Why Are They Intolerant of the Only True Marriage?

But from the beginning of the creation, God “made them male and female.” (Mark 10:6)

A firestorm erupted recently when certain intolerant secularists took aim at the president of the restaurant chain, Chick-fil-A. Dan Cathy publicly took a stand on the only true marriage—one man and one woman.

Of course, Dan Cathy’s stand is 100 percent biblical. The first marriage occurred when God created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. God made Adam from dust and Eve from his side. That’s what we read in Genesis 2:23.

And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”

And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:4–6).

Jesus quoted from the creation account in Genesis 1 (Genesis 1:27, “male and female”) and from the more detailed account of the sixth day of creation in Genesis 2 (Genesis 2:24, “one flesh”).

Jesus explained that the doctrine of marriage was based on the history in Genesis—of one man and one woman! Defining marriage any other way is an abomination in God’s eyes. In fact, the sign that God is turning a culture over to judgment is given in Romans 1.

Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:22–32)

Isn’t it interesting to note that those who take a stand on the true biblical doctrine of marriage will be slammed by secularists, as Dan Cathy has been. For instance, one news site reported the situation the following way:

The controversy began when Cathy elaborated on his “guilty as charged” comment in an interview on the Atlanta radio program The Ken Coleman show.

I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, “We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.”

First the Jim Henson Co., which provided Muppets toys for Chick-fil-A kids meals, pulled its toys and its partnership with the restaurant. Then the mayors of Boston and Chicago expressed opposition to new Chick-fil-A outlets opening in their cities. [Note: regarding the claim that the Jim Henson Co. pulled its puppets from Chick-fil-A kids meals, read what Chick-fil-A stated on their Facebook page.]

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino wrote a letter to Cathy, posted on the city’s Facebook page, condemning his comments and his company’s plans to open a restaurant in the city. “I was angry to learn on the heels of your prejudiced statements about your search for a site to locate in Boston. There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail,” the letter reads. “It would be an insult to (Boston’s gay couples) and to our city’s long history to have a Chick-fil-A across the street from that spot.”

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel expressed similar sentiments on the company opening a restaurant in Chicago, saying “Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values.”

Well, Chick-fil-A’s values may not be Chicago Mayor Emanuel’s values, but they are God’s!

Isn’t it interesting that these secularists often claim Christians like Dan Cathy are intolerant because they believe in the absolutes of God’s Word? However, the secularists are really the ones being intolerant.

I’ve had people say to me over the years, “But your stand on marriage is intolerant of ours—we allow all views—we are tolerant!” My answer, “Well my view is that your view is wrong, and that marriage is that of one man and one woman—a male and female—anything else is against God’s clear Word.” Then they typically say to me, “Well you are being intolerant of our view!” And I answer them, “Actually you are intolerant of my view—you are not allowing my view that your view is wrong!”

This is a clash of two world views. One is based on the absolute authority of the Word of God and the other is founded on man’s opinion (which means they allow all views except the absolutes of God’s Word that teaches absolutely what is right and wrong). Those clergy and other Christians who do not defend marriage as being only that of a male and female are not starting with God’s Word, but are adding man’s fallible opinions to the Word of God.

So what’s the real issue behind secularists being so intolerant? They are shaking their fist at God! They are “willingly ignorant” (2 Peter 3:5). They “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). They are exhibiting their sinful hearts.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Actually, we are living in a time when we see what happens as people abandon God’s Word as the foundation for their worldview.

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25)

It is also important to note that the public education system has by and large thrown out God’s Word and raised generations of children to believe they are just animals who evolved by natural processes. In that worldview, who determines right and wrong? And who determines what marriage should or should not be? In fact, why should there be any such thing as marriage any way? Why shouldn’t people do what they want with any one, even any animal? Why shouldn’t they do what is right in their own eyes if they can get away with it? Why not? If there’s no absolute authority, what right does anyone have to tell anyone else what they should or should not do?

As the culture continues to abandon God’s Word and degenerate further, we will continue to see people “doing what is right in their own eyes.” And God will continue to remove His restraining influence and judge this nation!

The only solution is for people to return to the authority of the Word of God.

And I also recommend you “eat mor chikin!”*

Congratulations Dan Cathy for your bold stand!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

*Chick-fil-A’s catch phrase.