Yesterday the AP News released an ARTICLE telling about Hallmark’s decision to promote a line of same-sex marriage cards.  Other smaller companies have done the same, but this is the first of the largest companies in the greeting card industry to promote same-sex marriage.  The reasoning is the same as it always has been, it’s about rights, freedoms and equality.  

However, we must remember that the enemy, Satan, has a long history of seeking to destroy marriage because it gives us an understanding (in image form) of the relationship with Christ and the church (Eph.5:22-33).  Isn’t that what he did with the first couple, Adam and Eve?  Wasn’t it deception to go to the woman first when God had created the man first and then the woman?  Scripture even states that the man is the head (authority with sacrificial responsibility) in the home.  Adam just stood there (Gen.3) as Eve gave in.  So, there at the beginning Satan has tried to confuse the roles of men and women in order to disrupt God’s created purposes.  

So, even in the church today our divorce rates are no better than general society and an increasing number of denominations and churches are embracing homosexuality as truly an alternative instead of deviant, sinful behavior (as adultery and fornication are).  British pastors have already been fined for “hate speech” due to preaching that homosexuality is a sin and that wave is coming our way.  As state legislatures begin to fall and endorse same-sex marriages, then “hate speech” laws will follow, making speaking against homosexuality the same as racism, because the lawmakers will equate being gay with having a particular color, it’s just the way you’re made.  Isn’t this what Lowell Grisham does EVERY time he writes on this issue locally?  It’s not the same.

I am rabidly opposed to racism and there may be little that makes my stomach turn and generates anger in me quicker than racist speech and behavior.  It simply promotes the chief ends of pride because the person takes pride in being born into particular skin as if they chose that for themselves!  Well, whether or not there are tendencies in our DNA toward homosexuality (and I acknowledge that our flesh is more fallen than we realize), that is not the point.  I VERY FRANKLY have a tendency to want to have relations with more women than my wife, that is a sinful predisposition, BUT I am commanded by Christ to refrain (and by God’s grace my joy for Him crushes that desire).  If I don’t there are serious consequences, not protection laws and civil rights.  

So, do I boycott Hallmark?  Formally, I don’t know.  I do know that I will fold a piece of printer paper and draw with crayons before I’ll consider spending another $3 or $4 on a Hallmark card or a free e-card online.  Look, this is inevitable.  Society is going this way, but we do not have to speed it along.  We must walk in the light while it is day because night is coming.  We must proclaim the gospel and worship intensely knowing that evil is crowding in and around us.  But here’s what I know…the gates of hell will not prevail against Christ’s church.  We will be sifted, purged, purified and protected.  When our bride-Groom comes for His bride (not a “groom”, mind you), then we will be exactly the church He died to purchase for Himself and predestined to be holy and blameless (Eph.1:3-14).  Let us rejoice while we battle.