Today the Supreme Court of the United States voted 5-4 to make same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. All day I have been seeing responses on facebook from both sides, some rejoicing, some very sad, some very ominous. Surprisingly, I don't really feel very much when I read this news. I am saddened. I believe same-sex marriage is wrong. I am also not surprised. And I know any response from me really won't make any difference, anyway. There is no point wasting my anger on this.
Now, the above statement can be taken several different ways, so before anyone gets up in arms, let me clarify. I feel very much about this as I do about the abortion issue. For much of my adolescent and adult life I was extremely passionate about changing legislation regarding abortion. I would vote for pro-life candidates and urge others to do the same. I would avidly follow politics and hope and pray and work and sign petitions. I would rejoice whenever pro-life legislation was enacted, and I would weep when it was struck down by a judge. Overall, however, I began to feel discouragement and despair, because there seemed to be so much opposition. It did not seem possible that Roe v. Wade would ever be reversed.
I was in that place when God spoke to me one day. I had a dream-- playing through my subconscious was a pivotal scene from the movie Amazing Grace. William Wilberforce and Clarkson find William Pitt, the Prime Minister, when he is golfing. For 20 some years Wilberforce has been introducing his anti-slavery bill to the Parliament, and every year it was struck down. This time, they tell Pitt, they are not going to introduce an anti-slavery bill. Instead, they are going to "cheat", by introducing another bill which seems perfectly harmless, but will in fact eliminate up to 80% of the slave trade overnight. "That's what you need to do," God told me, "you need to 'cheat.'"
What if we were to eliminate the need for abortions by caring for the poor, by making safe places for single moms to go, and by making adoptions easier to obtain? What if the church were intentional about working toward these ends, but reaching out to single moms, setting aside funds so families can afford to adopt, and making safe places for the poor and marginalized? My guess is the number of abortions would drop radically. If a young, single, scared mom knew there was a safe place for her to go, where she and her baby would be taken care of, she would not need to choose an abortion simply because she lacks options. Now, I know there are crisis pregnancy centers which do this very thing. But many people don't know of them, or know what they do, and many of these places struggle to have enough funding to carry on. What if the church, collectively, were to intentionally reach out to pregnant women? The whole face of the abortion industry would be transformed.
That day, I felt like God was telling me the legislation is probably never going to change. We should still hope and vote according to our conscience. But there will be too much opposition for a national ban on abortions, straight up, to be enacted. So instead of devoting all my energies toward that end, he showed me another way, other options which truly could make a huge difference.
Similarly, I don't believe that getting up in arms about this same-sex marriage thing will do any good. I don't believe this legislation will be reversed. I don't believe things will get any better. If we are going to make a difference, we need to go at it in a different way. We need to cheat. I don't know exactly what that looks like, perhaps God will show me. All I know to do right now is love the same-sex community, and love any gay and lesbian people who are in my circle of acquaintance. I will not back down from what I believe is morally right. But if I am going to make a difference, it is not by getting up in arms, not by hating. It is by doing just the opposite.
Jesus changed the world through love; He calls us to do the same.
