Thursday was a fine day for our family. We celebrated Trae's 10th birthday in a number of fun, memorable ways. As she told us on the way to Toys-R-Us for some gift-card shopping, "I'll never have another single-digit birthday again."
Ouch! Thanks for the reality check.
But the joy of Trae's tenth birthday was a bit tempered by the decision of the State of California Supreme Court to overturn the ban on homosexual unions as legally valid marriages. Thirty days from yesterday, same-sex "marriages" will be recognized as valid in California.
Last night as I tried to catch some commentary on the decision, I heard one talking head liken the decision to the then-progressive decision of the State of California to legalize inter-racial marriage in 1948.
Are you kidding me?
How in the name of common sense can any corollary be drawn between the union of one man and one woman, though of different ethnic backgrounds, with a union of man and man or woman and woman? There is no comparison to be made in that argument and it is pure frivolity to suggest as much.
Frankly, I am not angry. And I am certainly not surprised. What I am is sad; sad that the authorities in the great state of California now home to my girls and me has taken upon itself to render God's authority baseless. The tentacles of this moral compromise and its potential effect into the future saddens me.
Thankfully, we've been spending our Sunday mornings this year at Woodward Park in the book of Genesis and God's basic instructions for life. The issues that stump our culture -- issues like "what is a marriage?" -- are so clearly defined in the book of Genesis that it truly renders any debate superfluous.
The courts might seek to redefine marriage. The talking heads might seek to justify the redefinition. But God has spoken, in the infancy of creation at the first ceremony of mankind, declaring, "a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh" (Genesis 2.24).
Call it childish, legendary antiquity if you wish (as an Albert Einstein letter auctioned off this week in London implied). Call it an outdated relic if you'd like.
But I will take my stand and teach the truth of God's Word as the standard, independent of human debate and human deconstruction.
