The sexual revolution is taking place not only in the United States, but in most places around the world to one or another.
This week was a big week with a milestone coming from the nation of Chile. In Chile, lawmakers on Tuesday of this week, legalized same-sex marriage. Now, this is taking place in a context in which much of Latin America, much of South America, Central America has been going through a moral transformation. We’ve seen on issues related not only to sexuality, but also to liberalizing laws on abortion. We have seen stories come from nations, including Argentina. In this case, the nation is Chile. And it’s being trumpeted, especially by the proponents of the moral revolution as a huge gain.
There’s something the interesting to recognize here. And that is the question, why would so many of these countries have say, no legal, same sex marriage through at least Monday of this week, talking about Chile. Why would that be the case? Well, those who are trying to push the moral revolution, trying to push LGBTQ activism, trying to push worldwide this kind of moral revolution on a global scale, their answer is culture and religion, but mostly religion. And in this case, you’re looking at Latin America as basically overwhelmingly Roman Catholic by tradition. If not by current religious identity, then at least by tradition, and there has been a massive catholic influence throughout much of Central and South America in a form of moral conservatism, at least on issues of marriage and abortion and sexuality.
Worldwide, those who are trying to push the LGBTQ issues and agendas understand that the great obstacle is not so much cultural, because culture can change very quickly, it is rather theological. And that would include Orthodox Judaism. It would include Islam. It would include historic biblical Christianity. It includes, of course, the historic teaching held by all Christians everywhere until the modern abdication of theological liberalism. And you’re looking at the Roman Catholic church where it has dominated on these issues being very clear about the definition of marriage, very clear about sexual morality, but now same sex marriage is to be legalized in Chile.
The New York Times and other liberal media are looking at this and saying, look, this is a big, very good development because you are looking at a great opportunity to drive this revolution throughout, well, the world in general, the entire global culture, but most, especially throughout other Latin American countries. What you can do is now push this saying, Chile has done it, you should do it. The New York Times made its messaging clear with the headline, “Chile legalizes same sex marriage amid broad demands for social change.” The most important words there are broad demands for social change. That’s another way of saying this is just one step. It’s an important step. It’s a step that made the print edition of The New York Times, it made international headlines, but this is not where the moral revolution ends. That’s exactly what’s being trumpeted in that headline.
There are demands for social change, broad social change, moral change, big moral change. We are reminded of the way moral revolutions proceed with the fact that it was Argentina, that in the region became the very first nation to legalize same sex marriage back in July of 2010. 2010, that’s presented here as being a long time ago. That’s just one year over 10 years ago. That’s how fast this is happening, 11 years ago. But now it is as if, and here’s the hope represented in this article in the part of the moral revolutionaries, it is as if this is one of those final obstacles to overcome before the moral revolution just moves ahead like a flood, flooding the entire terrain.
Chile itself adopted what was called a Civil Union Law back in 2015. That by the way, is the year that the Supreme Court of the United States handed down the Obergefell decision legalizing same-sex marriage here, but LGBTQ activists argued that those civil unions were not morally equivalent to marriage. And thus, the same-sex marriage issue was legislated just this week in Chile. Speaking as an outside observer, this is a big deal. This is a major milestone. This is one of those moments, in this case, in the nation of Chile, but in the entire region where it’s becoming increasingly clear that the residual commitment to a Christian understanding of morality, marriage, life, it is all eroding before our eyes. The timetable is now very rapid.
One other issue to note here when it comes to what arguments were and were not made in the case of Chile, Christian should understand that tradition has only so much binding authority. Tradition is very much a part of the existence of very single human being. We all have some tradition. We all come from some tradition, and tradition has some influence on us. But if the morality is merely the morality of tradition, it can be overthrown pretty quickly. The question is, what’s the morality of truth? There is no real evidence here that there is much of a debate about what marriage is and is not, that dealt with issues of moral truth, rather it is now just a part of cultural conflict and politics. And in the mainstream of a moral revolution, tradition just doesn’t get you very far.
The binding authority of tradition turns out not to have much bite at all. It’s a warning to Christians that if we or our children consider the Christian faith more tradition than truth, the tradition won’t last long. And that’s the truth.