Thinking to Believe

This one completely escaped my attention.  Last week (5/6/09) Maine and New Hampshire’s legislative bodies approved bills legalizing same sex marriage.  Maine’s governor, John Baldacci, immediately signed the bill into law, making Maine the fifth state to legalize same sex marriage (the second to do so democratically).  If New Hampshire’s governor signs the legislation, New Hampshire will become the sixth. 

New England has quickly become the same-sex marriage capital of the United States.  As much as it pains me to say it, given the trends in public opinion toward the support of same-sex marriage, and given the recent spate of victories for this cause, I have little hope that we will be able to stem the tide.  Other states will follow the trend either legislatively or judicially.  We are losing the culture war on this issue, and we can only blame ourselves for not standing up and giving a principled defense for traditional marriage, and against same-sex marriage.  If we hope to hold the fort in the remaining states, we must present our case in the public square in a reasonable, charitable manner.

Update (5/21): While the CNN article I linked to above seemed to indicate that both houses of the New Hampshire legislature had passed the bill, such was not the case.  The Senate passed the bill (14-10) on 5/20, but the same bill failed to pass the House (188-186) just hours later.  So this bill is not awaiting a signature from New Hampshire governor, John Lynch…yet.  The NH Senate and House are working on revising the bill so that it will be acceptable to the House.  A revised bill could pass, and then be sent to the governor.  So long as the bill contains protections for religious groups opposing same-sex marriage, Governor Lynch has indicated he will sign it.

It is popularly believed that faith is antithetical to evidence and reason; that reason is opposed to, and evidence leaves no room for faith.  Faith is understood as a commitment of the will in the absence of reason/evidence.  Interestingly they are under the impression that this view is supported by Scripture.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The Biblical notion of faith involves placing trust in what we have reason to believe is true.  We are not commanded to believe in spite of the evidence, or in the absence of evidence, but based on the evidence.  The task of apologetics is to demonstrate the rational credibility of the Christian religion.  Apologetics is both commanded in Scripture (Col 4:6; I Peter 3:15-16), exemplified by Paul, and even by the Almighty Himself.  Consider the following examples in which God plays the role of apologist:

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