Why I Have to Speak Out on Gay Marriage

It is interesting to me that one of the greatest states in our Union, New York, has recently made legal the marriage of two people of the same sex. There is a lot of sin in the world, and along with God I am against all of it, to include any that may operate within me.

However, when something as profound as this happens in our nation and I barely hear a peep from people who call on the name of the Lord Jesus, that scares me.

I’m not afraid of the many disasters that are happening simultaneously in our world. I’m not afraid of all the wars that are currently raging on almost every continent on the globe. The potential for nuclear accidents globally doesn’t frighten me.

What terrifies me are good men and women saying and doing nothing when politicians we voted into office are making moral laws that contradict everything a Holy God stands for.

If someone wants to commit a perverted act such as having sex with a person of the same sex, then he or she is a free moral agent, and we cannot stop it. Conversely, when the governments of our land create laws that state perversion is legal, I am legally placed in a position to defend or explain perversion—or break the law (to pervert is to use a thing for some purpose other than what it was created for; God created male for female and female for male). As an ordained minister, will I now have to go against the law and subject myself to punishment for refusing to marry two people of the same sex?

Civil liberties—which is how proponents of legalizing perversion are categorizing same-sex marriage—ought not to infringe on the civil liberties of other citizens. I have a right to live in a community that does not force me to agree with and defend perverted sexual acts between two people.

If someone desires to indulge in bestiality, anal sex, homosexuality or any other perverted sexual act, why does it have to be made a law? More important, why have more than 50 percent of Americans bought into the lie that it has to be legalized?

Even more important, why are church leaders not speaking out against legalizing immorality? Are we that impotent? Are we that afraid of the opposition? Do we feel that we are speaking out against a certain group of people? To single out one group of people and say they are more sinful or that their sin is greater than others’ is totally wrong. But to not be silent against laws being changed to sanction immorality is our duty and our charge—or we need to stand down and not preach against any sin!

I can imagine what Jesus would do if He were walking the corridors of our cities and states of our nation today. I can see Him going into the Sunday morning worship services of some of our churches and knocking the pulpit down and commanding the leaders to get out!

I have to speak out against sin! What about you?

David Aaron Richey is senior pastor of Gulf Coast Christian Center in Mobile, Ala., and is the founder and director of Operation MOBILE International Churches.