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Here We Stand
Robert Hart on Opposing Caesar on Same-Sex "Marriage"
Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together this Man and this Woman in holy Matrimony; which is an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church. (Book of Common Prayer)
Following the news of the Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015, there have been warnings among the editorial writings in papers and posted on the internet to the effect that, having made same-sex "marriage" the law of the land, the courts might very well start taking away the religious liberties even of churches themselves. That may very well be true. Strange things are coming out of court rulings these days, and I would not dismiss anything as impossible anymore. What seems more likely in the foreseeable future, however, is that the government will take away tax-exempt status from churches that do not fall into line and that refuse to march in lockstep.
But whatever the powers-that-be may throw at us, no faithful Christian clergyman will ever, under any circumstances, perform a so-called same-sex wedding. It isn't going to happen; end of discussion. As St. Peter said, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). In response to the times we live in, that means (among other things) that the Church has no authority to recognize or perform same-sex "marriages." This is a matter of doctrine, coming from God and recorded in Scripture.
Some people speak as if they have never heard of civil disobedience. For a Christian, those words of St. Peter in Acts 5 lay the foundation for civil disobedience. Some may ask, "But what if they make us comply?" Or, "What if they rule against us in some future court case?" The answer remains, "We ought to obey God rather than men." For ancient Christians, this meant dying as martyrs rather than offering incense to Caesar as a god. And, indeed, we are speaking of choosing to obey either human authority or God when the two conflict. So, what has God revealed?
Clarity in God's Word
In Matthew 19, we have been given God's word on the matter. Here, Jesus quotes Genesis 2:24, but he deliberately modifies that passage by inserting the word "two" into it, thus ruling out polygamy for his followers. What we have, therefore, from the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, is his word that marriage is between one man and one woman (Matt. 19:4–6).
A little later Christ says that "some have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake" (v.12). Christians have always understood this to mean there are two states of life for believers. One is marriage, and the other is complete abstinence from sexual relations, whether one remains open to marriage in the future or lives as a celibate by vocation.
Also, we have the teaching of sacramental marriage, that is, that marriage is God's own work. For, after declaring that the married couple are "no more two, but one flesh," the Lord says, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (v.6). Not simply the Church, not simply the power of the state, not simply the man and woman making a covenant between themselves, but God makes the man and the woman one flesh. This is the sacramental marriage that we celebrate and bless in the Church.
Clarity in Vocabulary
Moreover, the vocabulary in both Genesis and Matthew makes it clear that two people of the same sex cannot be married in the eyes of God. The Hebrew words in Genesis are unmistakable. The words for "woman" and for "wife" are one and the same: ishah. The word for "man" is ish. The same applies to the Greek original in Matthew. The word for "wife" is gyne (from which comes the English word "gynecology"), which means a woman of any age, and which also means "wife."
Robert Hart is rector of St. Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (Anglican Catholic Church Original Province). He also contributes regularly to the blog The Continuum. He is a contributing editor of Touchstone.
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more on marriage from the online archives
29.1—Jan/Feb 2016
on Marriage, Moral Corruption & the Christian Duty of Witness by Regis Nicoll
24.1—January/February 2011
Marriage Thrives in Reality, Not in Our Dreams by Nathan Schlueter
more from the online archives
32.3—May/June 2019
on the Implications of Changing the Pater Noster by John M. McCarthy
14.6—July/August 2001
The Transformed Relics of the Fall
on the Fulfillment of History in Christ by Patrick Henry Reardon
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