My take - The Australian same sex marriage poll result

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My take – the Australian same sex marriage poll result

WARNING This post contains material upholding a traditional view of marriage. It is long, because the issues and the Australian context are complex. It is also a personal view.

The immediate context

Christians may prefer to talk about other things, but we cannot avoid same sex marriage (SSM) for it is a hot topic. A Christianity that is silent on the issues of its day is about as useful as a quill pen in a digital age.

Australia recently had a national postal poll on whether SSM should be allowed by law. The poll was unduly divisive and prolonged in my view. It happened because of a messy political compromise within the governing political coalition. The poll process has not been a great moment in the history of the nation.

Participation was high (79.5%) and the result (announced on 15^th November 2017) was a vote of 61.6% (of those who voted) in favour of legalising SSM.

Yet to come is a legislative and political process. I expect the legalisation of SSM sooner or later as both major political parties seem ready to wave it through.

In this post, I summarise the immediate context and give a response under the headings indicated below. 

What’s my angle?

I write as an Australian by birth and citizenship. I am Christian by identity and heterosexual by orientation. I am interested in Australian affairs but have a love / hate relationship with the nation. Like the prophet Jeremiah or the Apostle Paul, I feel pain for the nation of which I am part (eg Jer 8:18 – 9:1; 14: 19–22; Rom 9;1-3; 10:1), even though the citizenship that matters is elsewhere (eg Phil 3:20). I could easily live in another country and my sense of home in Australia is temporal and weak. I feel a stranger and exile.

What follows is my take on the prospective legalisation of SSM in Australia, within a broader canvas of issues.

Same sex attraction and activity

As a Christian believer who tries to take the Bible seriously, I cannot endorse same sex activity or SSM.

We were designed for opposite-sex attraction and activity. This is to pair off as male and female couples (Gen 2:18-25) in committed and lifelong relationships of love, delight and wonder (eg, Song of Songs). Same sex attraction is fundamentally against this creational design. Like heterosexual attraction, same-sex attraction can become a strong pull and temptation to sinful sexual activity. Any sexual relationship outside of God’s design is sinful, whether heterosexual or homosexual. It draws God’s judgement, along with theft, greed, drunkenness, extortion and such like (1 Cor 6:9-10). Sexual sins (again, whether homo or hetero) are in the most serious category of sin (eg 1 Cor 6:18) because of the role of sex in human identity. The good news is that all sexual sin can be repented of and forgiven (1 Cor 6:11), along with greed, drunkenness, theft and the like.

Some clarification of emphasis is important.

I acknowledge the reality of same sex attraction and that same sex relationships can display high levels of altruistic love and commitment. Same sex attraction does not have to result in same sex activity (any more that opposite sex attraction must result in sexual activity). I know of same-sex people in settled, loving, supportive domestic partnerships that may involve sharing a residence, but without sexual activity. There is something winsome about that – just as with opposite sex people who have similar partnerships. Such people can give each other a warm companionship that meets the truth that it is not good for a person to be alone (Gen 2:18). I am not naïve about the possibility of these companionships sliding into sexualised relationships (whether hetero or homosexual) and the need to guard against it in ways appropriate to each those involved,. However, and again, the fact of same sex attraction and a relationship of loving companionship is different to sexualised activity.

Secondly, most sexual sin in Australia is heterosexual and should receive proportionate attention. There’s a certain double standard in opposing same sex relationships with high attention while being silent about heterosexual activity outside of God’s creational design. I ‘get it’ that because SSM is on the present agenda, there is more attention to same sex relationships. However, the point remains that most sexual sin is not homosexual.

Same sex marriage

All the above means that, as a Christian who follows the Bible I cannot endorse SSM. It is the institutionalising of a relationship that is against the creational design summarised above.

Consequently, I will not participate in, or attend a SSM marriage, even if involving dear friends or family members, for whom I want happiness. I cannot do anything that could be read as approving of or endorsing their wedding. The same would apply if a Christian friend or family member wanted to marry against God’s design in a heterosexual marriage (but that is a topic outside of this post).

At a practical level I can and will, treat same sex couples as a household unit, but I cannot endorse their relationship. I will doubtless be clumsy in expressing this and apologise in advance. I don’t want to be judgemental towards such couples, but from love of God and people, I cannot endorse what is against God’s design and against their human flourishing.

