Evangelical Groups Warn of Dangers of Redefining Marriage

by Karla DialA coalition of almost 40 faith-group leaders signed an open letter to all Americans on Thursday, warning them that everywhere marriage is redefined, religious persecution follows.Though the effort was organized by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), it was signed by people from a broad spectrum of faith backgrounds — including Catholics, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, the Foursquare Church, Mormons, Pentecostals, Orthodox Jews, Anglicans, Lutherans, Wesleyans, Vineyard churches and Assemblies of God congregations.

The reason, said Galen Carey, the NAE’s vice president for government relations, is that marriage and religious freedom are both woven so deeply into the fabric of society that when laws are changed, everyone is affected.

“It’s a very broad-based concern,” he said. “We issued a letter last year on the protection of marriage, and in following up, we thought we should look at this important question of how changing the definition of marriage would impact basic religious freedoms. That’s something we think hasn’t been getting enough attention in the current debates.”

Though some people say the greatest threat legalized same-sex marriage and civil unions hold is forcing pastors and other faith leaders to officiate the ceremonies — or forcing churches to allow them to be held on their property — the issue is actually much deeper than that, according to the letter.

“We believe the most urgent peril is this: Forcing or pressuring both individuals and religious organizations—throughout their operations, well beyond religious ceremonies — to treat same-sex sexual conduct as the moral equivalent of marital sexual conduct,” the authors wrote. “There is no doubt that many people and groups whose moral and religious convictions forbid same-sex sexual conduct will resist the compulsion of the law, and church-state conflicts will result. … altering the civil definition of ‘marriage’ does not change one law, but hundreds, even thousands, at once.”

Carey said most people “haven’t thought through all the implications” of redefining marriage yet. But since a slew of legislation and court cases seeking to radically change the institution forever is in play this year, the need for critical thinking is urgent.

“When you change the law, you’re giving a societal stamp of approval to something we don’t believe is correct, that we actually believe is wrong. When we say so, we are branded as bigots, and the full force of societal and governmental sanctions can be brought to bear to punish us — and we don’t think that’s right.

“I think it’s important for people to start talking about this in churches,” he concluded. “As we do that, it’s important to focus the debate on the positive values — religious freedom and the family as God gave it to us. We can get sidetracked into attacking others, but our goal is not to attack anybody. It’s to uphold the values that we think will give us the foundation for God to bless our country.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Read “Open Letter on Marriage and Religious Freedom.”