47 Republicans

This week the US House of Representatives passed the so-called "Respect for Marriage Act" which if passed by the Senate will repeal the "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA) which defined marriage as the union between one man and one woman.

It's disappointing,. but not surprising that Speaker Nancy Pelosi would cram this bill through in knee-jerk fashion.

This attack on humanity's oldest institution says more about those seeking to dismantle it than about marriage itself.

Profoundly disappointing are the 47 Republicans who stood with her.

Now Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is scheming about how he can seduce 10 more Republicans in the Senate to take a bite of the fruit. 

We'll see what happens. Most think he won't succeed.

Be informed, not misled.

David Closson, with Family Research Council, wrote this week:

But even if the bill’s future is unclear, the House’s fast-tracking of the bill is emblematic of the astonishing speed at which the moral revolution continues to move concerning same-sex marriage. The history of the Defense of Marriage Act — which was superseded in 2013 and 2015 by the U.S. Supreme Court and is at the heart of the legislation the House passed Tuesday — is just the latest example of how quickly America’s politicians and the public at large have shifted on marriage.

He noted that in "1996, Congress passed DOMA with overwhelming bipartisan majorities (342-67 in the House, 85-14 in the Senate). Very liberal senators like Joe Biden, Patrick Leahy, and Harry Reid voted for DOMA along with current House leaders Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). Then-House members Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin (the top two Democrats in the Senate today) also voted for DOMA. Although these lawmakers reversed their public position in the mid-2010s, their votes in 1996 show that it wasn’t that long ago when both parties believed that marriage was the union of one man and one woman. Only one Republican in Congress voted against DOMA."

Now, fast forward to this week, when the House voted to officially repeal DOMA. Although DOMA’s definition of marriage was struck down in 2013 in the Windsor decision, and its provision that allowed states not to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions was invalidated in 2015 by Obergefell (the case that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide), DOMA is still technically on the books.

For biblical Christians and social conservatives, Tuesday’s vote reveals two important realities:

Closson says, "First, many politicians, including some Republicans, believe that the marriage debate is settled and would like nothing more than to have this issue go away. This was reflected by the House vote and much of the rhetoric on the Republican side of the aisle that showed a reluctance to address the issue directly. Although several Republican members decried the bill on the House floor, the strongest comments were directed toward Democrats for using the vote as an election-year charade."

Second, he noted that "Tuesday’s vote reflects the reality that many Americans have also moved on from the marriage debate. Just a few years ago, it would have been unimaginable that 47 Republican House members would vote to overrule millions of voters who had defined marriage between one man and one woman in their states. Imposing an errant Supreme Court decision on all 50 states would have been simply unthinkable. After all, the current Republican Party platform says that marriage between a man and a woman is the 'foundation for a free society.' and it claims the Obergefell decision was a 'lawless ruling'.”

For me, the fact that 47 Republican lawmakers took a stand against the official Republican Party position and voted to repeal DOMA shows they do not believe there will be a political price to pay.

And they are either defiant toward God Himself, who created marriage between one man and one woman, or grossly uninformed---and I doubt that.

None of them should ever be awarded a vote from a biblical Christian or a social conservative.

This is a list of the 47 Republicans.

Closson says "If they thought voters would punish them, most would have voted differently." 

Back in 2020, George Barna published a report that showed that 34% of evangelicals rejected the belief that marriage is only between a man and a woman.

At the time I talked about it on our daily radio program. It was then and is now stunning to see the public’s changing views on marriage being fueled in part by a growing segment of Christians in the electorate who no longer accept the Bible’s teaching on the topic of marriage

Jared Eckert, writing for the Daily Signal---an arm of the Heritage Foundation, says, "Although the bill’s final passage would threaten civil society and fundamental American freedoms, conservatives should see this development for what it really is: a publicity stunt."

Its goal, he says, is to take the spotlight off progressives’ radical policies and paint conservatives as bigots—and all this conveniently before the midterm elections.

Don’t be fooled by the left’s messaging. This bill is no exception to the left’s agenda. It too is just another radical policy being peddled by progressives.

Despite its name, the bill isn’t about marriage or respect at all. It’s about imposing the radical left’s sexual ideology as state orthodoxy.

Final passage would mean states no longer are allowed to define and recognize marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman. Instead, they would be forced to recognize any union between two individuals, regardless of sex, as marriage.

Eckert rightly notes: "Even more radical, the bill would require federal recognition of polygamy if just one state requires it."

Takeaway.

The Bible is clear in its teaching on marriage. It was instituted by God in the Garden of Eden. 

Natural marriage is a covenant relationship between a man and a woman that is intended to reflect the relationship between Christ and His Church (Gen 2:24; Eph. 5:22-33).

The Bible teaches that marriage is permanent and exclusive and sexual differentiation is part of God's plan for marriage.

God did not create androgynous beings, He created complementary biologically and genetically sexed individuals.

The creation of males and females is not accidental or incidental but central to God's design for human beings created in His image.

Their purpose is found in Genesis chapter 1: "Be fruitful and multiply" is the charge given to both male and female. Neither can do so without the other.

 And about the 47? 

Check the list, if one of the Republicans who voted against biblical marriage represents you---never give them your vote again. No after-the-fact Christian-sounding excuse is legitimate.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.