The Real Meaning of Changing the Definition of Marriage
It was both interesting and agonizing to watch the legal collapse of American morals and marriage from thousands of miles away–in Asia.
I was in Mongolia and then China when the US Supreme Court changed the five thousand year definition of marriage through Obergefell vs. Hodges. Both of these Asian nations are “rising” countries where the Good News of Christ is bringing increased morality and positive changes to many peoples’ lives.
But America–my home nation–is a “falling” nation where the current rejection of our Christian heritage is breath-taking and is bringing about the demise of a once great nation.
While in Asia, I pondered the consequences of what is taking place in the United States. Here is the real meaning of changing the definition of marriage.
1. The world has changed–not to be legally renewed in my lifetime.
Changing the definition of marriage in the world’s only superpower will cause a flood of nations to follow suit in the coming years–causing the Western world to release its moorings from the Judeo-Christian traditions that made it great and prosperous. The world will dramatically change as a result by decreasing and hurting children and tearing apart the family fabric.
It’s already been fraying due to easy divorce, co-habitation, and dead-beat dads–but this could be the deathknell. And because SCOTUS wrongly legislated a “right” to same-sex marriage in the Constitution, this means that only a Constitutional Amendment (CA) can change that.
CA’s are rare. It is not likely that this decision will be reversed in my lifetime, if ever. Marriage may never be the same again on planet earth until Jesus returns to make all things new.
2. Secularism has triumphed (for the present time) in American culture.
As I pointed out in my 1989 book Leadership for the 21st Century: Changing Nations Through the Power of Serving, there are three worldviews that are battling for supremacy in the 21st century. The first is the biblical faith which is multiplying via loving persuasion in South America, Africa and Asia, but receding in the West.
The second is radical Islam which is terrorizing the world of the Middle East, North Africa and across Central Asia–trying to establish a regional or global caliphate.
The third is secularism or atheism which controls China, North Korea and Cuba via communism and many Western nations by way of secular philosophy. Atheism uses education, the media, and the power of government (especially the courts) to champion its man-centered ideas of hedonism.
The rejection of biblical, covenant marriage in the USA is a huge victory for the secular cause. The war of values will continue, but it’s uphill now for people of faith.
3. Cultural Christianity is dead in the urban cities and rural America will be forced to follow.
Though the nation is divided over the marriage issue, and the Supreme Court decided the issue prematurely via judicial fiat, the fact that marriage was altered in thirteen states and then rammed through the courts indicates that the Christian consensus on basic moral issues is a thing of the past. Our heritage of Christian truth is no longer strong enough to stop the tide of sin.
This is especially true in our cities–urban areas–which have gone secular in the past few decades. Cultural Christianity is no longer dominant by legacy or default. In many of the southern states, cultural faith is still the norm in many aspects of society, but the SCOTUS decision will force them to change. The North has defeated the South again–and this time in the battle of family morality.
The one area of the country that has been a restraint on ungodly behavior (the Southern States) will now be forced to accept the way of the world.
4. This was never about marriage, but the degrading and destroying of the image of Christ.
If we think the Obergefell v. Hodges decision was simply about marriage, our view is too narrow. No, it was the next battle in a long string of conflicts designed to degrade and destroy Christianity in American life. This is a culture war with many fronts: right to life, human sexuality, prayer in schools, Ten Commandments, the war on Christmas, morality on television and in the movies, and now marriage.
As Franklin Graham said recently, “All the things of God are under attack.” That’s true because the architect behind the degrading and destroying of biblical faith is not a human being or movement–but the Devil himself.
In America, that means we’re battling for the future of 320 million souls.
5. President Obama’s “transformation of America” is now complete.
President Obama did a major victory lap after the Supreme Court decision, and even illuminated the White House with the colors of the rainbow. This is because, whatever the motivation, his stated goal of “transforming America” is nearing completion. It contains three main elements:
- Economy – putting the USA on pathway to socialism (especially through the Affordable Care Act).
- Military – downgrading America influence in the world and weakening the military.
- Social – destruction of Christian morals (immigration, drug laws, right to life, sanctity of marriage, etc.)
6. Persecution of Christians has arrived on our shores. First silencing then sentencing.
It’s notable that even a secular progressive, Kirsten Powers, a columnist for both USA Today and the Daily Beast, has recently written a book on how the secular left wants to silence all faith-based speech in our nation. In The Silencing: How The Left is Killing Free Speech, Powers details not only how secular-progressives aim to win the war of ideas, but are committed to completely silencing anyone that disagrees.
