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“From the Beginning”: God’s Design for Marriage
A Statement from the Anglican Church in North America The Archbishop and Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America have received the recent ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States of America and are deeply grieved by the stark departure from God’s revealed order. We are concerned for the inevitable results from this action to change the legal understanding of marriage and family life.
While this decision grieves us, God’s truth and the goodness of the order established in creation have not been changed. The kingdom of God cannot be shaken. We pray with confidence that God will reveal his glory, love, goodness, and hope to the world through his Church as we seek to follow him in faith and obedience.
Jesus Christ teaches that God is the author of marriage from the beginning of time (Matthew 19:4-6). God’s design for marriage has always involved a man and a woman: “a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). These truths have ordered civilization for thousands of years. Where God’s designs are followed in any society, including his designs for marriage and families, the result is the greatest possible blessing and abundance of life.
The Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is often summarized as, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Because of his love, we love and care for all those who experience same-sex attraction. The Anglican Church in North America continues to welcome everyone to experience the transforming love of Jesus Christ.
Marriage is established by God for the procreation and raising of children and for the good of society. For this reason, governments have an interest in marriage and have delegated authority from God to protect and regulate it. But no court, no legislature and no local magistrate has the authority to redefine marriage and to impose this definition on their citizens.
The United States of America, so its founders believed and taught, is a nation under God whose citizens’ fundamental rights are derived from the Creator. There is no right to a relationship which is contrary to the Creator’s express design. We cannot accept the Supreme Court’s decision purporting to find a fundamental right to same-sex “marriage” any more than we can accept its claim to have found a right to destroy human life in the womb. We will work with others to overturn this decision, and we pray that others will join with us in this effort.
Meeting this week in Vancouver, British Columbia, we are reminded that our Canadian members have been living under a similar legal standard for the last ten years. Their situation includes minimal legal protections for those who in good conscience cannot recognize this redefinition, and it is our prayer that stronger protections will be put into place and honored in the United States.
In the meantime, we shall continue to exercise our religious freedom to perform marriages for those who come for holy matrimony as defined by our Church. The Anglican Church in North America only authorizes and only performs marriages between one man and one woman. We respect the consciences of those clergy who may decline to perform marriages as agents of the state. We ask our churches to respect such decisions and help make arrangements to minister to those seeking to be married. We are also well aware that this ruling may create difficulties for our lay members and Christian institutions as they seek to be faithful in upholding God’s design for marriage, and we will make every effort to find ways to support and stand with them.
The Church bears witness to the truth of God’s Word and God’s design of marriage (see attached statement on “Bearing Witness”). When government oversteps its rightful authority, “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
Today there is no place for either triumphalism or despair, so we prayerfully and sincerely urge a spirit of charity by all. We speak out of a concern for the consequences that our people and our neighbors will suffer from an unjust and unwise decision by five justices of the Supreme Court. We call those justices to repentance, even as we echo Jesus’ words, praying for God the Father to forgive them, for they know not what they have done.
We call our people to a season of prayer for marriage and offer the accompanying Litany and Prayer to guide us.
Unanimously adopted by the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America.
June 26, 2015
The full statement with Litany and Prayer, and the”Bearing Witness” statement can be found here .
Todays SCOTUS decision came about because conservative Christians had gone into “the closet” shackled by political correctness. It was the perfect storm, the perfect time for homosexuals to come out of the closet and push for homosexual marriage; no opposition. Brilliant move. Now the eyes of the world are on the church wondering “What are they going to do now.?” An uncomfortable time for many clergy as I suspect many clergy will continue to stuff their true feelings about the courts decision fearing that showing any signs of anger is not in being with the spirit of Christ. To those individuals I remind them of the parable of Jesus and he money changers. Seems to me since Jesus got pretty damned mad at times, it should be Ok for clergy to do the same.
Regardless of denominations, Christian churches need to unite and collaborate their efforts on fighting this destructive trend of liberalism in this country and its attack on Christianity.. Humans don’t like quitters and they don’t like people who don’t even try so now is the perfect storm, the perfect time for Christians to show they will stand up for their faith. People are pretty savvy. They know which denominations are sincere and which are merely intent on filling pews and bringing in the cash, so I suspect what they’re really looking for is which ones walk the talk. Me? I’ve often wondered what I’ll say when I pass on and God looks me in the eyes and asks what I did to defend the Christian faith. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be able to say, “Well Lord, I made some enemies, I lost some friends and I made some people feel pretty uncomfortable, but I figured that as I’m closing my eyes for the last time I want to remind myself that the next face I see will be yours and you’ll be smiling at me. Then I’ll know for sure. Thanks be to God.