We as Christians have always been supporters of civil liberties when it comes to freedom of religion. We have even managed to be consistent in this principle by not opposing the rights of Jews, Buddhists, Muslims and other religious faiths to meet because we realize that to do so would equally go against our own right to gather. The persecutions against the early church have ingrained into our Christian heads the value of living under a government that protects the rights of religion.

  But in the case of same-sex marriage, instead of recognizing the civil rights issue here, we oppose the idea, quoting Bible verses and talking about morals, nature, tradition, history, and the fear that America as we know it will come crashing to the ground.

  We do not argue against civil same-sex marriage in the spirit of calm persuasion. There is desperation in our tone. There is also a great deal of fear and mean-spiritedness in our voices, to the point where we even accuse homosexuals of being child molesters and sexual predators, and of trying to corrupt our youth by recruiting them into their "lifestyle."

  We feel threatened, we sense that we are losing the battle. Not just the battle against homosexuals, but the battle to hang on to what we think of as Christian America.

  We can continue living in denial, or we can get in touch with reality and realize that we need  to change our political course.

  The future of the Christian church in America lies with preserving civil liberties, not with the forcing of our Christian moral agenda on everyone else. Christians should to take interest in the preservation of civil liberties in this country a top priority.

  In the 1980’s we feared that the rest of the country would have our religious beliefs taken away and we gave way for the rise to Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and the Christian Right.  We felt ignored, and our response was to band Christians and religious leaders together to make our voice heard. Fueled by the abortion controversy, we rallied ourselves into becoming a formidable political force in the favorable climate of the Reagan-Bush administration, and that momentum continues to this day.

  The problem is, our political aim was not simply to protect the rights of Christians. It was to force moral change in our society that would affect everyone regardless of whether they agreed with our views or not. We have sought to push a moral agenda instead of civil liberties as we should have. If we had focused on civil liberties, we would have made progress in securing the rights we wanted for ourselves and made a valuable contribution to securing the rights of our fellow Americans in the process. We could have still taken on abortion and concentrated primarily on defending the rights of the unborn child but instead we supplemented our arguments with a lot of religious rhetoric that served only to alienate everyone else. Our strategy of taking our Bibles into the voting booths and turning preachers into politicians betrayed our self-interest. Christian politics has not been about religious freedom. It has been a power play.

  Maybe you don't have a problem with that. "Since Christ is Lord of the nations, Christians ought to be in charge," I have heard many people say. The problem is the Bible says different.  The apostle Paul writes, "Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God" (Romans 13:1). In fact Jesus taught willing submission to the state regardless of whether its laws are "Christian" or not. Since Jesus and the apostles have little to say about politics, except that we should submit and not worry about who is in charge, why are we devoting so much of our energy trying to legislate the Bible?

  Since the church's primary concern with relation to the state should be the protection of our right to practice our religious beliefs, our political strategy should be 1) making sure we don't turn public opinion against us by being pushy, overbearing, and malicious and 2) supporting the rights of other people to also exist peacefully, because in doing so we secure the same right for ourselves.

  Supporting other people's civil liberties doesn't say that we necessarily agree with their views of morality or religion. For instance, we don't agree with Buddhists and yet we don't hesitate to stand up for religious freedom. What it does say is that we are willing to get along with others and demonstrate the same respect for them that we wish for ourselves. This is not a new idea. It is simply practicing The Golden Rule: "However you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12).

  With the issue of same-sex marriage. Most Christians oppose it, thinking it’s a no-brainer. The Bible says homosexuality is a sin, and so it would seem obvious that same-sex marriage is completely out of the question, right?

  But Christians need to take a second look at this issue. Gays and lesbians have built a pretty solid civil rights case in favor of why they should be allowed to marry. For one thing, Chief Justice Earl Warren of the U. S. Supreme Court once wrote, "Marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival." Homosexuals are the only group of people in American society who are legally barred from marriage. As long as the state refuses to recognize same-sex marriage, they cannot legally marry the person they love. 

  We don't ask people to agree with Christianity in order to respect the rights of Christians. So why should we stand in the way of people who have no religious obligation to our Christian beliefs who want to marry someone of the same gender? What reason do we have that is so important as to justify barring two people from making this private commitment to each other?

  Which is the worse sin, supporting same-sex marriage and giving gays and lesbians the impression that Christians approve of their homosexuality or opposing it and continuing this political campaign of smearing the gay community with half-truths to prevent people from entering legally into committed and sexually responsible relationships in violation of their civil rights?

  It is time that we grow up, freedom for us means freedom for everyone else too, even our fellow Americans in the gay and lesbian community. Is that too high a price to pay? Of course not. Civil liberties is what gives Christians the freedom to pursue our moral convictions in this country in the first place. It is what guarantees a future for ourselves and our children in which we will be able to practice our religious beliefs free of harassment and fear. It is what paves the way for us to make a true moral impact on our culture, not by trying to legislate the Bible as if that will change people's hearts, but through leading by example as Jesus commanded us: "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).

  How will this help forward the gospel of Jesus Christ? A wise Christian minister once said, "It is quite useless to approach a man with both a club and an argument. He will very naturally be in no mood to appreciate our argument until we lay aside our club."

  It is no wonder that nobody listens to us anymore. For too long we have been trying to persuade people with the gospel while wielding the club of political authority. What a contradictory message this presents to the world. Does not our gospel say that God is love, and that he has come down to earth stretched out his hands and allowed himself to be nailed to a cross for our sins? When will we lay aside our club so that this message may be heard more clearly?

  We often think being a witness for Christ means doing some extraordinary thing. But the best witness to the gospel is as simple as being civil enough to respect people's legitimate freedoms, and being decent enough to put aside the name-calling and treat people like human beings. Supporting the civil liberties of homosexual American citizens is decent, civil and Christian.