Guess where that strategy comes from? It’s not Hollywood, but from the darker forces behind the human voices.
Because of the Satanic relationship to atheism, there is no interest in a marketplace of ideas. Just like the political arm of communism, secularists want a monopoly on speech and ideas. Increasingly, the voices of the Church and Scripture will be shouted down and removed.
After the SCOTUS decision, a number of newspapers announced they will no longer publish articles in favor of traditional marriage. The silencing has begun. So has the persecution. Bakers, florists, and anyone else who will not participate in a same sex marriage will be made to pay for their faith.
The next battles will involve outright persecution of the Church over tax exempt laws, and many other issues. Are you ready to suffer and stand up for your beliefs?
7. American exceptionalism is dead – now only a historical reality.
What made the United States of America a unique and exceptional nation for two hundred years was the blessing and fruits of its unique Christian heritage and ideals. Faith powered morality. Morality gave birth to freedom and liberty. And liberty produced success, innovation, entrepreneurship, wealth and many other blessings that came to us as a nation when we honored and followed God’s ways.
Turning away from this exceptional faith and its fruits will bring exceptional calamity to a nation that was once “the light of the world.”
As we become like other nations in turning away from God, we sabotage our unique leadership and role in the world. All that’s left is the history of exceptionalism–not the practice.
8. We are living in days parallel to Jeremiah – shallow revival then judgment.
The prophet Jeremiah lived during a time of the decline of a nation. In his early years, he participated in a glorious religious revival under the leadership of the godly King Josiah (2 Chronicles 34). But that revival was shallow–and near the end of Jeremiah’s life, the southern kingdom of Judah turned away from its God-given roots and was destroyed.
I participated in the last “American revival”–the Jesus Movement and charismatic renewal of the 1960s and 70s. It was wonderful and many lives were changed. But it also did not go deep enough to renew the biblical foundations of the American nation.
Will America experience the same fate of decline and judgment as experienced by the prophet Jeremiah?
9. God’s blessing is being removed from our nation – He is not answering our prayers.
The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn is a prophetic book warning US citizens that God’s blessing is being removed from this nation if we do not pray, repent, and return to the Lord.
Many people are praying. I have participated in many movements of prayer in the past few years. But God is not answering those prayers because we are not turning to Him in sufficient numbers to confess our sins, change our lives, and plead for the healing of our land (2 Chronicles 7:14).
10. It is time to flee the public schools.
This may seem extreme, but changing the definition of marriage means that the secular indoctrination of the public schools will be acute during the coming years. Christian children will be persecuted, ridiculed, and labeled as bigots if they do not toe the new morality line.
It’s time for the Church to evacuate the schools for private and home education where they can train their children in God’s ways and not let them fall prey to a the worldly system. Some will stay to shine the light. But most need to flee–for their own safety and salvation.
11. This could be the Church’s finest hour. We will find out who the real believers are.
The great upside of our cultural demise is that God could use it to awaken the American Church to her finest hours of prayer, worship, evangelism, mercy and social impact. In the coming years, we will truly find out who the followers of Jesus really are. There will be no fence-sitting, no cultural Christianity.
Some may even die for their faith as they take a stand for Christ. This could be the time of America’s greatest revival–as the people of God return to Him and become channels for his power in our backslidden land.
12. The future is all about birthrates — physical and spiritual.
It is sunset in America at the present time–a time when life is ebbing. Same sex marriage will deflate both physical birthrates and spiritual ones amd increase the looming darkness.
If America is to be revived again, then we must restore the American family through a love of children and a renewal of marriage and family–and we must evangelize the nation with many through spiritual births.
Is it really sunset in America? Only God knows. The future is all about birthrates.
Which side will multiply the most?
When the Supreme Court Gets It Wrong
We make a tragic mistake when we view the decisions of the Supreme Court as either final or wise. After all, they are decisions made by nine fallible people who sometimes get it wrong as all human beings do.
American history contains a number of SCOTUS blunders.
The recent same sex marriage decision announced on June 30, is a case in point. I believe the justices got it wrong–very wrong. And when the Supreme Court errors, millions of people suffer.
Here are four examples.
