The so-called Respect for Marriage Act is now the law of the land. What began with the Defense of Marriage Act, which passed Congress in 1996 — 342/67 in the House and 85/14 in the Senate — has now ended with this very bad bill that passed the Senate with the help of 12 Republicans, and the House with the help of 39 Republicans. Within a decade after the passage of DOMA, 40 states passed laws defining marriage as existing between a man and woman. As recently as 2008, ultra-progressive California passed Proposition 8 that altered the state constitution to define marriage as being exclusively between a man and a woman. Americans, speaking through their state legislatures, overwhelmingly chose to protect marriage as created, defined, and ordained by God in Genesis 2:18-25, and restated and emphasized throughout Scripture (Matthew 19:1-12; 1 Corinthians 7:1-40; Ephesians 5:22-33; Colossians 3:19-19). On Dec. 8, the federal government completed the journey to the complete destruction of biblical marriage by codifying same-sex marriage without sufficient religious liberty protections for those of us who hold to the teaching of Scripture.

In 2015, the United States Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges overturned all of the state definitions of traditional marriage, making same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. At the time, advocates for the Supreme Court, stepping in to define marriage, said, “All we want is to have our marriages recognized by law. We are not interested in undermining traditional marriage or attacking those who support it.” Many who followed the LGBTQ movement and listened to the rhetoric of their leaders knew that was a lie. Before the signatures of the Supreme Court Justices dried on the Obergefell decision, LGBTQ advocacy groups began attacking anyone who defended traditional marriage, demanding they give full approval without reservation to same-sex marriage. Cake baker Jack Phillips, owner of the Masterpiece Cake Shop in Colorado, has spent over 16 years fighting for the right to say no to those who would force him to use his creative talent to sanction same-sex marriage. Even a victory at the Supreme Court has not cooled the zeal of those who are determined to force Phillips to comply.