Gay Marriage in Iowa – What Does it Mean

The Iowa Supreme Court ruling striking down Iowa’s law banning gay marriage was only hours old when I received my first question about its effect on churches. Whereas many have asked, here are my thoughts.

There has always been a difference between the church and the state regarding the purpose and definition of marriage. For the state, marriage deals primarily with legal issues such as property rights, inheritance rights, and child raising. There is a whole section of law called "Family Law" which concentrates solely on interpreting the rights and duties within the bonds of civil marriage.

For the church, marriage is a holy institution. It celebrates the coming together of husband and wife with Jesus Christ at the center of this union between man and woman. The purpose, duties and privileges of marriage are laid out clearly in Scripture. As Christians, we are to follow the clear teachings of Scripture over any societal influence from our culture.

However, there is also the issue of social justice. Jesus clearly calls us to fight injustice wherever we find it. A good argument can be made that people of the same sex who desire to have the same property and family rights as opposite-sex-married people are being shut out. Is there a way to seek social justice and hold to Scriptural teaching? There might be.

What do we do? Let the state to decide who should be married according to the state. Let the church decide who should be married according to the church. In this case there needs to be a real separation of church and state.