If you want to dance with Caesar, remember that Caesar calls the tune

The sky is falling! The world is coming to an end!


Well not really but I imagine that is what “my” side of the social media world is saying today in light of the Supreme Court decisions that bolstered “gay marriage”. Today is a day that it is probably best that I am cut off a bit from social media.

On the purely secular situation, this is yet another gross overreach of federal power but that is hardly a surprise. The idea of a Federal government that is as deeply encroached as ours is and involved in virtually every aspect of our lives from birth to death would be anathema to those who designed our Constitution. Of course in fairness so would the idea of women voting but I digress. Telling the people of one state that the executive branch can override their duly and legally passed legislation like Proposition 8 by refusing to defend that same legally enacted law in court make a mockery of the separation of powers at the state level in much the same way that the Supreme Court intervening in this case to throw something out that it really has no standing to determine in the first place is also a mockery of both separation of powers and the principals of federalism. A Federal government that subsidizes child care through public education to providing funding and loans for college to requiring insurers to cover adults up to age 26 on their parent’s insurance to seizing an enormous proportion of wages in the form of taxes before generously giving a portion back in the form of various incentivizing tax breaks to providing medical care now and in old age along with an income stipend would see no issue with dominating what was once a supremely local issue, namely marriage between a man and woman.

From the perspective of the church, I think this is yet again an example of the church being unequalled yoked with the state. As I have written so often that I am even boring myself with the repetition, the church made this mess a long time ago by seeking out Caesar’s approval and blessing of marriages conducted in the church. If you want Caesar’s gold, you have to do as Caesar says.

The church should never have gotten so cozy with the state when it comes to marriage. We thought it was fine and even dare I say to our advantage to cozy up to the state when the state sort of defined marriage more or less biblically and also showered us with tax breaks for married couples and religious organizations alike but it was inevitable that as the prevailing morality of the world and this nation in particular have changed (and not for the better), so too would our most cherished institutions. Marriage in our culture is subject to legal definition by Caesar even though the actual definition and purpose of marriage is part of God’s eternal decree, a decree not subject to ruling by the courts of men or the winds of popular opinion. So when the culture says marriage means something that it doesnn't we only have ourselves to blame.

Someday perhaps we will learn our lesson and wise up.