On the Legalization of Gay Marriage

In the Name of YAH, Holy God, Father of All Mankind

Dear Brothers, Sisters, Children, Members of the Body of Christ, Greetings and Peace in the Name of the Holy Trinity!

Our hearts are broken at the news that the United States Supreme Court decided to reject the Christian Heritage of our beloved adopted nation, “One Nation Under God”, and ensconce a view of liberty at odds with the revealed law of “Nature’s God”, whose name is invoked and honored within the Declaration of Independence. This nation to which our communities fled in hopes of escaping unrighteous and tyrannical laws, in one declaration, decided by one Supreme Court Justice, has overturned thousands of years of Holy Tradition, cultural and legal wisdom, and has declared a universal “right” to “Gay Marriage” that contradicts the very religious and cultural ideals on which the United States was built. Such a situation is cause for great sorrow, soul-searching, and prayers of repentance. 

Now, in the hour of our martyrdom at the hands of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, we must honestly declare that this decision promotes the raise of militant secularism and atheism in the West, just as we saw the raise of militant Islam and the Caliphate a thousand years ago, declared by the establishment of polygamy within Islamic Sharia Law. Both are subtle substitutions for the Truth, both are incredibly attractive, both endeavor to control through the rule of a law contrary to Christ and the Church, and both offer a life stripped of the Divine Presence of the Holy Spirit, only available in the sacramental work of Christ’s Body, the Church! 

Christ Himself said that a marriage was between one man and one woman (Matthew 19:4-6). St. Paul the Apostle reminded us that any who practice otherwise without repentance cannot be members of His Church (I Corinthians 6:9-11). As we lived previously in the Middle East under the oppressive and harmful rulers of this world, who claimed to represent God in a way that satisfied their own carnal desires and lust for power, now we must realistically prepare to do the same in the land of our adoption. We remember Christ’s words, “the world hates you because it first hated me” (John 15:18), and take solace in Christ’s ultimate authority, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33)

While we understand the profound issues that would bring about such a cultural move, based as it is upon the breakdown of the traditional family unit in American culture, the recreational approach to sexuality, the loss of the loving and protecting father in the home, the intense cultural dislike and disregard for traditional womanly roles of wife and mother, the holiest of all vocations that is now deemed to be “oppressive” and “demeaning”, we must remind our faithful and the world at large – Marriage in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church was never a matter of laws, legal contracts, or even, ultimately, about “personal choice”! 

Marriage is a revealed Sacrament, energized by the Holy Spirit in Baptism, kept by a life of repentance and holiness, and sealed with the Holy Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and integral to the function and propagation of the Christian Community. As a Sacrament, a point of contact between this world and the next, marriage cannot be understood as an agreement of convenience or a legal “status”. Its power is profound, central to society and vital to the birth and upbringing of Christian children, sanctified by Baptism, Prayer and the Eucharist from their earliest ages, who go out into the world as Holy Evangels in every generation, declaring the Kingdom to Come and establishing Christ’s Church on Earth. Marriage was given for our salvation, and it requires an asceticism and self-emptying of the same intensity as monasticism. No court of law, regardless of its power or prestige, may question this role within our Church. The Holy Scriptures, the Holy Fathers, and the Holy Canons make it impossible for us to recognize or to comply with such an errant, man-made law!

Human rights are based upon the freedom to live according to our created purpose and potential, only realized in a life lived in submission to God’s will, not the right to do whatever we wish. Such a view of rights is not liberation mandated by the law, but lawlessness. Our salvation, and indeed, the peace of the world, depends not upon the mere exercise of free-choice, but upon the love and selflessness required to exercise self-control, glorifying God in our bodies and minds, doing works meet for repentance. 

Whatever the secular authorities may "legalize", our loyalty lays with only One Ruler, Jesus Messiah! We pray "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done!" And await His return! We may be scorned, persecuted, slain and even denied a Christian burial or a place within the collective memory of the culture, but God will be praised, and Christ WILL return! Whether it is American Secularists or Islamic State, we pray that God will forgive our enemies, even as we pray that Christ will have mercy on us for all our many sins. We will still await Christ's Kingdom and obey His righteousness, regardless of the outcome of the Secular "Culture War" or of Islamic "Jihad"! 

Brothers and Sisters, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His Might! May Christ Our God, Who is Fully God and Fully Man in Two Natures, Who is One Person/Hypostasis, hear our prayers. May we be held at the intercession of the Most Holy, Blessed and Ever-Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, and may the prayers of Sts. Thomas, George, Mar Ephraim the Syrian, John Chrysostom, Isaac of Nineveh, and of all the Saints intercede on our behalf! May they pray for the United States and all its Churches as he stands before the Throne of Christ, where the Light of Christ’s face ever-shines upon the Church Triumphant and shares with all the Saints the Holy and Uncreated Life of the Holy Trinity.

Bp. Joseph 

The Ancient Church of the West