SSM – the questions

The above is my take on same sex attraction and marriage in Christian perspective. However, the question of legal recognition of SSM in Australia and how Christians relate to that, is a quite different matter. The distinction between those questions has not always been clear in the recent Australian debate and that is not helpful.

So, let’s think about the Australian context and then about how Australian Christians relate to it both more generally and with respect to the prospect of SSM being legalised.

SSM marriage – the Australian religious context

Christianity was not our first religion and is now not the only one.

So far as we know, the first peoples of Australia are the various Aboriginal tribes that have inhabited the land for a long time. After various fringe contacts with European explorers, their land was claimed and then colonised by Great Britain in 1770 and 1778. Aboriginal culture was deeply spiritual, with a vivid sense of relationship to spirits, to departed ancestors and to the land.

The British settlers brought the nation’s second religion. Their Christianity was a by-product of Britain’s long Christian heritage as immediately impacted by the eighteenth century evangelical revival. An Anglican chaplain arrived with the first fleet and set the scene for the early ascendency of Protestant Christianity. This was soon challenged by the arrival of Irish Roman Catholics and then by migration of people of various world religions. Increasing numbers of Australians came to identify as of no religion.

The 2016 census gives a snapshot. (www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/2016).

·       Christianity – 52%

·       No religion – 30%

·       Islam – 2.6%

·       Buddhism – 2.4%

The “no religion” category is rapidly increasing (eg, it was 19% in 2006) and is especially prominent among the young. Australia is fast becoming a secular country.

Of those identifying as Christian, the number who are active Christians is much less. An active Christian positively and personally holds to the core elements of something like the Apostles Creed, regularly attends worship, engages in some form of personal devotion and seeks to live life under the saving kingship of Jesus Christ. My guess is that only about 5% of the population fit that description.

The Constitution of Australia says: The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth (Section 116). That seems to separate church and state.

Despite this, Christian churches have a significant place in Australian public life. The Federal Parliament opens its session by the mandated recitation of Christian prayer. Church buildings are physically prominent. Churches have privileged position with respect to taxation. Clergy often appear at events such as ANZAC Day. In some states, churches have generous access to public schools for religious education. In my view these are vestige veneers that mark increasing secularisation that will fade away. They hint at a Christendom view of how Christians relate to society which I doubt is ever appropriate and certainly not one that fits with contemporary Australia.

My point here is that Australia is not a Christian country now and probably has never been one. In this respect, I think that Roy Williams overstates his case (see his 2015 book, Post God Nation). Australian history and culture have certainly been heavily influenced by Christianity by circumstances of British settlement and that will always be part of the national legacy. However, that is very different to the assertion of a Christian identity, in the sense of Britain as a Christian country or that of ancient Israel as a nation of covenant Judaism.

Contemporary Australia is a religiously diverse country and one in which secularism has a rising cultural impact that probably exceeds its locked-in adherents. We are a multi-everything society. How does that relate to the possibility of legislation permitting SSM? To what extent is it a Christian agenda to advocate for legislation embodying specifically Christian values?

SSM - enacting Christian legislation

Legislation embodies moral values. For example, legislation to raise taxes to provide for pensions for the needy assumes a collective social responsibility to care for needy people. Legislation against theft, assumes a moral right to private property and its protection.

This is a topic for others, but I see a difference between legislation reflecting broader moral values (that may arise from a religion) and legislation specifically privileging and embodying distinctly religious values.

For example, when the Roman Emperor Constantine professed to become Christian in the early fourth century, he enacted legislation design to embody Christian values as well as legislation privileging the Catholic Church. His laws relating to infanticide and manumission of slaves laws reflected broader Christian values as distinct from his legislation to privilege the Catholic Church and its clergy.

Reflection of broader Christian values has continued in the western legislative tradition in Europe, Britain and the associated colonies. Much of that western tradition is now being dismantled under growing secularisation in multi-everything societies.

Should Australian Christians push to protect, or even to extend, the Christian elements in Australian law in matters like SSM?

Behind that there lies a broader question of Christ and culture. (Richard Niebuhr’s 1951 book by that name continues to frame the debate). Historically, western Protestant Christians have been located somewhere between Christ over culture and Christ transforming culture. In a post-Christian Australia, it’s a moot point as to whether Christ against culture is appropriate. This is also a time when some wonder whether an exile theology which is inspired by 1 Pet 1:1 and patterned after Joseph in Egypt, along with Daniel and Esther in Babylon is appropriate. That also is a wide and complex question and beyond this paper.

