SEPARATION OF MARRIAGE AND STATE

By Debbie O'Hara
August 24, 2003
NewsWithViews.com

Christians are up in arms about the onslaught of anti-family bills that the homosexual activists have been pushing around the country, many of which have passed. Here in California, our governor, in his desperation to try and hang onto his job at any cost says he intends to sign a gay "marriage" bill even though it has more hurdles to pass before reaching his desk. As usual everyone is blaming the atheists and the liberals for trying to destroy God's institution of marriage, but who really deserves the blame? Who gave government the right to interfere with marriage in the first place?

There is now a blur between the supposed "liberal" Democrats, who many people think are godless, and the so-called "conservative" Republicans, where most people who consider themselves Christians reside. They both believe that government is the answer to every problem. The Democrats are probably more honest because at least they admit that they think government is the answer to all of society's problems while the Republicans say they believe in "smaller government" and "individual responsibility" while voting for more socialist government intervention programs, including those regarding marriage.

Right now Christians are championing a federal amendment that's floating around Capitol Hill that says we must keep marriage between one man and one woman. Isn't that what got us into trouble in the first place, getting government involved in marriage? If we allow government to define marriage even if they define it as between one man and one woman, what is to keep them from changing its definition later on to something else? There is no Constitutional or biblical foundation for government to define or regulate marriage. Why did we hand God's institution of marriage over to government in the first place? We even handed it over on a silver platter when Christians decided that being married in the sight of God wasn't good enough; we wanted to get permission from the government via a state license! God's Holy State of Matrimony then became a civil union effectively regulated and controlled by the State. If we continue to allow the state to control marriage, we will see polygamy, two men and a woman, three women and a man, a man and his dog, etc. and probably worse being defined as marriage. And we Christians will be to blame!

Carrying government control of marriage to its logical conclusion, they would also control any product of that marriage, like the children. Should it surprise us that the State is defining what proper parenting is? We get angry and wonder what makes them think that they have the right to push the homosexual agenda and other perversions on our children in the government schools, but why wouldn't they have that right? They control what they permit us to do through the licensing process.

Maybe people thought that by getting government involved in the marriage process they could better control deadbeat dads by being able to use the full power of the law to make sure they provided support to their families. But history has shown us that government doesn't fix problems, it only exacerbates them and causes loss of freedom for all in the process. God calls his church to fill in the gap for those whom the world has abandoned.

Licensing brings in a lot of revenue for government, so of course they will try and encourage people to license as much activity as possible even though there are few instances where a license really holds any benefit to the licensee; in fact very often it does the opposite. It certainly has done a lot of harm to the once Holy State of Matrimony. Divorce was very uncommon and cumbersome before state licensing became uniform. God hates divorce, but because of man's sinful nature he made some allowances for it, but with government, anything goes! According to "In Caesar's Grip" by Peter Kershaw, by 1929, when all states had adopted the Uniform Marriage License Act, divorce rates soon climbed to a national figure of 16%. In 1969 under Gov. Ronald Reagan, California became the first state to sanction no fault divorce. Divorce soon became a snap and since then, divorce rates have skyrocketed; 50% of all first marriages fail, and 60% of second marriages fail. Who suffers most when marriages fail? Of course it's the children. Those who are promoting the anti-family homosexual agenda have been the big winners in all of this. They have been given great ammunition to say that God's institution of marriage and the family doesn't work.

Where do we go from here? We have dug ourselves a very deep hole and it will be difficult if not impossible to climb out. The reason I say it may be impossible is because there is hardly an American alive today who doesn't have more faith in government than in God. We no longer put our trust in God as head of the family - instead we have put government in His place. The Lord's church really needs to examine its role in society and decide if they are more afraid of God or of men.

Maybe the church feels that by its silence it will be left alone from the "politically correct" agenda, but that will never happen. As state licensed pastors in state licensed churches that marry people who must first get state licenses to wed, you will eventually be forced to use a "politically correct bible", perform "politically correct" weddings, accept "politically correct" families as members and show no "discrimination" in your hiring practices of office workers or pastors. Though our "politically correct" textbooks have been whitewashed to show that the American Revolution was just about taxes, let me assure you that many of those brave men gave their lives to save us from the tyranny of forcing pastors to be licensed to preach. Do you think anyone in the earliest days of the church would have accepted a state license? I'll bet many were martyred first. But we volunteer to take them!

This is what the Lord says; "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it." Jeremiah 6:16

Unless the church goes back to its traditional role of being the conscience of our nation, and defender of God's Holy Institutions of Matrimony and Family, even if it offends, there is no hope for our future as a nation. The traditional family, as created by God, is the backbone of any civilization. Is it worth saving? You tell me.