Friday, May 1, 2015

Same Sex Marriage Addendum - Freedom to Associate

There are some follow up issues from yesterday's post that I would like to address from a Christian Libertarian point of view. They are political and rights oriented issues that should have been addressed yesterday, but I failed to do it. They are also faith oriented.

First, I do not think that anyone should be forced to serve or associate with anyone else that they do not want to serve or associate with. This means that if a Christian business person, say a baker, does not want to make a "gay wedding cake" based on their Christian beliefs, they should not have too. Neither should a gay baker have to make a "straight wedding cake" if it violates their personal principles. I would say it's the same with pizza, cars, and even houses.

People should be able to associate and do business with whomever they like.

I know this sticks in the craw of egalitarians. That is exactly what I intended it to do.

We are not all the same. We are not all equal. We are all different and differently enabled. We have different belief systems. We have different notions of what is right and what is wrong. I think that my Truth is the Truth....and it is. But if I want others to join me in that Truth, I have to be willing to engage them and not club them over the head with laws aimed specifically at their beliefs and behavior.

As a Christian, I know what is right and wrong in the eyes of God. It, many times, clashes with what other people that are not Christian might think is right and wrong. I can choose not to associate with those people or choose not to do business with them and I should be left to make that choice without the judgement or interference of society or the present culture.

On the other hand, I could purposely choose to associate with people that disagree with me in hope of convincing them of my Truth. I could engage them in business and in life and try to persuade them of my Christian point of view. If it does not work, then I would need to leave them to their own destruction and let God deal with them.

Whatever happens, I need to be willing to leave it when there is no hope of convincing them and let them live as they choose as long as the way they live harms no one but themselves.

The Lord God has always allowed human choice. He is not happy when we do not choose Him, but He does allow us to make that decision. It is unfortunate on a number of levels when that happens, but the bottom line is that God does not want to see anyone perish in their sin. 

Secondly, we as Christians need to admit to ourselves that we have lost the culture war in North America. Instead of fighting with each other and fighting with non-Christians over how our country should be run, we need to come up with another plan. We need to be evangelical. The great commission was not to create a Christian culture where even non-Christians have to bend the knee to Christ. That day is coming, but it is not now.

We need to teach and preach the gospel everyday in the way we live. We need to love each other and we need to present the love and the grace of Christ to an unbelieving world. That does not happen by trying to manipulate supreme court decisions or congressional legislation or presidential elections. Our hope is not in the Republican party. If we are looking to the world and it's mechanisms to create for us a perfect Christian society, it will fail every time.

Only Jesus can change hearts. Expressing your love and obedience for Jesus by hating is not what He had in mind.

Get your Bible out brethren. Do you see anywhere in there where the apostles or the early Christians wasted their time lobbying the Roman senate or the emperor to change ancient culture?

You will not find it. What you will find is that they preached the gospel. It was simple but effective and it changed society in the places where it was successful. It can work again.