New Wine Fellowship Bible Study

Dear friends, I have spent the last few days in the Los Angeles area conducting business. I was intrigued by the attention being paid to a bill before the people of California in the upcoming election. While the nation’s eye has rightly been on the presidential candidates, the citizens of California are voting on the issue of whether the sanctity of marriage should be preserved. Proposition 8 has made it onto the ballot through a determined, grass roots effort and is aimed at reversing the 4 to 3 decision made on May 5 of 2008 by the California Supreme Court that allows marriage between couples of the same sex. The language of Proposition 8 states “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” Why is such a measure being proposed? There are several reasons.

• First, supporters of Proposition 8 believe that marriage should be recognized as a union between one man and one woman. Same sex unions, sealed through a marriage ceremony that is licensed by the state and afforded constitutional protection, violates the traditional definition of marriage as practiced by Americans since the birth of our nation.
• Second, school children in California will likely be required to teach same sex marriages as an acceptable alternative to traditional marriage in health, social studies and sex-education classes. This is despite the wishes of the parents to determine what they wish their children to be taught about marriage and family values.
• Third, if same sex marriage continues to be constitutionally protected, churches and pastors and even public officials who oppose such unions on moral grounds could be sued for refusing to conduct the ceremonies. Churches that refuse to allow same sex couples to use church facilities for their marriage ceremonies could lose their tax exempt status.

This, indeed, is a serious matter. I was impressed to see just how much support there seems to be for passage of Proposition 8. As I listened to the radio, almost every commercial break included an advertisement informing the public of the dangers of the constitutionally protected same sex marriage decision and urging support of the bill to amend the consitition to reverse the effect of the court’s decision. I pray, and I hope you will too, that Californians will turn out to the polls in huge numbers in support of this measure. If Proposiiton 8 passes by a wide margin, it will send a clear signal that Americans are fed up with the assault on our traditional Christian values. If it fails, then I fear many states wil use the California precedent as a guideline for the passage of their own laws recognizing and protecting same sex marriage. I welcome your feedback on this issue and invite you to post your comments to the site. -Steve