A Christian Ought to Vote Against Gay Marriage

Introduction The purpose of this debate is to open a dialogue to discuss the role of a Christian in the political/social arena. Gay Marriage was chosen as a topic in order to spark lively debate. Arguments Within the Christian community there are those that believe that a Christian should not vote against Gay Marriage ballots because it is a secular (Western) society that we live in. With a culture or society there are many values that are held that are either unique to that culture or shared with the broader world culture. As Man is made in the image of God we expect that culture, a creation of man, would show examples of creativity, beauty, and goodness. Unfortunately, because Man is also fallen and we are saddled with a sinful, destructive, and selfish nature than it would follow that Man's creation would also exhibit similar manifestations. What arises from this is cultural values that are good and some that are bad; I will give an example of each. Good Cultural Values Importance of Community (Native American, Filipino, Asian Societies) Personal Freedom (Western Culture) Punctuality (Western) Respect for Elders (Asian, Middle Eastern Cultures) Hard Work (Western, Asian Cultures) Justice (Western) Respect for Environment (Native American) Equality (Western) Bad Cultural Values Women as Property (Historically held in most cultures) Slavery (Historical, and present) Materialism (Western) Disrespect for Elders (Western) Prejudice (Historical, and present) Many of these good cultural values are explicitly or implicitly stated in Scripture. Consider the Bible's commandment to respect your father and mother (elders) and the many statements in proverbs praising hard work or conversely condemning laziness. There are other implicit statements in the Bible for the removal of slavery and debt (the Year of Jubilee for example), as well as explicit statements that God desires Justice. Is this something we should be doing? Analogous to our job to see Man's sinful nature redeemed by God I believe it is our obligation to see the sinful parts of human culture redeemed by God. God desires to be worshiped by people of every tribe, tongue, and nation (Ps 66:1-4, Ps 138:4-5, Zeph 3:9-10, Mal 1:11, Ps 96:7-9, Rev 15:3-4). If we are all to adopt only Western (or any other set) values then there would be no reason why a representative worshiper from every nation should be stressed. It appears our duty is to keep a culture in tact but still desire to see the peoples hearts changed within it. How is this to be accomplished when Slavery, Spousal Abuse, Materialism, Prejudice and other atrocities occur within a culture? Do we turn a blind eye and continue to speak of the King or must we remove the entire culture and replace it with a better one? I would contest in we pick the second option that there is no "perfect" culture and none is better than another (in general). Westerners should be praised for their righteous values such as Justice and Equality for all people - but they can easily be condemned for their proliferation of pornography in the name of freedom and push for materialism in the name of Christmas. Historically many unBiblical values have been fought by the Church. Slavery was abolished by Christians (and ultimately a Christian President), and Racial Prejudice was confronted by Martin Luther King Jr., a black minister. There is precedence for redeeming sections of a culture while leaving the bulk of it in tact here in America and in cultures worldwide. So the question is, do Christians have an obligation to vote against gay marriage in a secular society? Considering the explicit condemnation of homosexual acts in both the Old and the New Testament it is obvious that this is not a value that God prizes - in fact it is used as a measure of a society given over to its own sin (Romans 1). From this, I feel it is an imperative of Christians in America to act to preserve what is good within a culture and wrestle against the parts of culture that are manifestations of sins condemned in the Bible. This of course doesn't stop at voting against homosexual marriage. This continues on to voting for honest politicians, eliminate spending money on useless items, pressing for justice for all people, continuing the fight against racial and sexual prejudice, pushing for gender equality (of worth) in all areas, support for the poor and homeless, and so on. In short, we have a role to redeem both the soul of Man and the world in which he lives. To stop short or to pick only one would be to abandon the full mission of God. -Y