Farewell to Arms

It was a good fight, a just war, but it's over. The Gay Marriage bill that passed the House and Senate and will likely be signed or allowed to become law, marks the final blow to a value system that has suffered losses for the past forty years. The troops that mustered back in the 70's from the Moral Majority were joined in the 90's by Christian Coalition forces and later by conservative policy groups, but they could not turn back the forces that stormed the Capitol last week.

In 1996 the New Hampshire Christian Coalition introduced our "Contract with the New Hampshire Family." I introduced this "bold plan to strengthen the family and restore common-sense values" at a press conference in the Legislative Office Building. Now, nearly twelve years later, nearly every article has suffered defeat or setbacks in the Legislature. It never even occurred to us to include a section protecting the definition of marriage as "one man, one woman."

For years we've been accused of trying to "legislate morality." Well guess what? Last week it was the far Left that legislated morality. Since when was it the business of government to do this? One senator admitted to me that he was frustrated trying to deal with the budget while being "distracted" by the issue of marriage. We can only pray that a new generation of politicians will get back to the work of governing and leave the foundations of society alone.

Religious conservatives now face this challenge: Why should a culture bent on innovation adopt the traditions we hold dear? Our message has always been counter-cultural, but we are most effective when we follow our passion, and for most of us that's not politics. We're far better at worship than political gamesmanship. We need a new movement that springs from the churches, That is cultural not political, that aims at changing hearts not legislation.

It's time for us to lay down our arms, not in defeat or surrender, but in a strategic realignment. We will still be vocal in the public square, a presence in the halls of the Capitol. We will still fight to win. The Trojan War was won from inside the city. Likewise the Culture War will be won from inside the hearts and minds of people. This has always been true. Maybe now we believe it.