Going through it

When our kids were young, one of their favourite books was We’re going on a bear hunt.

It’s a great bed-time tale by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. A family sets out in search of a bear. On the way they are faced with difficult terrain — a river, thick mud, a dark forest… The repeated refrain is: ‘We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh no! We’ve got to go through it!’ Sometimes you have to just face things. It’s a life lesson.

With the passing of the same-sex marriage bill the politically correct world has arrived. The faithful, non-PC church can’t get round it. Just as gay activists have pursued B&B owners, Christian counsellors and hounded MPs holding views contrary to their own, it is unlikely that Bible-based churches will simply be left alone. We will have to go through it.

But before the law-suits start it would be wise to think ahead. How can we act now to minimise the potential troubles? The following suggestions may be controversial.

Suggestions in a PC world

Here are three possible situations.

• First, the PC agenda makes it certain that some time soon congregations which rent buildings will face a challenge. Local authorities will have self-righteous ‘equality’ exponents asking if such-and-such an evangelical church, which holds to traditional marriage only, are a fit group to be allowed to hire a school hall. Private companies may be pressurised similarly. These folk, not wanting their PC credentials sullied, will tend to cave in. This may not happen. Schools and companies need the money from renting in austere times. On the other hand in February 2012 New York City schools closed to churches. Is it time for gospel churches which own their buildings to offer to share their premises with brothers and sisters who have to rent? A spin-off might be a bit more unity too.

• Second, imagine a Christian woman who runs a business making wedding cakes. What if she is asked to oblige for a same-sex wedding? If she refuses she is likely to be taken to court; and if she is obstinate, closed down. Is that fair? Suppose her church says to her something like this: ‘We realise your difficulty. But grit your teeth and do it once or twice a year in order to comply with the law. But then perhaps on occasion you might give the proceeds from those commissions to a Christian work as a sign of your position on the issue’. Ultimately it’s down to her conscience, but it saves her business, and could well avoid trouble within the church. Where’s the scriptural justification? I would turn to Naaman. Newly cleansed and converted, he asked Elisha concerning his job: ‘But may the LORD forgive your servant one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow and he is leaning on my arm and I bow there also…’ Elisha replied ‘Go in peace’.

• Third, is it time for evangelical churches to opt out of the legal side of marriage? There already seem to be plans from some in the gay lobby to force churches to perform same-sex weddings, despite the Prime Minister’s ‘quadruple lock’. Would it be wrong simply to marry people, publicly, in the sight of God — and leave the rest to the registry office?

In Michael Rosen’s story the family eventually do meet a bear. In total panic they have to retreat, to hide in their own home. They had failed to anticipate the reality of facing a real bear (even one which, in the children’s story at least, actually wants to be friends).