Friday, June 26, 2015

 Supreme Court Ruling – 5 to 4
 States cannot ban same-sex marriage
Justice Kennedy

“the right to marry is a fundamental
right inherent in the liberty of the
person, and under the Due Process and
Equal Protection Clauses of the
Fourteenth Amendment couples of the
same-sex cannot be deprived of that
right and that liberty.”
Friday, June 26, 2015

 Supreme Court Ruling – 5 to 4
 States cannot ban same-sex marriage
 A calamity: a disastrous event
marked by great loss and lasting
distress and suffering (Merriam-Webster)

How Should We Respond?
How Should We Respond?
1. Be Burdened By The New Calamity
Nehemiah 1:4a
Chief Justice Roberts

“The Court today not only overlooks our
country’s entire history and tradition but
actively repudiates it, preferring to live
only in the heady days of the here and
now,” he asserted. Further: “Over and
over, the majority exalts the role of the
judiciary in delivering social change.”
Justice Scalia

“This is a naked judicial claim to
legislative–indeed super-legislative–power;
a claim fundamentally at odds with our
system of government,” he stated. “A
system of government that makes the
people subordinate to a committee of nine
unelected lawyers does not deserve to be
called a democracy.”
Lynne Kohm
Dean of Regent University Law School

“For centuries, that [traditional]
understanding of marriage has served to
forestall the ills—especially to women,
children, and underprivileged
populations—that all too often result when
society separates sex, procreation, and
childrearing. It has provided stability
where there might otherwise be disorder.”
Romans 1:27

Likewise also the men, leaving the
natural use of the woman, burned in
their lust for one another, men with
men committing what is shameful, and
receiving in themselves the penalty of
their error which was due.
27
How Should We Respond?
1. Be Burdened By The New Calamity
2. Cast Our Burden Upon The Lord
1 Peter 5:6-7
Nehemiah 1:4b, 6, 11
How Should We Respond?
1. Be Burdened By The New Calamity
2. Cast Our Burden Upon The Lord
3. Hold Fast…Bible’s Definition Of Marriage
Genesis 1:27-28a
Genesis 2:18, 23-24
Matthew 19:4-5

And He answered and said to them,
“Have you not read that He who made
them at the beginning ‘made them male
and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason
a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two
shall become one flesh’?
4
How Should We Respond?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Be Burdened By The New Calamity
Cast Our Burden Upon The Lord
Hold Fast…Bible’s Definition Of Marriage
Hold Fast…Bible’s Identification Of Sin
Romans 1:18-19, 24-28, 32
Genesis 19 – Sodom & Gomorrah
Genesis 19:5

And they called to Lot and said to
him, “Where are the men who came to
you tonight? Bring them out to us that
we may know them carnally.”
5
How Should We Respond?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Be Burdened By The New Calamity
Cast Our Burden Upon The Lord
Hold Fast…Bible’s Definition Of Marriage
Hold Fast…Bible’s Identification Of Sin
Let The Chips Fall Where They May
Mark 10:17-22 – Rich Young Ruler
How Should We Respond?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Be Burdened By The New Calamity
Cast Our Burden Upon The Lord
Hold Fast…Bible’s Definition Of Marriage
Hold Fast…Bible’s Identification Of Sin
Let The Chips Fall Where They May
Love Those Who Support The Ruling
1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Though I speak with the tongues of
men and of angels, but have not love, I
have become sounding brass or a
clanging cymbal.… 3 And though I
bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
and though I give my body to be
burned, but have not love, it profits me
nothing.
1
Ephesians 4:14-15

that we should no longer be children,
tossed to and fro and carried about
with every wind of doctrine, by the
trickery of men, in the cunning
craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but,
speaking the truth in love, may grow
up in all things into Him who is the
head—Christ—
14
John 8:1-11

Woman Caught In Adultery
…“Woman, where are those accusers
of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus
said to her, “Neither do I condemn you;
go and sin no more.”
10
How Should We Respond?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Be Burdened By The New Calamity
Cast Our Burden Upon The Lord
Hold Fast…Bible’s Definition Of Marriage
Hold Fast…Bible’s Identification Of Sin
Let The Chips Fall Where They May
Love Those Who Support The Ruling
Help Those Who Want Set Free
Luke 18:35-41

Then it happened, as He was coming
near Jericho, that a certain blind man
sat by the road begging. … He asked
him, 41 saying, “What do you want Me
to do for you?” He said, “Lord, that I
may receive my sight.”
35
John 8:31-36

Then Jesus said to those Jews who
believed Him, “If you abide in My
word, you are My disciples indeed. 32
And you shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free.” 34 …
whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
… 36 Therefore if the Son makes you
free, you shall be free indeed.
31
How Should We Respond?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Be Burdened By The New Calamity
Cast Our Burden Upon The Lord
Hold Fast…Bible’s Definition Of Marriage
Hold Fast…Bible’s Identification Of Sin
Let The Chips Fall Where They May
Love Those Who Support The Ruling
Help Those Who Want Set Free
Contend For Religious Liberty
Justice Thomas

Warned in his dissent of “ruinous
consequences for religious liberty.”
Justice Alito

Stated bluntly that the decision “will be
used to vilify Americans who are
unwilling to assent to the new
orthodoxy.”
Ethics & Religious
Liberty Commission

Public policy arm of the SBC that
affirms and practices Judeo-Christian
values rooted in biblical authority. Its
mission is to "awaken, inform, energize,
equip, and mobilize Christians to be the
catalysts for the Biblically-based
transformation of their families,
churches, communities, and the nation.
Ethics & Religious
Liberty Commission

“In the coming years, evangelical
institutions could be pressed to sacrifice
their sacred beliefs about marriage and
sexuality in order to accommodate
whatever demands the culture and law
require.” They went on to say …
Ethics & Religious
Liberty Commission

“We do not have the option to meet
those demands without violating our
consciences and surrendering the
gospel. We will not allow the
government to coerce or infringe upon
the rights of institutions to live by the
sacred belief that only men and women
can enter into marriage.”
Potential Conflicts

 Colleges & Universities
 Military Chaplains
 Agencies - Government Contracts
 Pastors & Churches
Associated Press

 50% support same-sex marriage
 56% more important to protect
religious liberties than the rights of
homosexuals if the two come in conflict
How Should We Respond?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Be Burdened By The New Calamity
Cast Our Burden Upon The Lord
Hold Fast…Bible’s Definition Of Marriage
Hold Fast…Bible’s Identification Of Sin
Let The Chips Fall Where They May
Love Those Who Support The Ruling
Help Those Who Want Set Free
Contend For Religious Liberty
Point People To Christ
Mark 16:15

And He said to them, “Go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every
creature.”
15
Matthew 28:19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all
the nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe
all things that I have commanded you;
and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end of the age. Amen.
19
2 Corinthians 10:4-5

For the weapons of our warfare are
not carnal but mighty in God for
pulling down strongholds, 5 casting
down arguments and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge
of God, bringing every thought into
captivity to the obedience of Christ,
4
How Should We Respond?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Be Burdened By The New Calamity
Cast Our Burden Upon The Lord
Hold Fast…Bible’s Definition Of Marriage
Hold Fast…Bible’s Identification Of Sin
Let The Chips Fall Where They May
Love Those Who Support The Ruling
Help Those Who Want Set Free
Contend For Religious Liberty
Point People To Christ