Easily Steered: Support for Same-Sex Marriage at Record High

The LGBT war machine rolls on. According to the latest polling data from the Pew Research Center, natiohttp://www.people-press.org/2017/06/26/support-for-same-sex-marriage-grows-even-among-groups-that-had-been-skeptical/nal support for so called same-sex marriage is at a record high, with nearly two-thirds of Americans saying they favor allowing same-sex couples to marry. [1] Even groups traditionally opposed to same-sex marriage such as baby boomers, blacks, Republicans, and younger white evangelicals are increasingly supportive of gay and lesbian nuptials. At the same time as this record-level support, Americans vastly overestimate the percentage of the population that identifies as LGBT. What are we to make of this data?

First, the Pew poll results demonstrate the success the LGBT movement has had in its decades-long game of normalization. Picking up on Gramsci and Dutschke’s idea of “the long march through the institutions,” LGBT activists have won widespread support by taking over the cultural institutions of media, education, government, and business. They have sustained this assault for decades, but are now seeing increasing adoption of their views. 62% percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, a figure up from forty-eight percent in 2010 and thirty-seven percent in 2007. Not only have they won national support, they have also fooled Americans into believing the LGBT population is larger than it actually is. Americans guessed twenty-three percent of the population identifies as LGBT, when, according to a 2016 Gallup poll, the actual number is 4.1 percent.

Compare with pedophilia. Pedophiles also roughly make up four percent of the population, yet pedophilia is still thought of as a disorder with an attached stigma—we still say Yuck! to pedophilia. Why has one four-percent group won wide acceptance while the other is still hiding in the shadows? The homosexual movement has gamed us; they have run one play after another to win normalization.

The paltry numbers of actual same-sex “marriages” is more evidence that the crusade for marriage rights was just a play in the game. In the two years since Obergefell the number of LGBT persons “married” to someone of the same sex has only slightly increased from 7.9 percent of to 10.2 percent. After their hard-won battle for marriage equality—something they just had to have to affirm their dignity as human beings—90 percent of homosexuals are not rushing off to affirm their dignity by marrying their partner. In fact, more LGBT-identifying people are married to spouses of the opposite sex than are married to someone of the same sex. All this shows that marriage was never the point of the marriage wars. Normalization of homosexual perversion and the destruction of the vestiges of Christian culture were the objectives.

And we are complicit. As a people, we are easily maneuvered. A nation does not go from calling a tiny minority lifestyle a mental disorder and sexual perversion to celebrating and sanctioning it with marriage without having a substantial number of patsies among the populace. Here is a quick test to see if you are among those being steered: Did you cringe when I compared homosexuality with pedophilia above? Did you stumble over that, saying something to the effect of Well, those are totally different? Are they that different? The difference between the two is that the LGBT movement has sustained a long campaign to remove shame from homosexuality, while pedophiles are still standing in line behind the polyamorous and zoophiles for their de-shaming. [2]

Some of the last strongholds of support for traditional views of marriage and sexuality are giving way. According to the Pew poll, a majority of baby boomers are in favor of same-sex marriage for the first time (fifty-six percent). Since Obergefell black support has risen from thirty-nine percent to fifty-one. Younger white evangelical support for same-sex marriage is rising a rapid rate. Just over a year ago twenty-nine percent of white evangelical Millennials and GenXers favored same-sex marriage; now, that number is forty-seven percent. We have been told from on high that two men engaging in sodomy is not shameful, that the gag reflex to such perversion is bigotry. And we have bought it.

But why? We have capitulated in the Church. Our people are easily steered because they are not anchored to the Word. They have been served up self-help sermonettes, steeped in the attractional pragmatism of Corporate Church, and, in the name of Gospel-centrality, refused to push the Gospel out to the edges. We have not taught courage, preferring to be sweet and nice. Nowhere is this failure on display more than the egalitarian impulse seeping into our evangelical subconscious. It is no wonder that younger evangelicals are starting to sidle up to egalitarianism’s ugly daughter homosexuality.

We have also adopted statist assumptions, having been thoroughly catechized in the temples of the secular state: public schools. Once the Supreme Court ruled, many people repurposed an old Christian mantra, slightly changed: Anthony Kennedy said it and that settles it. Evan McMullin, Mormon voice of the 2016 evangelical anti-Trump resistance campaign, said as much while running for Utah’s electoral votes. He said he personally believes in traditional marriage, but respects the Obergefell decision and thinks it’s time to move on. Many evangelicals, African-Americans, and Republicans are apparently moving on.

So what must we do? When I was a football coach I would teach my players how to get into a good football position: knees bent, back straight, chin up, feet shoulder-width apart, and keeping a low center of gravity. This stance was to ensure that the player would not easily be knocked over by an opponent. Further, he would be in a good position to deliver a hit back to his opponent. We must learn how to not get knocked over. We must learn courage and stand firm, no matter the size of the blitzing linebacker. At the same time, we must be ready to deliver a hit back. We must run our own march through the institutions of media, education, government, and business as salt and light. We must teach those in our charge—our children and our churches—to stand firm on the Word of God and proclaim with courage, but without apology or stammering nuance: Thus saith the Lord.

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1. The good folks over at Facts and Trends Magazine have a helpful summary of the Pew data here, which is where I first saw the research.
2. Pastor Tim Bayly articulated this point well on the CrossPolitic podcast here, on his own podcast here, and presumably in his upcoming book, The Grace of Shame.