Google saw a surge of Bible-related traffic in response to Friday’s Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage. Beyond generic Bible-related searches like Bible verses about marriage, the five queries I could identify with the largest absolute increases in volume were Sodom, Leviticus, End times, Abomination, and Romans 1.
The 24 hours following the Supreme Court decision produced 178,000 tweets that cited a Bible verse. Of those, approximately 40,000 (29%) mentioned verses commonly used to debate same-sex marriage.
By far the most-retweeted tweet was from singer AllyBrooke Hernandez, whose tweet supporting the decision received over 12,000 retweets that first day:
The past 50 years represent a most important period for Greece. Four wars, the absorption of 1½ million refugees by a small country of poor means, a disastrous enemy occupation and an internecine guerrilla war which followed hard on the heels of World War II, have all contributed to the great changes in the size, the population, the face, and the soul of the country. Signs of these changes are easily seen in the religious outlook of the people, as well as in the new potentialities for the evangelization of the country.The vast majority of the population belongs nominally to the Greek Orthodox Church, though church attendance, according to the official statistics, does not exceed one and one half per cent on normal Sundays. There is a small Roman Catholic minority which is strongest in the islands of the Aegean Sea—a relic of the Venetian occupation of the country—and there is an even smaller Protestant body, the oldest and largest part of which, the Greek Evangelical Church, is Presbyterian. The whole Protestant community in Greece does not exceed 30,000 out of more than eight million.One must, however, go beyond dry statistics and try to gauge the influence of Protestant bodies on the Orthodox church. This influence can be detected, for example, in the Sunday school. This was introduced into Greece by the Evangelical church, and for many years the leaders of the Orthodox church fought hard against it. But the Evangelical church persevered, and today statistics show that 2,170 Sunday schools operate within the Greek Orthodox Church.More important was the matter of the Bible in the vernacular tongue. In November 1901 there was bloodshed in the streets of Athens, leading eventually to the resignation of both the Government and the Archbishop of Athens. This all began when the pious Queen Olga inspired and encouraged the publication of a translation of the New Testament into modern Greek. The fact that the New Testament was originally written in Greek has always filled the leaders of the Established Church with an inordinate national pride, and they have consistently refused to permit a translation of the sacred text into the modern tongue—the only one understood by most Greeks. To mark the complete victory of this reactionary party in 1901, a copy of Queen Olga’s translation was burnt in a ceremony held, fittingly enough, in the square occupied by the ruins of the pagan Olympian Jupiter. The Greek Evangelical Church, however, convinced that the key to the evangelization of the country lay in making the Word of God accessible to the people, maintained consistent efforts to this end. And what a wonderful change has gradually and painfully emerged within the last 50 years! Today, although the constitutional law still prohibits the rendering of the original text of the New Testament into modern Greek, there are hundreds of priests, and a few bishops, of the Established Church who use all their influence to encourage the ever-increasing circulation of the Bible in the tongue of the people.Preaching is another sphere in which one can recognize the influence of the small church in the life of the big one. For many years there was nothing but the Mass in the Greek service. Pitton de Tournefort, a Frenchman who visited Greece in the sevententh century, said that the pulpit no longer existed in the majority of the churches, not even as a piece of furniture, “for the custom of preaching had been abolished.” This sad state of things prevailed long after Tournefort’s time. It was the Evangelical church which brought the pulpit into its own, and preaching gradually infiltrated into the practice of the national church, some of whose priests now sound a positive evangelical note.There is also the promise of still greater developments. Besides work done for many decades by the British and Foreign, and the American Bible Societies, special mention should be made of the attractive editions of single Gospels and Scripture booklets issued in large numbers by the Scripture Gift Mission of London. During the first five years of their ministry in Greece (1953–58), the Gideons placed 150,000 Bibles in hotels, prisons, and ships, and now have entrance to many hospitals and schools.The sowing of the Word in the land which heard Paul preach has been plentiful; there are signs that the imminent harvest will be commensurately rich.
AllyBrook Hernandez @AllyBrooke
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1Corinthians 13:13 #LoveTrumpsAll
5:22 PM – 26 Jun 2015
The most-retweeted evangelical leader addressing the decision was David Platt, who was retweeted over 3,100 times:
Of this, be sure: No declaration by a government can change a definition from God. (Gen. 2:24) #marriage
9:10 AM – 26 Jun 2015
Here are the ten-most-popular verses tweeted in response to the decision:
| Rank | Passage | Tweets | Key Tweet | Passage Text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1 Cor. 13:13 | 12,127 | AllyBrooke | And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. |
| 2. | Lev. 18:22 | 4,814 | Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. | |
| 3. | Gen. 2:24 | 4,415 | plattdavid | That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. |
| 4. | Lev. 20:13 | 3,613 | SouthernHomo (ironic use) | If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. |
| 5. | 1 Pet. 4:8 | 1,460 | BWJohnsonMusic | Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. |
| 6. | Rev. 19 | 1,434 | plattdavid | (Eschatological victory over evil) |
| 7. | 1 Cor. 6:9-10 | 1,355 | Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. | |
| 8. | Ps. 33:12 | 1,334 | Franklin_Graham | Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. |
| 9. | Gal. 6:7 | 1,159 | AlvedaCKing | Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. |
| 10. | 1 John 4:8 | 950 | Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. |
Overall, 53% of relevant tweets cited verses commonly used against same-sex marriage, while the remainder cited verses that are commonly used in favor of or neutral toward same-sex marriage. Omitting AllyBrooke Hernandez?s tweet changes the ratios to 69% against and 31% in favor of or neutral.
Bible Gateway
These percentages are consistent with the aggregate behavior of Bible Gateway visitors after the Supreme Court decision: on Bible Gateway, 74% of traffic to verses related to same-sex marriage was to passages commonly used against same-sex marriage. Here are the top ten passages accessed on Bible Gateway in the 24 hours after the decision:
| Rank | Passage | Passage Text |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Gen. 19 | (Sodom and Gomorrah) |
| 2. | 1 Cor. 6:9-11 | Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. |
| 3. | Gen. 2:24 | That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. |
| 4. | Lev. 20:13 | If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. |
| 5. | Lev. 18:22 | Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. |
| 6. | Rom. 1:25-27 | They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. |
| 7. | Is. 5:20 | Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. |
| 8. | 2 Chron. 7:14 | If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. |
| 9. | Rom. 12:2 | Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. |
| 10. | Matt. 19:5 | and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? |
Overall, 10% of Bible Gateway’s traffic during this period was to passages related to the debate on same-sex marriage, compared to 2% on a typical day.
Here are the top ten keyword searches on Bible Gateway over the same time period:
- marriage
- homosexuality
- homosexual
- sodom and gomorrah
- abomination
- sodom
- let he who is without sin
- rainbow
- gay
- love one another
Bible technology guru Stephen Smith blogs at OpenBible.info. He was the subject of a 2014 CT cover story, “Hacking the Bible.”
