"Should I Attend a Homosexual Wedding?"

This past Sunday I mentioned an article by Kevin DeYoung in which he gives his response to the question of whether Christians should attend a homosexual wedding if the ceremony is entirely secular.

In short, as personally painful as it may be, and as much as the world will call us names and castigate our motives, those who believe marriage is between a man and a woman should not attend a ceremony that purports to be the marrying of a man and a man or a woman and a woman, even if that ceremony is completely secular in nature.

In the article he gives three reasons to support this view (which I agree with).

1. The purpose of a wedding ceremony is to celebrate and solemnize.
2. Wedding ceremonies are almost always public in nature.
3. The stark either/or options are not of our making.(referring to the "either you care about me and come or you don't care about me" proposition we might face). 

Under this last point he writes

If traditional Christians have to learn to love gay and lesbian friends and family members despite decisions they disagree with, then gays and lesbians should learn to love their Christian friends and families despite decisions they disagree with. We should take time to hear why our attendance means so much to them. And then, hopefully, they will take time to hear why our faith in Christ and obedience to the Bible mean so much to us.

I encourage you to read the whole article. It is worth reading, thinking about, and talking about with fellow Christians. I know this is something we will face (even afterwards someone told me they already faced this question at work). Let's have thought about it ahead of time so that we are ready to respond with convictional kindness. We want to glorify God and love our neighbors. It takes wisdom to do that.