Reformed Baptist Hippies?

“We don’t need no piece of paper. From the city hall. Keeping us tied and true.”

So sang Joni Mitchell. She taught cold English house wives how to feel. A few men would say Mitchell helped them to feel too. Not many people can listen to Blue without some thing or other moving in their souls.

But times in America and Europe are changing. There is a reversal in attitudes and standards. Within five years it could be Christian hippie chicks singing those lines.

Governments in England and Scotland have made their intentions about same sex marriage clear. In the recent Irish Presidential election five of the seven candidates had absolutely no doubts about introducing same sex marriage. A few countries and states in Europe and America have already introduced what everyone acknowledges to be a legal redefinition of marriage.

If that redefinition is accepted then civil marriage becomes something other than biblically defined marriage.

Questions start to loom, questions that few Christian thinkers appear to be addressing.

Should Christians enter into such civil marriages? Do Christian husbands and wives need such pieces of paper to keep them tied and true?

Christians need legal and ethical experts to work on these questions immediately. Should newly married Christians enter civil marriages defined to allow same sex marriages? Or will living in sin become the right thing to do?