I’m not a lawyer, constitutional scholar or an ardent follower of the Supreme Court. But I am a student of history and understand a few things about the rise and fall of nations and how civilizations destroy themselves.
We are currently witnessing that prospect in the Western World and in particular, in its pillar nation, the United States of America.
The recent Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalizes gay marriage, is a decision that greatly hastens the decline of the American nation.
That subject we will take up in a future article.
Regarding the Obergefel v. Hodges case, the right outcome wouold have been based on a simple trinity: 1) Marrriage is God-created between a man and a woman for the procreation and nurture of children, 2) God-ordained marriage and family is the social bedrock of all wise and prosperous nations, and 3) All sex outside God-designed marriage is immoral and ultimately hurts people.
This decision, like other historical mistakes, will cause many people to suffer.
It’s happened before. The Supreme Court has made a number of erroneous decisions over the past 200 years that have greatly hurt the American people. Two of them were overturned through decades of struggle. The other two are ongoing battles.
The Court is never the final word. We the People are–in concert with the favor and power of God.
Here are four of the worst decisions ever made by our highest Court. I will place them in historical order.
Dred Scott v. Sandford – 1857
In perhaps the Court’s most infamous case prior to 2015, Dred Scott, who was born a slave but brought to live in a number of states where slavery was illegal, was not only returned to slavery by the Court, but held to have no rights. All Americans of African descent were not citizens, contrary to the laws of several states and the federal Missouri Compromise.
Dred Scott was a dreadful decision that kept millions of black people in chains and lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the Civil War.
The Court got it wrong and millions suffered and thousands died.
Plessy v. Ferguson – 1896
I learned more about this decision while watching Bill O’Reilly’s Legends and Lies television series recently on the Fox Network. The story was told on a segment which featured the probable inspiration of the Lone Ranger character–a black U.S. Marshall named Bass Reeves.
Yes, the Lone Ranger was not a white man with a black mask. He was a black man! And a very courageous one at that who rode a white horse and had an Indian sidekick. And at the end of his life, the Plessy decision hurt him very badly.
In Plessy v. Ferguson the Court foolishly upheld a Louisiana law requiring forced segregation by train car on the East Louisiana Railroad. This enshrined racial discrimination in state laws under the “separate but equal” doctrine and would remain in place until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
Plessy was an incredible setback for social justice. During reconstruction, though difficult in the southern states, much progress had been made toward liberating and bringing blacks as equal partners into American society. This is sometimes forgotten by our history books.
Plessy destroyed that progress by not just allowing for self-segregation or discrimination by private individuals. It expressly upheld the right of states to force segregation upon others.
This incredible error by the Court caused nearly seventy years of racial struggle in the United States, not fully being corrected until the Civil Rights laws of 1965.
If the Supreme Court had ruled rightly in 1896, there would have been no need for Dr. Martin Luther King. This very bad Supreme Court decision caused millions of African Americans to suffer for seven decades.
Roe v. Wade – 1972
The battle for life itself began in Texas, which outlawed any type of abortion unless a doctor determined that the mother’s life was in danger. The anonymous Jane Roe (later known to be Norma McCorvey who became a strong pro-life advocate) challenged the Texas law, and the case made its way to the highest court in 1972.
The Supreme Court struck down the Texas law, and essentially the right to life enunciated in the Declaration of Independence by an incredible 7-2 vote. Seven justices got it horribly wrong.
Using the same reasoning as the Griswold v. Connecticut decision, the majority of the justices maintained that a right to privacy was “implied” by the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments–a crazy stretch of imagination now criticized for decades.
Fifty-five million human beings have been slaughtered through abortion since 1972 in the United States as the result of Roe. It is one of the greatest genocides of all time.
NFIB v. Sebelius 2012 and King v. Burwell – 2012
Two of the worst SC decisions of all time relate to Obamacare, in 2012, and again last week.
In 2012 the Supreme Court upheld ObamaCare (the Affordable Care Act). Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to hijack this decision by ruling that ObamaCare was a tax and not a mandate, and was therefore declared constitutional. The convoluted decision stunned the nation.
No one died as a result of this decision, but it affected millions of people who were left on a pathway to socialized medicine with the Federal Government strengthening its nanny state role while effectively taking over one-sixth of the US economy. The decision created great confusion among American businesses that are now sitting on 1.7 trillion dollars of cash that they’re fearful of investing in job creation.
