April 24, 2014

The following excerpts are from the blog “The Same-Sex Wedding Invitation Debate” on Joe Dallas’s website: “Lots of buzz lately about whether or not a Christian should attend a same-sex wedding ceremony. And as buzz goes, this one’s awfully relevant, as more and more believers are facing this practical, emotional choice: Accept the invitation although I don’t believe in same sex marriage, or decline and risk alienating someone I deeply love? … So I’d like to take some space today to better explain where I stand, and why.” …

“What’s at issue here is attendance at a wedding ceremony, ostensibly approved of and rejoiced over by those who come to it. Attendance means, to my thinking, more than loving support for the person(s) involved. It also means an offer of approval and blessing.”

“There’s the catch, and it’s not minor. Celebrating a loved one’s sin is a serious matter, no matter how deep the love nor how important the loved one. To attend a wedding is to offer explicit support for the event itself, and that would constitute violation of Paul’s clear instructions to the Ephesians to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” (Ephesians 5:11), and his advice to Timothy to “neither be partakers of other men’s sins.” (I Timothy 5:22)” …

“It would also be too much if a Christian friend of mine asked me to attend his wedding if he united with a non-believer, in clear violation of II Corinthians 6:14. To be there would be tantamount to saying “I bless this” when, in fact, I couldn’t. Nor could I show up for the wedding of a Christian friend who dumped his wife for totally unscriptural reasons, then latched onto a younger model. Because an event is involved at which attendance equals approval. I see no way around this. If a thing is wrong, no matter how deeply bonded I am to the person involved, then while I’m allowed to love and interact with him, I cannot participate in anything expressing approval or support of the wrongdoing itself.” …