ERLC institute addresses ‘same-sex marriage’

By Tom Strode - Mar 31, 2005 - comment

The ERLC Research Institute has issued a call for Christians to resist the campaign to legitimate “same-sex marriage” while also ministering compassionately to homosexuals.

The ERLC think tank released the “Nashville Declaration on ‘Same-sex Marriage’” March 9 in response to ongoing efforts to legalize “homosexual marriage.” Every statewide vote on the issue has resulted in a victory for the biblical and traditional definition of marriage, but courts still threaten to grant marriage rights to people of the same sex. The ERLC and other pro-family organizations have endorsed a federal amendment to the Constitution to protect marriage.

The statement’s signers, all fellows of the ERLC Research Institute, said the “multiple efforts to legitimize ‘same-sex marriage’ are misplaced and unwise attempts to redefine the historical, social and moral foundation of human culture.”

Among its recommendations, the document calls for:

  • Stronger bonds within families so “children have a better chance to develop God-honoring, healthy, appropriate sexual orientation.”
  • More training by church leaders and understanding among Christians about the biblical view of homosexuality and marriage.
  • Greater outreach to people “trapped in homosexuality to provide them the relationships that will help them abandon homosexual behavior.”

ERLC President Richard Land was joined by four Southern Baptist seminary presidents and 14 other Research Institute fellows in endorsing the statement. The seminary presidents signing on were Daniel Akin of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.; R. Albert Mohler of Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky.; Paige Patterson of Southwestern Seminary in Forth Worth, Texas, and Phil Roberts of Midwestern Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.

The declaration “is forceful in its presentation of the truth about homosexuality, but it is not heartless or arrogant,” said Barrett Duke, director of the institute and the ERLC’s vice president of public policy and research. “We do not condemn homosexuals in this document; we reject the lie that homosexuality is God-given. Because homosexuality is not part of God’s design for humanity, we also express our confidence that God can – and in fact does – deliver homosexuals from this destructive life. [We] recognize that we must minister to homosexuals in a loving, compassionate way, and we commit ourselves, and call on all Christians, to befriend and minister to homosexuals.”

The declaration may be accessed at the ERLC’s Internet site.

Further Learning

Learn more about: Family, Marriage, Sexual Purity, Homosexuality

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