It’s likely that we have Christian neighbors, family or church members who celebrate the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex “marriage.” Perhaps we know because they have publicly “waved” a rainbow flag on Facebook. How can we respond?
As an ezerwoman designed by God to be a helper, I would like to pass on some questions that Kevin DeYoung of The Gospel Coalition has carefully shaped. If asked with kindness and respect, these questions might help brothers and sisters in Christ to slow down and think about the rainbow flag they are flying. Here are 20 of Kevin DeYoung’s questions. (You will find all 40 at The Gospel Coalition.)
1. How long have you believed that gay marriage is something to be celebrated?
2. How would you make a positive case from Scripture that sexual activity between two persons of the same sex is a blessing to be celebrated?
3. What verses would you use to show that a marriage between two persons of the same sex can adequately depict Christ and the church?
4. Why did Jesus reassert the Genesis definition of marriage as being one man and one woman?
5. If some homosexual behavior is acceptable, how do you understand the sinful “exchange” Paul highlights in Romans 1?
6. Do you believe the passages like 1 Corinthians 6:9 and Revelation 21:8 teach that sexual immorality can keep you out of heaven?
7. What sexual sins do you think they were referring to?
8. As you think about the long history of the church and the near universal disapproval of same-sex sexual activity, what do you think you understand about the Bible that Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, and Luther failed to grasp?
9. What arguments would you use to explain to Christians in Africa, Asia, and South America that their understanding of homosexuality is biblically incorrect and your new understanding of homosexuality is not culturally conditioned?
10. Do you think children do best with a mother and a father?
11. If not, what research would you point to in support of that conclusion?
12. If yes, does the church or the state have any role to play in promoting or privileging the arrangement that puts children with a mom and a dad?
13. Does the end purpose of marriage point to something more than an adult’s emotional and sexual fulfillment?
14. How would you define marriage?
15. On what basis, if any, would you prevent consenting adults of any relation and of any number from getting married?
16. Does equality entail that anyone wanting to be married should be able to have any meaningful relationship defined as marriage? If not, why not?
17. If “love wins” (as some say it did with the Supreme Court decision), how would you define love?
18. What [Scripture] verses would you use to establish that definition?
19. How should obedience to God’s commands shape our understanding of love?
20. How has your support for gay marriage helped you become more passionate about the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the total trustworthiness of the Bible, and the urgent need to evangelize the lost?
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