And last week in a stunning decision in King v. Burwell, the Court revealed that it was illerate when it said that the word “States” in Obamacare could also refer to the “Federal Government” which was clearly not the case. The 6-3 decision was a triumph of political judiciary tyranny over the plain meaning of words.
Millions of consumers will suffer for at least two more years as a result of these bad rulings.
Obergefell v. Hodges – 2015
Which brings us to the same-sex marriage decision. The two big constitutional questions in the case were: ” 1) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex? 2) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?”
The Supreme Court erroneously answered these constitutional questions this week by a 5-4 decision. The results of this case will essentially be the final death knell to marriage, family, and cultural stability in the United States.
The decision will allow same-sex marriage in public documents including marriage licenses and death certificates which translate into money, benefits for families, as well as a recognition of people’s marriages. The real outcome of the case will open a Pandora’s Box of other groups and entities seeking marital status and will greatly increase discrimination and persecution of Christians.
So should we trust the Supreme Court?
Ben Howe of Redstate.com recently reported that “many lack trust in the Supreme Court’s handling of those two issues according to a new CNN/ORC poll…Only about half say they have at least a moderate amount of trust in the court on health care (50%) or same-sex marriage (49%).
That’s wisdom on the people’s part.
The Supreme Court sometimes gets it wrong. When they do, millions of people suffer. But the people have the “next” word and the final one will come from God.
Are we on his side, and will we persevere for justice and holiness on these great issues of our day?
Why the New York Times Fears Marco Rubio
Over the past week, the New York Times, supposedly America’s leading newspaper (“All the News That’s Fit to Print”), published two hit pieces on US Senator Marco Rubio who is a Republican candidate for president.
No, they didn’t call them hit pieces. But that’s what they were.
The first story was about Senator Rubio’s (and his wife’s) traffic tickets over the past twenty years. The second detailed his personal finances, including mortgages, student loans, and even the purchase of a boat.
Both stories were political hit jobs–very misleading, and extremely biased.
Why is the mighty New York Times so afraid of Marco Rubio?
The name of the first NYT story was called “Rubios on the Road Have Drawn Unwanted Attention.” It pointed out that over the past eighteen years, Sen Rubio has received four moving violation tickets.
That’s about one every four to five years.
Senator Rubio lives in Miami which is a big city with a lot of traffic. So it’s worth a major story in the New York Times to point out four traffic tickets in almost twenty years?
Is that all they’ve got?
Oh, but what allowed them to publish the story is that his wife, Jeanette, a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader, received thirteen tickets during that same time–so the total for both of them was seventeen. One of Mrs. Rubio’s sins, pointed out by the Time’s Morality Department, was a ticket for going 23 in a 15 mile an hour zone.
E-gads! Stone her to death! (Oops, we’re not in Saudi Arabia.)
I think I commit that type of sin a number of times a week. Guess the cops here just aren’t as good as Miami Vice.
What do a few speeding tickets have to do with becoming president of the United States? So his wife’s not the best driver in the world. Big deal. I know a bunch of people who can relate. The Times’ bosses must have forgotten that when a man becomes president, he and his wife no longer have to drive themselves around–so it’s irrelevant for their White House years.
Actually, it’s rather refreshing that the Rubios are real people who actually drive cars and deal with the same frustrations we do. If I remember right, the lady in the other party who’s running for president hasn’t driven a car for over twenty years, so maybe they should have written a story on her being out of touch.
If you’d like to take a brief course in hit pieces 101, you can read about the Rubios traffic ticket sins here.
Then came the other slam on Marco Rubio from the Times entitled “Marco Rubio’s Career Be-Deviled by Financial Struggles.” The headline choosers at the New York Trash must have really had fun with this one. I can hear the conversation.
First, let’s throw in the word “Be-deviled” because it has the word “devil” in it which makes Marco appear to be in line with El Diablo. Then we’ll finish with the word “Struggle” to make it appear that he’s in trouble.
Bingo.
Then you read the actual article and it simply reveals a normal American story. Rubio’s parents escaped from Cuba and settled in the Miami, Florida area. They were blue collar folks–his dad working as a bartender and his mother doing maid, office, and assembly line jobs to make ends meet.
