Should Christians Attend a “Same-Sex Wedding”?

The unfortunate but inescapable truth about life in modern society is that we live in a world where the definition of marriage has been twisted beyond recognition. The sexual revolution of the 1960s has largely succeeded in tearing down all of the God-given and necessary structures of morality undergirding procreation and the natural family.

Marriage, a once-sacred institution, has been a battleground for the clash of worldviews for decades, with the biblical and creation-order understanding (the right understanding) of marriage as a union between one man and one woman being challenged and subverted by those who advocate for the acceptance of homosexual and transgender unions.

The 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell, which legalized so-called “same-sex marriages” in the United States, only accelerated this decline.

The issue is unavoidable. A moment of choosing will eventually come for just about every Christian alive right now. That moment will most likely come in the form of an invitation to attend a same-sex or transgender wedding ceremony.

When you get that invitation, what should you do?

First and foremost, you must begin with the biblical perspective on marriage. Who created marriage? Genesis 2:24 tells us, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

This verse establishes the foundation for marriage as a union between a man and a woman, as intended by our Creator. This understanding is further reinforced throughout Scripture by such passages as Ephesians 5:22-33 and 1 Corinthians 7:2-4.

Furthermore, the Bible explicitly condemns homosexual behavior as sinful (Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11), and the celebration of such behavior through a wedding ceremony goes against God’s design for marriage. Paul’s admonition to the church in Corinth is quite clear: “Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6).

As Christians, we are called to be holy and set apart from the world (1 Peter 1:15-16), which means we must not participate in or condone sinful behavior. Attending a homosexual or transgender wedding, therefore, would be a tacit endorsement of a lifestyle that is in direct opposition to God’s design for marriage.

By participating in such an event, a Christian would be sending a message to the world that they are willing to compromise their beliefs and values for the sake of social acceptability or personal relationships. This may not be intentional, but it is unavoidable.

Dr. Colin Smothers, a Baptist theologian and ethicist, wrote an excellent post addressing this same question. In it, he rightly argues that, from a Christian understanding, there is actually no such thing as a “same-sex” marriage because marriage can only ever be between a man and a woman. To answer the question here, and the same one he asks, he writes:

“To return to the question in the title, Can a Christian attend a gay marriage ceremony? I answer, No! They literally cannot, because the ceremony they may decide to attend is not a marriage at all. It is a legal fiction — and a blasphemous, anti-Christ one at that. As Paul teaches in Ephesians 5, marriage was instituted by God to teach the world about Christ’s love for his bride, the church. So-called ‘gay marriage’ was instituted by man to teach the world about man’s love for himself.”

Therefore, Christians not only should not attend same-sex weddings but we must also stick to Scripture and the created order and declare that such a “marriage” is no marriage at all — even if the Supreme Court has said otherwise.

In conclusion, as Christians, we must remain steadfast in our commitment to God’s design for marriage, even as we navigate a world that seeks to redefine it. While attending a homosexual or transgender wedding may be tempting for the sake of maintaining relationships, we must remember that our ultimate allegiance is to our Heavenly Father and His Word. May we seek to honor Him in all that we do, even in the face of a world that increasingly rejects His truth.

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