I love my children and value their opinions. They are college-educated, married adults with children of their own. Although I value their opinion, I do not let their opinions sway me against God's Word. This has been heavy on my mind after I received an e-mail on May 9, 2012 from President Barack Obama with the subject heading "Marriage." In this e-mail, President Obama said "I believe that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry." He said he "was reluctant to use the term marriage because of the very powerful traditions it evokes." He went on to say "when I look at Sasha and Malia, who have friends whose parents are same-sex couples, I know it wouldn't dawn on them that their friends' parents should be treated differently. So I decided it was time to affirm my personal belief that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry."
I've been quite disturbed by the President's position but not for the reasons you might think. Although I do disagree with his position, I was most disturbed because nowhere in President Obama's May 9 e-mail did he state he had come to his conclusion based on his study of God's Word. Several news articles noted "Obama had previously implied the Bible supports homosexual unions." But it's this quote from the President about his position that I have difficulty accepting “If people find that controversial, then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.” I hope that President Obama misspoke when he referred to a biblical passage as obscure. I'm guessing he's referring to Romans 1:18-32 (in particular vs 26-27 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.)
During my Bible study, I read the following devotion about 2 Tim. 3:16-17 by Kathryn Hilton: "Sometimes its hard to distinguish our cultural beliefs from Biblical truth. As we grow in the Lord, we must examine our beliefs to make sure they are based on what the Bible says rather than merely on what we were taught...If we do not test our beliefs against the Bible, we may perpetuate human opinions rather than God-ordained doctrine, cultural mores rather than Biblical morality. We need to examine our own beliefs and be responsible for what we teach others, including our children and people in our church. Are we teaching them our opinions and our perspective, or are we teaching them God's?"
2 Tim 3:16-17 says: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." For this reason, I wouldn't call any passage in Romans "obscure" and wish that President Obama had not said so, too.