Marco Rubio began his life like many of us–from the lower side of the tracks. To go to college, he took out student loans and worked hard to pay them back over a number of years. He got married, started a family, bought some homes, and worked his way up the ladder.
The Times makes this all look like bad financial management. They say he takes out loans he shouldn’t have (too much money)–that he sold a house at the wrong time and took a loss on it (as if he’s at fault for the American economy and rise and fall of real estate prices).
They fail to mention that these heavy personal debt years were his family and career start-up years where he was:
- Elected to the Miami City Commission in 1998.
- Elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1999.
- Became Majority Leader in the House in 2003 and Speaker in 2006.
- Elected to the US Senate in 2009.
Start-up years are difficult years, often involving the use of debt for long-term gain. Rubios’ financial tests seem to mirror once again the average American experience. He knows what we all face because he has looked it in the eye himself.
Yet, he never missed a mortgage payment and eventually paid off his student loans and began making enough money to elevate and bless his family.
Heck, I didn’t get out of the family debt scenario until I was sixty.
In the article, the NY Times points out two glaring sins that are apparently greater than the others. The first is Marco Rubio recently bought a speed boat for $80,000–apparently for fishing and family outings in the beautiful Florida sunshine.
The Times writers called it a “luxury speedboat.” Kind of gives you the impression of a Ferrari with fins or maybe even an opulent yacht. Then you look at the picture and you say to yourself, “Hey, it’s a speedboat. What’s the big deal?”
That’s what average people say. But not the New York Times.
I know many working people who own speed-boats. Marco Rubio worked hard to purchase his, parks it in Florida and pays taxes on it. Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry has a real luxury yacht that’s never been flagged by the New York Times. By the way–he didn’t work for it but married a wealthy heiress who paid for it and who parks it in Rhode Island to avoid tax liabilities.
Oops–we can’t point that out. Kerry’s a progressive chap and that means his wealth is always good.
The other thing that grated me about the second story was a reference to Rubio buying a house in West Miami for $550,000. The NYT reporters said it was the “most expensive” home in the neighborhood–as if the Rubios are upper class snobs who crave status.
Then you see the picture of the house. It looks like an average home in a suburban neighborhood with Rubio’s Ford F150 truck parked in the driveway.
In Seattle, the median priced house costs the same as the Rubios.
So what’s the story here? Isn’t there another presidential candidate who owns a mansion in Chappaqua, New York, another home in D.C., and makes hundreds of millions of dollars through a family foundation?
Who’s really normal and in touch with the average American?
Here’s the second NYT hit piece for you to read for yourself: “Marco Rubio’s Career Be-deviled By Financial Struggles” here.
So why is the nation’s most prestigious newspaper out to get Republican Senator Marco Rubio with crappy caricatures and hit pieces? Why does the mighty New York Times fear presidential candidate Marco Rubio?
The answer is very simple.
A generation ago a good-looking man rose up out of his own humble beginnings and made a name for himself both in business and in government. He was handsome, charismatic, a good speaker, and seemed to be able to relate to the common person in America.
Over time, that individual was elected president of the United States, and turned the American nation back to trust in God, restraints on government, lower taxes, a robust military, and belief in the uniqueness (exceptionalisnm) of the American Dream and experience.
This man set back the liberal/progressive agenda some twenty or thirty years as a time of renewal visited the United States of America and sound conservative policies elevated many. This drove the New York Times and their acolytes crazy.
That man, of course, was Ronald Reagan.
That period was similar to today. The US was going through a time of sexual revolution, riots against war and policing, economic problems, and the failed presidency of Jimmy Carter.
The New York Times, and those who share their worldview are scared to death of Marco Rubio because he (and a number of others) could once again reverse America’s death spiral:
- He is young (44). Hilary Clinton is 67. He is the future–she is the past.
- He is of Hispanic origin. She can only claim white-privilege.
- He is from humble means–a self made man. She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
- He is handsome and charismatic. She is a grandmother who sounds like your mother-in-law.
- He is extremely articulate and sharp as a tack. Hillary is slow on her feet and is always parsing words.
- He is known for honesty and integrity. She lives under a constant cloud of scandals.
- He has policy principles that will limit government and empower people. She is a Big Government devotee.
There are other good candidates on the Republican side who are young, experienced, articulate, and share good principles that could encourage another renewal of the American Republic.
But few are as attractive as Marco Rubio.
That’s why the New York Times fears him.