Defending Traditional Marriage in Michigan

DEFENDING TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE IN MICHIGAN – Q/A

(Sources:  The Heritage Foundation, Family Research Council, National Organization for Marriage, Alliance Defending Freedom, Focus on the Family, MI Family Forum, other contributors)

“Michigan’s marriage protection amendment, adopted by voters in 2004, is currently being challenged in federal court, with oral arguments scheduled for October of 2013. A lower court decision is expected before the end of 2013. Regardless of the ruling at the Federal District Court level, this case will not be resolved until a final decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals or possibly the U.S. Supreme Court. At the same time, a group is planning to raise $12 million for an effort to repeal the marriage amendment in November of 2016, paving the way for the redefinition of marriage in Michigan. This will bring unprecedented challenges to conscience rights and religious liberty in our state.

Most legal experts who specialize in the area of religious freedom see the legal redefinition of marriage and family as the single greatest threat to religious freedom. As we look across the nation, it is hard to argue with their conclusion. The urgency and importance of communicating this fact to leaders across Michigan cannot be underestimated. That’s why Michigan Family has made the passage of robust conscience protections a top priority for the next two years. If you care about the future of marriage and the future of religious freedom, now is the time to act. Every leader should take action to protect this fundamental First Amendment right that is enjoyed by every American.” Brad Snavely – MI Family Forum

QUESTION:  What is marriage?

ANSWER:  Marriage is a union that brings a man and a woman together as husband and wife to be father and mother to any children their union produces. It is based on the biological fact that reproduction depends on a man and a woman, and the reality that children need a mother and a father. It is the building block of all human civilization, marriage has public, not just private, purposes. When a foundation is destroyed that house built upon that foundation will crumble.

QUESTION:  What are the consequences of redefining marriage?

ANSWER:  Redefining marriage would hurt children. Recent studies in the area of social science for decades have shown that children do better when raised by a married mom and dad. If you redefine marriage it would further separate marriage from the needs of children. Public policy would be changed from the ideal that a child needs a mom and a dad. Government would then be forced to intervene more often and welfare programs would grow even larger. The Biblical worldview defines marriage as between a man and a woman. This is very clear in Scripture!

Redefining marriage would change the law and new principles would be adopted. One new principle that would evolve is “marriage is whatever emotional bond the government says it is”. This is dangerous….and would eventually lead to perversions. Marriage redefinition will push-out traditional views on the family, and lead to an erosion of religious liberty in our state. This is already happening around our nation and even in Canada.

QUESTION:  Why should marriage matter to the government?

ANSWER:  Government recognizes marriage because it is an institution that benefits society in a way that no other relationship does. Marriage ensures the well-being of children. When government recognizes marriage, it protects children by encouraging men and women to commit to each other and to take responsibility for their children. Government should recognize, protect, and promote traditional marriage as the ideal institution for having and raising children. Promoting traditional marriage doesn’t ban anything. Adults are still free to make choices about the relationships, and do not need government permission to do so. All Americans have the freedom to live as they choose, but no one has the right to redefine marriage for all of us. This is what the homosexual agenda is attempting to do in our state. Pray now as any society will crumble if foundations are destroyed.

QUESTION:  Hasn’t divorce already harmed the institution you’re trying to preserve?

ANSWER:  There is no doubt that high rates of divorce, cohabitation, and unwed childbearing has led to heart ache and difficulty. The question before us now is whether to reinforce these mistakes or began to restore the traditional marriage culture. Redefining marriage would make marriage about adult desires and not the needs of the children, about adult emotional satisfaction, not a permanent an exclusive union of man and woman intended for child-bearing and rearing. We should rebuild and restore marriage, not undermine or redefine it.

QUESTION:  Are you saying that gay parents can’t love and provide for a child?

ANSWER:  All people are capable of loving children, but all the love in the world can’t turn a mother into a father or a father into a mother. A child needs a mom and a dad. Children do better when raised by their married mom and dad, and decades of social science evidence shows this. We shouldn’t place the desires of adults over the needs of children.

QUESTION:  Isn’t denying same-sex couples the freedom to marry the same as a ban on interracial marriage?

ANSWER:  No. Racism kept the races apart, and that is a bad thing, marriage unites the two sexes, and that is a good thing. Marriage must be colorblind, but it cannot be gender blind. Men and women – regardless of their race – can be united in marriage; and children need moms and dads, regardless of their race.

QUESTION:  What can be more pro-family than expanding the rules on who can marry?

ANSWER:  Redefining marriage will send the message that marriage is about adult desires not the needs of children, about adult emotional satisfaction, not a permanent an exclusive sexual reproductive union of man and woman for having and raising children. Declaring by legislation or court decree that marriage is something that it is not undermines the entire institution and weakens society. The most pro-family policy and government can promote is one that reflects the truth about marriage and puts the needs of children first, not the emotional desires of adults.

QUESTION:  Why would allowing same-sex couples to marry be bad for marriage?

