Why I Have to Speak Out on Gay Marriage

AP Images/Susan Ragan

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.