As Kim Davis was taken to prison for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, most Christians began to be concerned about the harmful effects the action would have on Bible-believing Christians. Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz worried this was an attempt to purge Christians from holding government positions. One presidential hopeful even worried that the unseemly incident would drive people away from Christianity—that is, Davis’ behavior, not that of the state.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich said on Sunday that he worried Davis’ opinion “turns people off to the idea of faith in God” and misrepresents “what it means to be a Christian.”
George Stephanopoulos, the former Clinton official who now hosts ABC’s This Week, asked Kasich if he agrees with Huckabee that Davis had a right to exercise religious liberty in her office as a government employee.
“No, I don’t agree with him,” he said. “I believe in traditional marriage, but the court has ruled.”
“I wouldn’t force this on a church,” he volunteered, adding that sending Davis to prison is “absurd.”
But since Davis is a government employee, “I think she has to comply … I think she should follow the law,” he said.
“But George, there’s one other big issue here,” Kasich, who was raised Catholic but attends an Anglican church, offered.
“We have a lot of young people who sit on the fence on an issue like this, and they also think about their, you know, their faith in God,” he said. “And for me, I think we need to talk a lot about the ‘dos'” of Christianity—”about humility, about helping our neighbor, about the need to live a life bigger than ourselves. And when we see these kinds of battles going on, I get a little bit afraid that it turns people off to the idea of faith in God, what it means to be a Christian.”
While some polls show that young people avoid attending churches that differ with them on social views, it has been precisely those churches that have changed their moral teachings—especially on gay “marriage”— that have had the steepest decline in membership.
Even before the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision in June, several mainline Protestant denominations had voted to soften their stance on same-sex “marriage.”
The United Church of Christ (UCC) redefined marriage in 2005. It lost more than one-fifth of its members in the next seven years.
The Episcopal Church has been at the forefront of recasting Biblical morality in the image of man. In 2002, its membership stood at 2.32 million. Ten years later, it was down nearly half-a-million.
No less than 100,000 members left the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) the year after it allowed non-celibate homosexuals to enter the ministry.
Hundreds of congregations have bailed from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), which has similarly modified its doctrine on (“committed”) homosexuals serving in the ministry.
Nor is there any evidence that the composition of these denominations is becoming younger, jettisoning the ossified older generation for the much-sought-after 18-to-35 demographic. The denominations that have embraced the culture, at the expense of the gospel, are among the oldest, least diverse church bodies in the United States.
These results should hardly surprise anyone. If someone wants a body that continually modifies itself to fit prevailing cultural norms, why would they want to attend church at all? What attracts people to a church is Jesus Christ and the unchanging message of salvation—a message that stands outside this and every other culture, gently allowing its radiance to enlighten our hearts, our families, and our laws.
Anything less is a marketing ploy—or a campaign tactic, if you prefer—but it is not the Good News of Jesus Christ’s life-giving, life-changing sacrifice for all mankind.
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