The First Baptist Church of Granada Hills

“Reform and Renewal” (2 Kings 22:3-13, 23:1-7)
This Reformation Day sermon reminds us that just as spiritual decay is a constant threat, spiritual renewal is always an option.
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“Los Caminos de Dios y Nuestros Caminos” (Isaias 55:1-9)
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“Here, There, and Everywhere” (Isaiah 45:1-7)
Just as God has demontrated an ability to work in the secular world, so too should Christians bring their values to bear even in matters that are not purely religious.
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“¡No Pierda Su Paz Confie En El Señor!” (Romanos 8:31-39)
La paz de Dios que supera todo entendimiento debe estar en nuestro corazón.
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“Faith’s Conclusion” (Daniel 12:1-4a)
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“Confianza en Dios” (Salmo 40)
Aunque su mundo se esté derrumbando a su alrrededor puede tener la seguridad de que nuestro Padre Celestial continúa en de todo.
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“Perseverance through Presence” (Daniel 10)
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“Nuestra Manual de Operacianes: la Biblia” (2 Timoteo 3:10-17)
Dios nos ha dejado su Palabra para guiarnos a una vida espíritual de triunfo.
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“Because of His Great Mercy” (Daniel 9)
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            This November Californians will have the opportunity to vote on Proposition 8.  If passed, Proposition 8 would reassert California’s historic practice of recognizing that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman, thus disestablishing so-called “gay marriage”.  

            In the run-up to this election, many opponents of Proposition 8 have framed the issue as a matter of rights.  Passing Prop 8, so the opponents say, would strip California residents of the right to organize their lives as they see fit,  impinge upon their pursuit of happiness, and bar them from many of the opportunities that heterosexual couples take for granted.  Now, while alarmist rhetoric like this may energize voters, it does little to educate them.  

            In truth, despite panicky and deceptive claims to the contrary, Proposition 8 has nothing whatsoever to do with rights.  In reality, all the rights that California associates with marriage have already been guaranteed to homosexual couples through numerous “domestic partnership” laws—laws that would be totally unaffected by Prop 8.  If Prop 8 passes, committed homosexual couples will still be able to visit one another in hospitals, obtain family insurance policies, avail themselves of simplified stepparent adoption rules with reference to the children of their partners, and on and on.

            If, then, Proposition 8 has nothing at all to do with specific legal rights, what is it all about? 

            The simple answer is “words”, or, more specifically, “definitions”.  Is the connection in marriage nothing more than a legal fiction, akin to other legal fictions like business contracts, which we can redefine as we see fit, or is it something else, something more… fundamental?  This question is, by its very nature, philosophical, even religious.  The way one understands the nature of marriage has implications for the way one understands the nature of humanity, which is simply to say, at least as far as we are concerned, with the nature of existence itself.  Are we then, as human beings, merely “making it all up as we go”, or are our most basic social institutions governed by concrete realities beyond our direct control? 

            For centuries now, our nation has recognized that the truth of the matter is closer to the second option, that human life is governed by Truths and Principles larger than ourselves.  While many quotations could be advanced to prove this claim, only one is needed.  The Declaration of Independence opens with these revealing words: “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”  This document, our nation’s first, affirms that human life and institutions derive their essence, not from legal fictions, but from fundamental Principles—specifically Nature and its God.

            With this in mind it seems entirely reasonable, indeed, entirely desirable, to seek to preserve the connection between our contemporary laws concerning marriage and the historical spiritual resources of our nation—those broadly Judeo-Christian values that have undergirded our country’s development to this day.  Given this, the Christian Christ’s affirmation in Mark 10 of the Jewish Torah’s traditional and inherently heterosexual view of marriage should be given due consideration, “At the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 

            Come election day, please, vote “Yes” on Proposition 8.