Another depressing poll was recently highlighted in a Christian Post article. The authors, John Stonestreet and Jared Hayden, present the causes for why gay “marriage” has been widely and rapidly accepted since 1996 (and even has trended upward more quickly in recent years). I have to give them credit, they mostly hit on the right causes and even lay out a very important one in Genesis, the created order. But they slightly miss the mark in summing up the root cause, but more on that later.
According to a couple of 2023 Gallup polls, 71% of Americans think same-sex “marriage” should be legal, and 64% believe gay relationships are morally acceptable. These numbers are way up from a generation ago (27% thought gay “marriage” should be legal in 1996 and only 40% thought it was morally acceptable in 2002). Among those who attend church weekly, 41% support same-sex “marriage.”
Now this is very deflating that 41% of regular churchgoers do not have any biblical problems with homosexual “marriages.” Of course, to me, that is the root cause of this trend in churches, the lack of knowledge and the lack of teaching on biblical authority (which the authors of the article hint at but never actually state). In many churches, the Bible is simply taught as a book of good morals, or even worse, as positive reinforcement for not being “judgmental.” Like King Jehoiakim in Jeremiah 36:20–26, many church leaders have no qualms about cutting up the Word of God and throwing it into the fire if they don’t like its message. Most church leaders ignore Genesis 1–11 (which is the foundation for everything) or teach compromise positions thus undermining the Bible’s authority. This has had a dramatic impact on generations in the church not standing for biblical doctrines like marriage and gender as they should.
The authors make the point that both Jesus and Paul taught the authority of Scripture beginning in Genesis on the doctrine of marriage as between one man and one woman for life. They also point out that decoupling marriage from having and raising children (especially godly children as mentioned in Malachi 2:15), easy divorce (Malachi 2:16), and rejoicing in evil (Malachi 2:17) have all contributed to society’s acceptance of gay “marriage.” The authors bring out this last point most vividly by stating: “As a result, extramarital sex was destigmatized and, even more, sexual pleasure and romance replaced commitment and children as the defining features of marriage.” Now within marriage, there is nothing wrong with these last two things (Proverbs 5 and Song of Solomon speak to this), but they are not to replace marital fidelity, commitment, and child-rearing.
The authors also mention other causes, like movies, TV shows, selfishness, the internet (and its “discreet” dating apps and pornographic websites), and they then finish with an astute observation: “[If] marriage is primarily about romance, pleasure, and self-fulfillment. Children are optional. If marriage isn’t fundamentally connected to procreation, why limit it to two people of the opposite sex? And, in the inevitable next stage in which we currently live, why limit it to just two people?” As we’ve discussed before, polygamy and polyamory are the new hot-button issues for the “sexual revolution.”
America, and increasingly even many “Christian” churches, have abandoned biblical authority and replaced it with “feel-good” and “follow your heart” theology. That is why Answers in Genesis was founded, to defend biblical authority from the very first verse. All humanity has a sin problem, and that is the result of Adam’s original sin and all of our continued sin. And the only solution is the God-man Jesus Christ. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
