A Christian Responds to the Iowa Gay Marriage Ruling

“Gay marriage will be legal in 21 days.”

This was the tweet from the Des Moines Register that brought me the news that the Iowa Supreme Court overturned a ban on gay marriage in the state, declaring it unconstitutional. Gay couples will be able to marry in the state of Iowa in three weeks.

No matter which side of the fence you fall on, this is a historic day for Iowa (where I live) and for our nation (if you live in the U.S.)

As soon as I heard about the ruling, I checked out Twitter and found the #iagaymarriage hashtag and it was booming. Lots of people with lots to say. The only unfortunate part for me in watching all of it wasn’t the fact that people were celebrating the ruling. It was watching how Christians were responding:

  • “Churches are going to get sued now.”
  • “First Obama, now this! Our country gets what it deserves!“
  • “I’m going pray extra hard tonight!”
  • “God have mercy on this nation! We don’t know what we’re doing!”

With all due respect to my brothers and sisters in Christ who choose to respond this way: Shut up. You are speaking curses over this state and this nation. You are Christ’s ambassador and your speech is to be filled with light, not darkness.

I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to see your fellow Christians responding in such a disdainful way. If you’re a Christian and you are responding in this way you need to stop it. Now.

What you ultimately have to ask yourself if this is you is, “WDJD?” What Does Jesus Do? Jesus does not speak to people this way. Jesus does not treat fellow image bearers of God with such disrespect, no matter what they believe or behave like. These responses, ultimately, sound like the grown-up equivalent of “I’m taking my ball and going home! Hmph!”

I can’t say that I’m crazy about the (unanimous) decision that our Supreme Court made today, but that’s beside the point. As Christians, we can (and should) have firm convictions that are rooted and grounded in Scripture. But as followers of Jesus, we are to live differently. We are not to react as people who have no grounding in something greater than ourselves. We either believe that Jesus is Lord or he is not. Not the Iowa Supreme Court; Jesus.

If you’re a Christian and you are upset about the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling today, let me ask you this question: Are you busier telling people what they are doing wrong or living a light-filled life? There is a huge difference between the two, I hope you make the right choice.

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Contributor: Justin Wise

I am a religious deviant who enjoys coffee, collared shirts, spending time with my wife and son, learning about quantum physics and creatively exploring the riches of the Spirit of Christ. Find more here: JustinWise.me
  • linda
    We as followers of Christ do not need to speak our on words concerning this matter. We let the Lord of Host speak for us, It has been written in the book of Deuteronomy, as well as other places in the the Word. Just read it!
    It is no wonder that we see the world going to hell in a handbasket. We must stand up for righteous and pray against unrighteous.
    1 Corinthians 6: 9 says- "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God......"within this passage, homosexuals are listed as the unrighteous. It is not for us to judge, God will be the judge and if it is the desire of the homosexual to be excluded from the kingdom of God, that is their choice. 1 Cor 5:5 speaks about the destruction of the flesh. That the sexual offender will be turned over to satan for the destruction of the flesh (physical affliction or even physical death). we have seen evidence of this. I bear witness to the fact that this is unrighteous, but there is hope in the Lord, as written in the spoken Word. We do not hate the sinner, we hate the sin. "Judge not, least you be judged. But if you judge, judge righteously." I pray for this land and the healing of it. We as a nation have taken God out of the picture. We took Him out of the schools, we took Him out of our laws. He has gone from many churches. We are becoming a lost nation and the land is being destroyed. We need to pray for the land and the people who have control over it. Satan has put blinders on us. The choice is yours. Heaven or Hell. My choice is clear, what about you?
  • tippy2
    I am an atheist and think that the Christian author of this is completely right. It's good to know that there are prudent Christians who are more concerned about accepting and love, as opposed to judging and righteousness.
  • Thank you for your comment! I whole heartily stand in agreement with what you said! I do believe that we are all sinners deserving of hell! I also believe that we are saved through grace and through the mercy of GOD! I would never set that gift aside! I know that we have all sinned and that Jesus is the only holly one. And I do read my bible every day and I read it and ask for the understanding! I also ask questions. And through my STUDY of Romans I see that there are two main issues that it deals with (along with a slew of others!). 1.) Sin and that there is punishment for being in and of it! 2. The Amazing salvation through Christ, (Gift). So as we read through out the Bible we have to remember that there are sinners and there are Christians. Sinners are those who don’t know the Lord, and they sin, for it is there nature to sin! They are not yet covered by the grace of God, they are still worthy of death, for it says that the wedges of sin is death (Romans6:23).
  • one
    To the person trying to site Romans please get out your bible.

