Why Take a Stand on Marriage?

Martin Luther once wrote that if we are not defending the gospel at the very point that it is being attacked in our own generation, we are not defending it at all. It is for this reason that our 380-member church in the small, rural town of Brooksville, Florida decided to act. 

While we are immensely proud of a recent chicken-sandwich chain whose founder boldly stated his convictions regarding traditional marriage, the elders of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church feel that it is primarily the church’s calling  to defend biblical orthodoxy. Our elders and I could not stand idly by while an attack on marriage—a thinly veiled attack on the creation order and the Creator—rages before our very eyes. 

The Brooksville Statement on Marriage is a 600-word declaration of conscience that attempts to do three things. (1) First, we hope to clearly define marriage in a generation in which the word “marriage” itself has lost all semblance of meaning. (2) Second, we hoped to positively state our convictions regarding the delineations of human sexuality, rather than make a polemical attack on those lifestyles with which we ardently disagree. (3) Third, we hoped to speak a timely word of compassion and grace in a world of “bumper sticker” one-liners and alleged hate-speech.  

Our hope is that this small town church declaration would inspire like-minded evangelical churches across the globe to adopt this (or a similar) statement, in order to provide a desperately needed prophetic voice in veritable wilderness of confusion.  

Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brooksville, Florida. He is an author and signer of The Brooksville Statement on Marriage.