Recently, there has been a little bit of a stir online in the Christian sphere, sparked by pastor Alistair Begg (whom I love and admire). He was asked a pastoral question by a grandmother as to whether or not she should attend the wedding of her gay grandchild. Begg recommended to her, in that instance, that she should go for the sake of maintaining the relationship. As a result, the question of whether or not Christians should attend gay “weddings” became a point of heated discussion. Online hysteria aside, this is a serious pastoral, personal, theological, social, and moral/ethical question. And we should have an answer for it. My conviction is that Christians should not attend gay “wedding” celebrations or services. If I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t actually think it’s a complicated ethical question. I think we perceive it to be complicated because of the social pressures of our day. I know that is a blunt statement. So, I will also point to an article by Kevin DeYoung, who lays out his reasoning. I probably cannot articulate it any better than his recent post, as he answers this question thoughtfully. Here’s a quote from his post;

“I doubt many pastors would counsel parents to attend a polyamorous commitment service, or their son’s Klan induction ceremony, or their daughter’s abortion party. These may seem like extreme examples, but they help to reveal necessary moral principles. There are events and celebrations and ceremonies that are so sinful and offensive to God (and should be offensive to us) that we wouldn’t think twice about turning down an invitation, no matter how hurt or angry a friend or family member was by our non-attendance. I suspect that gay weddings don’t offend many Christians in the same way because these ceremonies have already become normalized. As much as I sympathize with my congregants who are desperate to maintain relational ties with their loved ones, I also need to help them realize that they cannot be bound by the relational threats that loved ones make when we do not agree with their sinful choices. To be sure, we do not want to push people away; we want to keep the door open for gospel conversations. But in almost every instance I deal with as a pastor, it’s not the Christian parents or Christian friends who are closing the door or pushing people away. Almost always, it’s the person choosing a non-Christian path who refuses to have a relationship with someone who won’t deign to affirm their idolatrous decisions.”