It’s been nearly 11 years since five Supreme Court justices swept away the multi-millennia understanding of the one-man, one-woman definition of marriage with their landmark Obergefell ruling.
At the time of the decision, I suggested that despite the ruling, the High Court had not really settled the issue. The years have borne that out. It was the Greek statesman Pericles who long ago suggested, "Time is the wisest counselor of all." In this instance, its passage provides perspective, clarity and proof that many of the ills we warned about in the run-up to redefine marriage have been realized. When it comes to same-sex "marriage" over the years, it is time to admit we've been subjected to a litany of lies.
The late Barney Frank, who was considered a pioneering radical activist during his longtime tenure as a member of Congress, repeatedly stated that homosexual marriage wouldn't threaten other families.
"If you don't like same-sex marriage, don't get married to someone of the same sex," he said. "It is entirely an optional activity."
His quip belies the years of harassment my friend, baker Jack Phillips, has endured since he politely declined to design and bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. The badgering has consumed more than a decade of his life. He was vindicated by the United States Supreme Court, but that hasn't stopped other lawsuits or numerous threats on his life. Numerous other creative professionals have likewise been targeted and punished.
Then there are all the adoption agencies that have either closed or been similarly consumed by lawsuits because of their moral objections to placing children with same-sex couples. Obergefell didn't just redefine marriage. It redefined parentage itself.
When sexual norms are upended, anything and everything is possible. The push to normalize the sexual confusion of children and to allow the sexual mutilation of minors is rooted in the 2015 Obergefell ruling. The trans movement is a pernicious lie that has gripped the innocent and vulnerable. Fyodor Dostoevsky was right when he warned, "Men gradually become accustomed to anything."
I was in the courtroom for oral arguments back in 2015 when Obergefell was argued. Justice Scalia and Justice Alito zeroed in on the core issue when they argued that states can't allow same-sex marriage without discriminating against religious freedom, a constitutionally protected freedom for well over 200 years. Those two worldviews have repeatedly collided ever since.
Over the years of debate surrounding homosexual marriage, Rep. Frank and his fellow supporters made numerous related claims, such as suggesting the fight was simply over so-called marriage equality or hospital visitation rights. The latter could have been easily addressed legislatively without reinventing and reimagining the traditional definition of marriage.
A one-man, one-woman marriage is intended to help make us more selfless. Conversely, from the beginning, the pursuit of same-sex marriage has been a selfish endeavor. Advocates discount its impact on society. They want to force Jack to design and bake the cake. They want to legally compel an adoption agency to place a child with a homosexual couple, regardless of the agency's deeply held religious convictions. They want to put their desires ahead of anyone else's well-being, especially children's.
Another common lie served up regularly is that research shows there's "no difference" between same-sex marriage and natural-parented homes in the well-being outcomes for children. Yet Mark Regnerus, a sociologist and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has spent years researching the kind of home where children are most likely to thrive. He's concluded that if the last 50 years of social science research has taught us anything, it's that children do best when raised by their own married mother and father. No other novel family form rivals this natural ideal.
Despite the absolute cultural disaster that Obergefell has wrought, far too many approach its latest anniversary with a shrug. It's a grave mistake. Like Roe v. Wade, a legal and moral wrong that made abortion the law of the land and took a half-century to right, we must continue to advocate and champion the fact that one-man, one-woman marriage is in everybody's best interest. As a Christian, I believe we must simultaneously advocate for laws reestablishing it and earnestly take responsibility for our own marriages. As always, our witness represents and reflects our best form of advocacy.
There are dire consequences when culture rewrites what God has established in stone. Politicians and radical activists may try to tinker with it under the guise of enlightenment and progress. But in the end, redefining and reimagining this essential institution will never eclipse what the Creator designed it to be from the beginning.
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