Can Christians Judge Gay “Marriage”?

I must admit I have been amazed (and saddened) by the number of Christians who claim that because we call gay “marriage” a sin, we are being judgmental, for they claim the Bible tells us not to judge! And, of course, many non-Christians inconsistently quote the Bible to claim that Christians shouldn’t judge those who believe in gay “marriage.”

Actually, and ironically, many of these people are very judgmental themselves as they make their (false) accusation. And it’s not just gay “marriage” we call sin, but all sexual immorality (like adultery and fornication), lying, murder, thieving, and so on. How can we judge that these actions are sin? Because we have an absolute authority by which all our actions must be judged—the authority of the Word of God. God obviously is the ultimate Judge, and He has given us His Word with which to judge actions.

Now, people often take Matthew 7:1 out of context and claim we are not to judge—but when you read the whole passage carefully, Christ is actually warning believers against making judgments in a hypocritical or condemning manner. Jesus also stated in John 7:24, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” Notice the Lord’s command to judge. But before we make a judgment, we must make sure we are judging righteously from God’s Word and not relying on our own opinion.

I have been observing a pattern with a number of comments posted to my Facebook page from people who disagree with the stand against gay “marriage” (based on God’s Word) taken by Bible-believing Christians like those of us at Answers in Genesis (just as we take a stand against adultery, lying, thieving, murder, and other sins). I read comments from people claiming the gay “marriage” issue is all about “love”—and yet the irony escapes those who post very hateful comments against Christians (and against me personally). It seems to me that many who accept gay “marriage” interpret our view of not accepting their behavior (on the basis of Scripture) as unloving and hateful, but they really don’t want love—they want to see us accept their sinful position! However, we can, and do, love people we don’t agree with—so not agreeing with them and judging their position as sin based on Scripture is not being hateful or unloving!

Of course a great concern right now is that we will see people in authority begin to claim that speaking against homosexual behavior or gay “marriage” is “hate speech”! The president has already claimed it’s a civil rights issue—but it is not! While we cannot change the shape of a person’s eyes or skin shade (which are genetically determined), people can change their moral behavior! Homosexual behavior and gay “marriage” are moral issues, not civil rights issues. The door has been opened! Secularists already claim the Bible is full of hate speech. How long before we are told we can’t use certain passages in the Bible or we will be judged for using hate speech? How long will we be able to have the free exercise of Christianity in this nation, as guaranteed by the US Constitution?

I encourage you to read this short article I coauthored on our website titled “Does the Bible Tell Christians to Judge Not?”

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken