Christianity Today

For an issue as politically divisive as a prohibition on homosexual sex, reaction to Thursday's Supreme Court Lawrence v. Texasdecision against antisodomy laws is surprisingly uniform: almost everyone agrees it's a broad, far-reaching ruling with consequences for years to come.

"Lawrence v. Texas could have implications far beyond the closed doors of private homes," The Washington Post noted in a news story Friday. "In an unexpectedly large step, the court said traditional morality is no justification for making legal distinctions among sexual behaviors of consenting adults."

Similarly, the Posteditorialized, "The importance of [the] 6 to 3 decision is not simply that the court struck down an oppressive law. … It tells legislatures that a majority's opinion about what is or is not moral cannot justify the state's intrusion into the most intimate details of people's lives."

The main disagreement is whether this momentous decision was wise. And evangelicals, who are not always in agreement on public policy toward homosexuality, seem to be uniform in saying the court went too far.

To be sure, Thursday's decision would have elicited reaction from some religious conservatives regardless of the outcome. The Family Research Council, for example, issued a press release Wednesday saying it was "ready to respond" regardless of the outcome, and that the case had implications for the nation's understanding of marriage. And indeed, when the decision came, FRC president Ken Connor called it "a direct attack on the sanctity of marriage." But he didn't stop there. "Nothing less than the people's right to self-government is at stake," he said.

"We all were especially surprised by the scope and breadth of [Thursday's] opinion," Jay Sekulow, legal ...

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