ANSWER:  Redefining marriage would deny as a matter of policy that the ideal that a child needs a mom and dad.  The debate about marriage is about restoring a culture in which children are most likely to be raised by the man and woman responsible for bringing them into the world.

Redefining marriage to mean a relationship between any two consenting adults is presented as a minor change. But if the law adopts this principle, that marriage can be whatever emotional bond the government says it should be, what stops the government from redefining marriage in other ways? Already a lawsuit in federal court is demanding a constitutional right to practice polygamy.

QUESTION:  If marriage is about children, what about couples who can’t or don’t have children?

ANSWER:  Sound public policy is based on the rule, not the exception, and most marriages to produce children. While not every married couple will have children, every child needs a mom and a dad. Childless marriages serve a broader social purpose to – showing the potential to create children and to meet children’s need for a mom and a dad.

QUESTION:  Why shouldn’t everyone be able to marry the one they love?

ANSWER:  Everyone is free to all as they choose, but no one is entitled to redefine marriage for all of us.  Morally the Bible has provided a standard of marriage. Every marriage policy must draw lines of what constitutes a marriage and what doesn’t. For example, our current marriage policy says that a person cannot marry someone who is already married, or a close blood relative…regardless of love.

Current policy is also based on the idea that marriage is fundamentally rooted in the union of one man and one woman. If that principle is removed, there is no consistent argument for stopping anyone who wants to redefine marriage. What if someone wants to marry an underage child? What about multiple wives? What about marrying your dog or cat? We should stand by the principle that marriage exists to bring a man and a woman together as husband and wife to be a father and mother to any children their union produces.

QUESTION:  Why doesn’t government just get out of the marriage business altogether?

ANSWER:  Marriage is society’s best guarantee of a limited government that stays out of family life.  In fact, enduring marriages are society’s best tool for ensuring that children are born into stable caring families that will care for, education, and training those children to be good people and good citizens. If fathers and mothers do not fulfill the responsibility for caring for the children they create, that third parties in government will have to step in. Instead, we must promote strong, intact marriages, so the government’s role would be reduced. Government cannot do the job of a solid family which = man + woman!

QUESTION:  Isn’t same-sex marriage in inevitable?

ANSWER:  No. The vast majority of states affirm that marriage is between a man and woman. The future isn’t fixed. Unified prayer can birth a great awakening in a nation. We must depend on divine intervention into human affairs…as well as social activism. Pray for the Supreme Court as judicial activism has taken away the freedoms on what citizens are overwhelming choosing regarding correct definition of marriage which is between a man and a woman.

 

HOMOSEXUALITY AND A BIBLICAL WORLD VIEW – Q/A

If the family structure in America and our culture is to be preserved we must look through the lenses of a Biblical worldview paradigm regarding homosexuality. If this is to be denied by anyone it is an attack on our religious freedom in America which is in the Bill of Rights. The Christian church, pastors, ministry leaders, and individuals who claim to be Christians must make a stand on this issue and get answers to answer basic questions regarding homosexuality.

The Bible says my people perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Only righteousness can exalt the nation (Proverbs 14:34). We must carefully look at Deuteronomy 28 which can be called the book of consequences. When the commandments of God are broken there is a law of sowing and reaping inflicted upon society. Yes, God is merciful and one of love and grace. As we address these basic questions the word is very clear that God prefers mercy over judgment. We must never turn our back on what the word of God proclaims. God’s law is higher than man’s law!

QUESTION:  What would be the impact of homosexual Christian ideology on the church?

ANSWER:  The whole homosexual Christian movement threatens to alter substantially the Christian church in his doctrinal teaching. If one acquiesces to the premises of homosexual Christian ideology, one must ignore foundational Christian doctrine and abandon the Judeo-Christian sexual ethic. The outcome of this debate could radically alter popular views of the authority of Scripture, the family unit, and sexual morality. Abandoning principles of human sexuality as given by God in Genesis and taught by the church for the past 2000 years would have serious implications for societal stability and for the freedom of civic-minded Christians to dissent on the issue of public support for homosexual behavior.

This is a direct assault on the integrity and authority of Scripture. The homosexual agenda is attempting to put man in the position of determining what is true in the Bible and makes a false god of man’s fallen conscience and allows no room for any absolute authority greater than ourselves.  We will show the twisting of the Scriptures in later questions.

Historically, Judeo-Christian teaching as provided the basis for our understanding of the family unit, by establishing heterosexual marriage…in a lifelong commitment. In contrast, homosexual Christian activism challenges the heterosexual, monogamous union as the norm for human sexual relations and the establishment of a family. Homosexual activism also wants to redefine sexual morality where the Bible has already set a standard.

QUESTION:  What has been the historic Christian position on the issue of homosexual behavior?

