Against Christian Hypocrisy

In a column called “Conservative Christians Selectively Apply Biblical Teachings in the Same-Sex Marriage Debate,”
Kirsten Powers and Jonathan Merritt accuse Christians who refuse to provide
goods and services for gay weddings of being hypocritical cherry pickers.
According to their argument, consistency dictates that vendors who refuse to bake
cakes for gay weddings should also boycott “unbiblical” heterosexual weddings. These
would include the remarriage of anyone who did not have biblical grounds for
divorce as well as a marriage between a believer and unbeliever (prohibited by
2 Cor. 6:14). Since such consistency would be, in their words, “an exercise in
futility,” Christian bakers should bake wedding cakes indiscriminately.

I would like to propose a couple of analogous situations to
that of the Christian wedding vendor. In
both of these fictional scenarios, business owners are asked to provide a good
or service to a company whose core purpose violates the business-owner’s
ethical beliefs.

• A Muslim man who owns a janitorial business is
  offered a contract with a mortgage lending company. He declines to take the
  contract because Islam prohibits moneylending. While he would not actually be
  loaning money at interest, by providing a contracted service to the mortgage
  company, he would be profiting from moneylending. This same man has no qualms about cleaning
  the offices of other companies whose employees engage in behaviors prohibited
  by Islam (such as a doctor’s practice where the receptionist wears a low-cut
  blouse or a law firm where the partners drink alcohol). The difference is that
  moneylending is intrinsic to the existence of the mortgage company; there is no
  other reason for its existence. Would you call this Muslim a hypocrite?

• A Mennonite who owns an aluminum manufacturing
  plant receives a bid request from the Pentagon to supply the aluminum for a
  newly developed missile. Because of his commitment to pacifism, the Mennonite
  declines to submit a bid. He does not feel the need to investigate all of his
  clients to make sure they are using aluminum for good ends. However, because
  missiles are weapons of warfare, their purpose is essentially violent. To
  profit from the sale of metal to build missiles would violate the conscience of
  a pacifist. Would you call this
  Mennonite a hypocrite?

A same-sex wedding is the ceremonial blessing of behavior
the Bible condemns. Affirmation of homosexual practice is intrinsic to gay nuptials.
There is no need to ask the history of the couple or their reasons for marrying
in order to figure out whether or not the marriage is one that God would
approve. In contrast, while two heterosexuals wishing to marry may or may not
be obeying God’s commands, the institution itself is one that God has affirmed.

Hypocritical Christians are those who forget that they are
sinners in need of a savior. Apart from God’s grace we would be damned, and we
are hypocrites if we refuse to call others from their sin to experience that
same grace. To profit by helping others celebrate their sin, thereby
perpetuating the illusion that homosexual behavior is not sin, would be
hypocritical for any Christian, be he butcher, baker, or candlestick maker.