertarian or theonomist view simply because they are the most consistent, but I have much to learn yet on this issue.

hope this helps somewhat,
jamin