ANSWER:  It is said that Jesus never addressed this issue of homosexuality. Explicit condemnation or affirmation of homosexual behavior of Jesus is not necessary for a proper understanding, because he address the broader issue of all human sexuality. Instead of telling us what sexuality was not made for, he taught the reason for which mankind’s sexuality was made. Christ looked back to Eden to the original creative intent and to the first sexual union where God ordained the institution of marriage (Mark 10:6-9 and Genesis 1:27, 2:24). God said and Jesus affirmed male and female united as one flesh. All human sexual relationships were to be monogamous, lifelong, heterosexual unions as blessed by God before the fall of man.

We must realize homosexual activity is neither an adequate nor fulfilling expression of sexuality because it lacks both a true, complete physical union and the life-giving element of procreation. Anything which departs from this original created order falls short of God’s intent for human sexuality, including homosexual behavior, but also rape, incest, pedophilia, premarital sex, adultery, bestiality, pornography, and any other form of sexual expression outside the boundaries of the biblical norm. Both Old and New Testament Scriptures addresses God standard in these areas. Paul was a rabbinical scholar whose comments about homosexuality directly reflect Talmudic discussions of homosexuality. Without exception, the Talmud is the central Jewish commentary on the Torah, and prohibits any behavior that deviates from biblical sexual morality.

NOTE:  Homosexual activist must then attempt to prove the Bible as unreliable and not true.

QUESTION:  What is the scriptural teaching on homosexual behavior?

ANSWER:  Homosexual Christian activists have tried to reinterpret passages that warn against the homosexual lifestyle. When carefully studied, in the light of God’s guiding standard of human sexual behavior, it is clear that the homosexual lifestyle cannot be reconciled to Scriptural principles.

Homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of God.  What does God’s Word say? “Where for God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: For this cause God gave them up unto vile affection: For even their woman changed the natural use unto that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly” (Romans 1:24-32).

Nature dictates that using the body in unnatural ways will bring death and judgment upon the guilty. Our anatomy was designed by God for particular functions and not for what the homosexual community has deemed acceptable. Men’s rebellion in any sexual sin brings disease such as Aids, STD., shorter life spans and of course eternal separation from God. Sexual lust is very powerful and leads many individuals to forms of sexual perversion. Only Christ can break this strong hold (John 8:31-32) in a person’s life. Our thought life must be brought under control.  These are other Scriptures clearly point out that homosexuality is a sin (Leviticus 20:13, 1 Corinthians 9-10, Galatians 5:16-21) that will lead to judgment.

The passage in Genesis 19:1-29 clearly explains the reasons for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was because of sexual perversion, specifically homosexual behavior. Homosexuals claim Sodom’s sin was one of inhospitality and not of homosexuality. Nowhere in the Bible is inhospitality listed as an abomination, but homosexual behavior is (Leviticus 18:22). It is clearly seen that the angry mob is quoted as demanding to “know them”. Of the 12 times the Hebrew word “know” occurs in Genesis, 10 times it means to have intercourse with. Furthermore, the context clearly suggests that the townspeople were looking for sex, not credentials as homosexual activists claim.

QUESTION:  Where do homosexual feelings and tendencies originate?

ANSWER:  So you may ask, where did I develop these feelings or tendencies?  God calls it a choice! Lust is a very big factor as many pre-occupy themselves with sexual gratification. It cannot be put into words all that’s involved for every individual. But a few common themes seem to arise amongst homosexuals. They center around parent-child relationships, child abuse, self-acceptance, alcohol and drug use, suicidal tendencies and depression. The majority of homosexuals are lacking some type of love in their lives. They have been emotional scarred at some time in their lives or deeply hurt by someone. This rejection has led many of them to look for acceptance in this community of people. These influences are not a causation behind your will or genetic, so cry out to God! He can HELP!!! The Christian community must reach out to them and not condemn them. They are people who need the love of God!!!!

QUESTION:  Are homosexual tendencies genetic?

ANSWER:  There is no gay gene. Biased and skewed research has left an impression that such a gene exists. It is a personal and individual choice. The Bible clearly states that God is fair, just, and honest. Since this is so, how could God condemn one to judgment for something he/she had no choice? Is this an act of a loving God? No! What is caused is not free. Homosexuality is a free will choice.

These are some websites that you can refer to that gives a more detailed response regarding this question:

http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/genetics_of_homosexuality.html

http://www.hollanddavis.com/?p=3647

http://www.ccv.org/issues/homosexuality/is-homosexuality-genetic/

http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF08L41.pdf

QUESTION:  Are the questions above conveying any type of hate speech towards the homosexual community?

ANSWER:  No! It’s quite the opposite. Warnings are an act of love. God is love and he warns his children of activities that grieve him and will separate them from Him for eternity. As a parent, I have warned my children numerous times and they were younger. Do not talk to strangers. Look both ways before crossing the road. The statements were acts of love towards my children.  I am thankful for tornado, hurricane, and severe weather warnings as they are given out to save lives. So the answers to the questions above are really acts of love towards those who God wants to extend mercy. This is not hate speech but a reminder of God’s moral standards He has set up for society.