Christians living as minorities in countries that have never had a significant Christian presence experience a different life. They have always lived as strangers and exiles. They have always faced the calling of the Biblical Joseph, Daniel and Esther – to live in a way that blesses the city and to flourish where God has planted them, even when that city embodies a God-defying and God-denying identity. I write these words from a conference where many attendees live with the reality of state-sanctioned persecution, just because they live under a different master to the ruling ideology. They are strangers and exiles to a strong degree. To these people, Australia is a quaint curiosity and they wonder what all the fuss is about. I have a faint taste of their experience from several years living in a country where other religions supplied the dominant world view.

Christians can live as exiles by acting differently to others around them and still be positive members of their society, just like Joseph, Daniel and Esther. Right now, Australian Christians have much to learn from the majority Christian world where there has never been a cosy cocoon of Christian legislative.

Responding to legalisation of SSM

Australian Christians voted in different ways in the recent plebiscite on SSM. Some did not vote – in part, seeing it as a matter of essential indifference to Christians as to what the wider population did. Others voted yes to SSM, either from a liberal theological ethic or for similar reasons to the non-voters. Others voted no.

I voted no from love of God and people. Those loves include a view that human and societal flourishing happens best when life is lived within God’s design and from a concern for children and the possible re-norming of cultural values under SSM. I respect the liberty of consenting adults to do what they want to do in their bedrooms (even if disagreeing with it), but am concerned that the impacts of their actions go far beyond the bedroom.

How do we respond to legislation legalising SSM if, and when, it comes? I expect and hope for Christian representation to help ensure maximum protection for freedom of conscience, expression and action for those dissenting from SSM marriage. This needs to happen at the stage of drafting parliamentary Bills.

At a church level, there will be debate about continuance as a recognised denomination under the Marriage Act. Some propose withdrawal and the establishment of church-based marriage register (with provision for church divorce courts). I disagree with that. I favour church withdrawal as a recognised denomination under the Marriage Act, the de-recognition of clergy as marriage celebrants and a situation where churches conduct a service of wedding blessing after civil registration. This is a common pattern in Europe and elsewhere and separates the legal institution of marriage from the Christian one.

A sense of perspective is important. SSM is a moral and spiritual issue of major significance and I cannot agree with those Christians who are indifferent about it. However, it is not a catastrophic issue and not the only, or even the major, issue on the national moral landscape. The continuing easy access to abortion in Australia is a life and death issue, as is the prospect of legalised euthanasia. There are significant moral issues in our treatment of asylum seekers, climate policy, income distribution and care of indigenous persons. Our moral landscape is littered with challenges to Christian values.

My point here is that legalisation of SSM is not the end of the moral world in Australia. If a Bill passes, I expect a tsunami of rainbow jubilation. I expect a flurry of SSM marriages with high publicity. I expect some test cases as to the bounds of religious exemptions. And then an ongoing process with some social re-norming and a gradual adjustment of behaviours. Somewhere in all that, SSM married couples will start having troubles and heading for divorce courts. Life will settle down in a changed landscape. But marriage will not be the same.

Nor is SSM the most significant Christian issue for Australia. I frame the issue through Rom 1:18-32. Homosexual activity is mentioned there as something that draws God’s judgement (Rom 1:26-27), but it is not the root issue.  Rather it is part of a chain of events that goes back to a rejection of the creator himself (Rom 1:18-23) and which results in a cascading series of events where God gives us over to our darker side, one part of which is homosexual activity. Whether the manifestation of our rejection of God is debased sexuality (whether homo or hetero), or greed, of physical idolatry, or heart idolatry, the result is the same. We are all fallen short of God, all under judgement, all equally in need of salvation, and can all equally be forgiven and restored if we repent and believe in Jesus (Rom 3:9-26). Debased sexuality is just one fruit of the Fall and example of human sin.

Australian Christians must talk about SSM at present because that is the issue of the day. We cannot ignore it. But let’s talk about it and act on it in a way that is faithful to what God says about human sexuality and with a sense of proportion about the issue. The great need of Australians is to avert God’s judgement through faith in Jesus Christ. Getting our sexuality in order, including on SSM, flows and follows from that.

Finally

Thanks for reading this long personal post on a tough topic. I welcome conversation, so please hit the ‘reply’ button and let’s talk.

                                                             

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