“The foundations of law and order have collapsed. What can the righteous do?”

Psalm 11:3, NLT

In the face of a growing list of governmental usurpations of authority, resulting in the trampling of our most treasured liberties, we stand together, as shepherds of Christ’s Church, to defend and proclaim the God-given, unalienable truths necessary for freedom to flourish. We join together across historically diverse lines of theological differences to embrace our obligation to speak and act on these truths for the glory of God and the good of all people. In firm conviction of Christ’s Lordship over all the created realm and in full confidence in His promise to bring us life in all its fullness, we speak with unyielding conviction on the following non-negotiable truths:

The Sanctity of Life
We declare the sacredness of human life. As people made in the image and likeness of God, life is precious because God is most precious. We reject our current “culture of death” and call on our leaders, both elected and appointed, to protect life in all of its stages, especially the lives of the most defenseless and vulnerable among us. We commit to working together until the unalienable right to life is restored to all unborn children.

The Dignity of Marriage
We declare our commitment to the dignity of marriage as an institution established by God and given to us as the cornerstone of healthy societies. God defined marriage between one man and one woman. We reject recent attempts by activist judges to re-define this sacred institution and call upon our leaders, both elected and appointed, to honor and uphold this sacred union. We commit to preaching and teaching the historic marital components as revealed in the Scriptures; namely monogamy, exclusivity and permanence. We will work toward the building of healthy marriages and families while encouraging our parishioners to elect leaders who share these values.

The Gift of Religious Liberty
We declare our firm resolve to protect religious liberty and the freedom of conscience from the intrusion of government. Our Founding Fathers referred to religious liberty as our “first freedom” and the free exercise clause of the First amendment to the Constitution forever enshrined this unalienable right. Because we recognize Jesus’ Lordship over all of life, we affirm the rights of citizens to express their faith publically and to conduct their business according to biblical principles. Today we see pastors being told to turn over their sermons to the government. Teenagers are ordered by public school officials to take Jesus out of their graduation speeches. Christian business owners are told to keep their religious beliefs out of the marketplace. We stridently reject these current attempts by our government to privatize our faith or to coerce people, through fines and/or imprisonment, to violate their consciences as the “price” for public engagement. Our founders had a word for this – tyranny. We call upon our leaders, both elected and appointed, to honor the God-given gift of religious liberty and to return to our long standing American tradition of protecting the individual’s right to conscience.

Because we love justice and are committed to the common good, we will not comply with any act of government that seeks to compel us, or the institutions we represent, to violate the clear commandments of God and the moral guidelines He has established for human flourishing. We honor government, as an institution created by God. However, when civil leaders rebel against God and legislate in direct opposition to Divine Law, we affirm our duty to obey God and to disobey tyrannical governments. While we remain committed to “rendering to Caesar” what rightfully belongs to him, we will not render to Caesar that which alone is reserved for God.

Response

1] Make sure your church knows about this event! Encourage them to attend.

2] Share this Declaration with your pastor and ask him to sign on in support. We are compiling a master list. He can message me on facebook: facebook.com/ronjohnsonjr or via email @ ron.johnson.jr@lstones.org.

The world is filled with billions of people, each of whom is entirely unique. Yet each has one thing in common. We all long to experience true intimacy.

Intimacy literally means “in-to-me-see.” It involves the sharing of our very life and soul with another. Of course, this need was created in us by God to point us back to Him as the fulfillment of this longing. But God has also given us another relationship, the covenant union between a man and a woman, to allow us to experience intimacy with another person. In fact, the Bible teaches that this was God’s express purpose for creating marriage.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2:24-25

You see, we were designed to connect. This is what intimacy is all about. We were created to be emotionally, spiritually and physically “naked” with our spouse. This occurs when a husband and wife are able to be emotionally open with one another, and reveal their true feelings, thoughts, fears and desires. This can only occur when both people are able to genuinely trust one another, and feel able to take the risk of being vulnerable.

You see, marital intimacy is a shared and secure relationship of love. This kind of intimacy cannot happen without commitment. For intimacy to occur, you must place your relationship within the context of a permanent, covenant relationship. Attempts to be truly intimate apart from covenant commitment are doomed for failure. This explains the abject failure of co-habitation as a testing ground for marriage. You can’t pretend to be married. Marriage starts with commitment.

How committed are you to your spouse?

Have you ever used the “D” word against your spouse [divorce]? This word damages the foundation of commitment that is necessary for true intimacy to occur.

Have expressed to your spouse your undying commitment? If not, let your spouse know. Commitment can never be expressed too often.

As we await the official kick-off of the 2014 legislative session, there has been much political rhetoric suggesting that an attempt to amend our state constitution to officially define marriage as “a man and a woman” is nothing but a horrendous, irresponsible waste of time. We need to be focusing on “more important things,” they say, like jobs. Conservatives who value the institution of marriage and the children produced from this sacred union are viewed as political Neanderthals who are somehow trying to tie up valuable legislative time with issues that really don’t matter.

In fact, those opposing the marriage amendment are often the ones shouting this objection the loudest. I just wish they really believed what they are telling the media and the public. If this whole debate on the future of marriage and the family is really worthless, then why are they waging an all-out, no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners war at the state capitol? Consider the facts:

Those opposing this “time-wasting measure” have hired 11 eleven lobbyists from five top law firms. These lobbyists are working around the clock to convince legislators that supporting marriage is not a good idea. Well, I said that nicely. In reality, they believe a vote for marriage is a sign if bigotry, hatred and homophobic mental illness that can be cured by fines and/or forced indoctrination through government funded tolerance training. But let’s not fuss over the details…

In addition, they have 91 field staff around the state tasked with convincing voters that this legislation is unnecessary and then mobilizing them to call the legislators in their district to express opposition to The Marriage Amendment (HJR6). Now while all this is perfectly acceptable behavior in a constitutional republic, it does not communicate the irrelevance of the issue at hand. Rather, it screams relevance and reveals the urgency of the matter before us.

Add to this full-time ground force a huge infusion of national money from homosexual activists, their campaign goal is 15 million dollars, and you have a formidable amount of resources rallied for one, giant, waste-of-time, piece of legislation. Really? You expect us to believe that?

Perhaps the members of the gay/lesbian movement in America understand what is really at stake here better than we do! You don’t invest in things that are worthless or a total waste of time, do you? No, you don’t. They understand the huge stakes involved in the battle over marriage. Wherever gay marriage has become the law, the religious liberties of people of faith have been compromised. Where sexual anarchy is embraced, religious liberty is trampled. This re-definition of marriage is a total game-changer and they know it.

This debate is not about equality. Under Indiana law, any man can currently marry any woman. This law applies equally to all Hoosiers. Rather, this is all about a radical re-definition of marriage. The problem is that they have yet to offer us their new definition. So exactly how will marriage now be defined? Is it a union of two people, multiple people, inanimate objects, animals, children? The list of options is as endless as the social chaos it will create.

How important is marriage? Considering it is the cornerstone of Western civilization and the building block of healthy families, communities and nations, I’d say we ought to think about the consequences of tinkering with it before we fully realize the implications. After all, if we allow marriage to mean anything and everything, it will essentially mean NOTHING.

In war, the troops are concentrated where the battle is most strategic. And the battle is the most intense where the soil is most valuable. This is why, in spite of their rhetoric to the contrary, the opposition has gathered in force to defeat marriage. Now is the time for those who value this cherished institution to take a stand on this sacred soil called “marriage” before it is absolutely destroyed.

Visit our website, www.indianapastorsalliance.com, for more information on how you can stand with other concerned Hoosiers for marriage.