Rev. Mark Creech issues statement on Senate passage of ‘Respect for Marriage Act’ | Eastern North Carolina Now

I remember that kick-in-the-gut feeling I had when, after more than 12 years of my own sweat and toil to preserve marriage in this state as one man and woman, one federal judge overturned everything – only one. Later five judges on the U.S. Supreme Court did the same for the entire country – only five people overturned everything.
 
Now I am experiencing that same kick-in-the-gut feeling again. Today, members of the U.S. Senate, with the help of a few Republicans, whose party platform states clearly its support for traditional marriage, voted to enshrine same-sex marriage into federal law.
 
Moreover, the pleadings of conservative evangelicals and the excellent counsel of various religious liberty experts, who warned the Respect for Marriage Act didn’t sufficiently protect religious liberty, were ignored and voted down in amendments.
 
Today the tables have turned indeed. LGBTQ people have been harmed and wronged with violence and malcontent – sometimes by conservative Christian groups. Where this has happened, it was shameful. Nonetheless, this legislation doesn’t place the LGBTQ community and people who believe in traditional marriage on an equal footing. Instead, it is full of loopholes that LGBTQ activists will, no doubt, capitalize on to harass, harangue, and legally harry those who disagree with them. The abused now have a national policy from which they may legitimately become abusers.
 
Christian conservatives are thankful for the Republicans who voted against the Respect for Marriage Act. Furthermore, we are grateful for the Republican Senators who offered amendments to improve the bill with broader religious liberty protections.
 
However, we are deeply saddened that Democrats and Republicans alike doubled down on the judicial tyranny of the Supreme Court’s erroneous decision in Obergefell vs. Hodges. In that case, the High Court imposed a so-called right that was unquestionably not written into the Constitution. Then lawmakers took that wrongful action, made it federal law, and told Christian conservatives to go to the back of the bus.
 
Although we went through the long and arduous political process of several years to capture the votes of millions, who placed amendments into the constitutions of more than 30 states, LGBTQ activists, based mainly on the reporting of polls (not something as substantial as votes in state constitutional referendums), convinced lawmakers to give them a short-cut to the federalization of same-sex marriage. And not only did those lawmakers allow loopholes in the law to punish those who disagree with same-sex marriage, but they made it nearly impossible ever to change the definition of marriage back to what it’s been for centuries.
 
Conservative Christians have been told that we have no right to impose our definition of marriage on everyone. What a thoughtless charge! How could we actually impose anything? We went through the entire political process. Millions of dollars were spent. An incalculable number of hours, days, months, and years were given to campaigns to preserve the traditional definition of marriage. Our arguments resonated with the public over a considerable period. Democracy was in action, and we won the day. We earned our victories – every one of them. It is the other side that imposed something – starting with rogue federal judges and their judicial activism – to the U.S. House and Senate, which placed LGBTQ’s definition of marriage at the head of the line without ever actually having it earned its way.
 
Republicans who voted for this bill have no credibility lecturing us on adhering to the U.S. Constitution!
 
Yes, this kick-in-the-gut feeling is painful but one we are getting accustomed to experiencing. Nevertheless, those who foisted this injustice on our nation need show no sympathy for those feeling it the most. Their arguments for same-sex marriage are not so much with us. It is God with whom they wrestle.
 
Mark my words! Marriage belongs to God and not the so-called rights of any particular group. Same-sex marriage may stand for a while – even a pretty long time – but it cannot stand indefinitely because it contradicts God’s order.
 
May God forgive those who worked to make this happen – for they know what they have done. May He show mercy and grace to those who have had the hubris to believe they can defeat His ways. They have made the critical error of thinking whatever people consider to be a right trumps God’s rights!