I never thought I would see the day when “Christian” America would have to specify that marriage should be between a man and a woman. In fact, it has been said, “If God doesn’t judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”

On March 13, 2003 the U.S. Census Bureau released its newest profile on the home, family, and marriage. Its surveys have shown that the homosexual population is not as large as the homosexual activists have claimed. In fact, of all couples in the United States, 90% are heterosexual and married, 9% heterosexual and unmarried, and 1% homosexual.

Yet the gay/lesbian contingent of our population pushes its agenda with fervency and reckless abandon. Its agenda includes the implementation of homosexual curriculum at all school levels, homosexual adoption of children (including access to foster care programs), supervisory access to all youth groups (homosexuals are now engaged in a legal battle with the Boy Scouts of America over this issue), the lowering of the age of consent for sex between children and adults, inclusion of sex-change operations in all universal health plans, as well as open homosexuality in the military.

Now the prevailing issue that looms so enormously over America is the homosexual effort to redefine the nature of the family. Canada has already sanctioned same sex marriages. Earlier this month the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the state cannot discriminate against gays and lesbians in marriage.

San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom, in an act of municipal disobedience, opened Pandora’s box two weeks ago by allowing marriage licenses to be issued to same sex couples. Now lesbians and gays are getting married by the thousands in the city by the Golden Gate.

Although homosexuals are much in the minority, they are assertive and vocal. Just recently Representative Karla Drenner, the only openly gay member of the Georgia Assembly, voiced her criticism of pastor Richard Walker of Macland Church in Powder Springs in regards to his prayer before the Georgia House when he expressed his belief in marriage being “between one man and one woman only for life.”

Television has produced several sit-coms in recent years that seem to suggest that homosexuality is a normal rather than an aberrant lifestyle. Twenty years ago John Ritter pretended to be gay as Jack Tripper on Three’s Company in order to get the apartment landlord to permit him to live with two young women. Since then the entertainment industry’s effort to present homosexuality as normal is legion. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, The L Word, and Will and Grace are examples of current TV fare attempting to win approval for the homosexual lifestyle.

Several Christian denominations have accepted homosexual memberships and have church leaders who are gay. These churches never condemn homosexuality, but pride themselves in tolerating and accepting it. They refer to it as an “alternate lifestyle” or a “sexual preference.”

However, Richard Eldredge’s Valentine’s Day “Peach Buzz” column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution takes the cake. He writes about Ken and Barbie, the Mattel Toy Company’s premier dolls for more than four decades. He writes, “After 43 years, Barbie has finally discovered that Ken, her longtime beau, isn’t exactly anatomically correct … Barbie and Ken have drifted apart.”

Then Eldredge announced that Mattel recently introduced Blaine, a new doll, at the annual American International Toy Fair in New York. He then added, “Judging by the pictures we saw, it could not be immediately determined whether Blaine would be romantically interested in Barbie or Ken.”

Now the attempt is being made to insure the sanctity of marriage through a constitutional marriage amendment the homosexual lobbyists are decrying as discriminatory. As a result, they have recognized the advantage of hitching their wagon to the civil rights star. By asserting that their goal is to achieve their rights as citizens, and invoking the rhetoric of the 1960’s, they touch a nerve in American society.

Any nation that allows rights to rule over reason, responsibility and righteousness is headed for anarchy. Judges 17:6 declares: “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” No one was in control. No one gave the orders. No one was responsible to anyone.

The book of Judges gives the brutal, ugly, wretched accounts of the natural outcome of people doing what is right in their eyes. They can always justify what they do. This is the hallmark of a permissive society; but there is no way to equate permissiveness with the Christian faith.

The church has a responsibility to reach out to the homosexual in love and compassion, and to share the hope of the gospel, which can produce remarkable change and a new life. However, the church also has the responsibility of lifting up the banner of truth. The truth is that God defined marriage in the book of Genesis when he created Eve to be Adam’s helpmate and life partner.

When the Georgia Senate voted on the marriage amendment I am told that the gallery had five times more people opposed to the amendment than those who were in favor the amendment. If the church was as enthusiastic about the cause of Christ as the homosexuals are about their cause, we would have won the world to Christ long ago.