Responding to the recent Supreme Court ruling mandating that marriage licenses in all 50 states be issued to same-sex couples, Christian pastor Jesse Johnson warns that the American church will soon be confronted by persecution. It may not entail the sort of physical danger faced by many believers in other parts of the world. But it will encroach upon believers’ freedom of expression.
Johnson sees a silver lining, however, that believers will place their hope in God rather than the political system. Writing at Worldview Weekend, he observes:
For too long I’ve heard “if you don’t get out there and vote, the trajectory of our country is going to lead to gay marriage!” Well, that happened, and there is not another vote to undo it (and as California’s Prop 8 showed, even if there was a vote to undo it, it wouldn’t count anyway). We have reached the limits of democracy, and there is no democratic way back.
Instead we put our hope in Christ as the one who reigns over judges and kings.
Johnson clarifies the nature of that hope, as detailed in scripture:
Do you realize that the Bible does not promise you that your church will have a tax-exempt status, that your college will be accredited, or that the government will pay young pastors to preach the gospel to her soldiers. But the Bible does promise us that God is sovereign, and that the nation’s raging will not overthrow him.
As the personal and legal cost of adhering to Christian doctrine rises, will encouragement be found in political victories? Or, is Johnson right? Have we reached the limits of democracy?
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