Chuck Colson, from the grave: Gay marriage legalization to bring 'wrath of God' on America

HOUSTON (Christian Examiner) -- Chuck Colson has been dead for three years, but in samples from never-before-published commentaries released this week, he predicted the legalization of gay marriage nationwide, warned that the "wrath of God" will fall on America, and even anticipated that "in a very short time it will be impossible to preach that homosexual behavior is a sin."

While Friday's decision by the Supreme Court legalizing gay marriage nationwide may not have been a surprise to many observers, Colson died well before gay marriage groups had the momentum they've enjoyed since President Obama's re-election.

In fact, when Colson died in April 2012, Obama had yet to announce his support for its legalization, and the Supreme Court was a year away from issuing its first pro-gay marriage ruling (June 2013).

When Colson died, Obama was in a tough re-election battle and facing a very possible defeat, and gay marriage was legal in only six states. But Colson saw the nation shifting on the issue, and said that even though evangelicals helped pass the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, they lost at the Supreme Court that same year when the justices struck down a Colorado law that had prevented homosexuals from being considered a protected class. It was called Romer v. Evans.

"Even though we won the vote in Congress, we ultimately lost in the court of public opinion," Colson wrote in the newly released excerpts. "We're painted as bigots in the media, we're driven into the corner. And the Supreme Court, which will ultimately have the final say and has already tipped its hand in Romer, will rule against us."

Colson was an evangelical giant and the founder of Prison Fellowship and Breakpoint. He served in the Nixon administration and became a Christian after the Watergate scandal and prior to serving seven months in prison.

The excerpts are from the upcoming August book, "My Final Word: Holding Tight to the Issues that Matter Most," written by Colson with co-author Anne Morse. The commentaries were written in the final decade of his life.

"In a very short time it will be impossible to preach that homosexual behavior is a sin," Colson wrote. "How do you teach that something is a sin when society is saying it is simply a legitimate choice? This is the camel's nose under the tent. This is why the homosexual issue is about a lot more than gay rights. It's about destructing the moral order of society, and the people behind it know that. They really are moral nihilists at heart."

In a very short time it will be impossible to preach that homosexual behavior is a sin. How do you teach that something is a sin when society is saying it is simply a legitimate choice? This is the camel's nose under the tent. This is why the homosexual issue is about a lot more than gay rights. It's about destructing the moral order of society, and the people behind it know that. They really are moral nihilists at heart.

The debate over whether homosexual behavior is immoral is at the heart of the cultural revolution, Colson noted.

"What has for centuries been regarded as immoral and a perversion, a distortion of the natural or created order, has now become moral," Colson wrote. "In fact, it is an act of bigotry to criticize it. This is incrementalism, cushioning us against what seems so hard at first. You just kind of get used to it; it's like pornography. After a while, people don't think it's so bad after all; they just get used to it."

Gay marriage and religious liberty, he wrote, cannot coexist.

"The gay rights juggernaut is grinding down on us," he wrote "It's the most ominous threat on the horizon in America, and with all the threats we have that's a pretty big statement -- because it threatens not only to institute something which is an abomination to God, but also to crush our religious liberties in the process."

To redefine marriage is to redefine what God created, he wrote.

"We call marriage a sacrament because it is a sign of God and His creation," Colson wrote. "It's the definition of the word creation. We've got to restore this and teach it in the churches. We've got to take this simple little nugget of truth and build on it so that eventually we permeate public consciousness with the realization that this isn't just about equality. This isn't just about rights for gays versus straights. This isn't about civil rights. This is about the plan of creation. And if we destroy that, we're going to bring the wrath of God upon us. We're actually going to destroy the very nature of the world we live in, the very purpose of the world and the very purpose of life."

Among the newly released quotes, Colson also wrote:

-- "I think the attacks on Christians for their stand on marriage is the latest assault by the left on religious liberty. It's going to be the acid test. Martin Luther King Jr. quoted Augustine, who wrote that an unjust law is no law at all. If we're not willing to fight this, even to the point of breaking the law, or refusing to recognize the law, then we will lose everything. I think our backs are to the wall, and if your pastor doesn't have the courage to speak out on this issue, look for another church."

-- "Homosexual 'marriage' is redefining who we are. It's redefining what the creation is about and what it's for. It isn't simply about any two (or more) people of the same sex coming together, enjoying each other, and sharing joint benefits."