    Romans 3:10-18
    "as it is written: "there is no one righteous, not even one;there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes."

    Please anyone who is going to quote the bible get out your bible out first. No one is without sin.

    I didn't see people getting concerned about the world going up in flames when divorce became legal. Open your bible to the new testament and look at how many times it talks about divorce in the first five chapters. Not homosexuality, divorce.

    Here is another quote for you,"there is only one true judge and that's God, so chill and let my father do his job." TLC

    Peace.
  • thank you for your comment! i want to first off say sorry if i came across as a "pious" Christian! I will try to better articulate my feelings, that i may not have done that well in the first blog! I agree with you with my whole heart, i too feel that we need to show the homosexual world that there are some Christians in this world that Love them and will help them in their struggles, but at the same time letting them know that we do not agree with the sin in their lives!, Not trying to say that i am perfect, because i am not in any way (striving to be though) shape or form. I know that god looks at all sin at the same...SIN!
  • This entire conversation is incredibly wonderful. The thing that gives me the greatest pride in being and American is our ability to debate tough issues and find ways to move forward in this great experiment. Remember, Democracy was an experiment. One we've proven to be worthwhile. It also give me great comfort to know that fellow Christians really do try to follow Christ and his teachings. Justin, thank you for providing this avenue to have these important conversations.
  • chanabery
    I am a conservative, wholehearted, Jesus follower. I also have a 20-something son who is gay. I get very frustrated with my Christian brothers and sisters and churches for alienating the homosexual population. We as human beings cannot change homosexuals into heterosexuals. Our goal should be to allow them to see Christ in us and pray that they give their hearts to Christ. God can change hearts and lives. If we alienate the homosexual population, how will they ever meet the Jesus that we susposedly live our lives for. Shouldn't that be our goal. We need to examine our own hearts and motives for our behaviors towards this group of people that God loves as much as he loves pious Christians.
  • But the difference is that we know that this is sin and how harmful it can be to a persons spiritual life! So again a i state: "we have to love the person and hate the sin!" and through our love relationship with them we can hopefully draw them to the LORD! Also, there are other Christians that i know that do not want to legalize this, because they are afraid that it could possibly open a new can of worms! (Ex: bestiality - legal, more than one spouse - legal, not to say that it will happen, but if we start to tamper with the deff. of marriage then it will be hard to say where to cut it off!) So i am sorry if i came off as a horrible homophobic radical right Christian, but I’m looking at the bible and seeing in Romans that God says that there are consequences for those who do the sin and those who tolerate or allow it to be come ! I call you blessed and hope to hear back form you! Thanks again, and God bless you and your family!

    (ps my two brothers are gay as well so i know how you feel, i hear form them all the time, i know what they are feeling, bc they tell me, so we are kind of in the same boat)
  • Sorry if it sounded like I was scolding anyone participating in this blog. I didn't mean to direct the "pious Christian" comment to anyone here! I just meant it as a general comment that I have observed in the Christian community. I appreciate everyone's comments and opinions and think this has been a great blog to follow. I just hear so much judgement aimed at homosexuals by Christians when in my opinion, loving on homosexuals as Christians would be more Christ-like. We can accept and love them without accepting their lifestyle. I would like to encourage us as Christians to lean into homosexuals with love rather than with a judgemental finger pointed at them telling them that they had better change or go to hell. I don't know about you, but when I was deep in my sinful life prior to becoming a Christian, the last thing I would listen to was someone telling me how wrong I was. Jesus hung out with the worst sinners and loved them. When I turned my life over to Christ, I wanted to change my sinful ways and lost my desire for some of my old behaviors/attititudes, etc. Matthew 7:3
  • Levi_state
    28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. So we see that in verse 28 that God gave them over to their way, just like I was saying, then in verse 32 that sin is punishable by death and so are those who are lackadaisical and allow it to happen, so I just wanted to say I do and do not agree with the way that Christians as a whole are handling this occasion, please tell me what you think!!
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