Vidalia Onions, Christ Jesus, and Gay Marriage

Juliet: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2), William Shakespeare.

In this quote from Shakespeare's famous play, he makes the point that a name is just a thing. It doesn't matter what you call it -- the object itself is the important thing. A rose is still a rose and still smells just as sweet if you were to mistakenly call it a daffodil or a turnip or anything else. In other words, many different names can be used to describe the one real and true flower that we recognize as the rose. I think we can all agree with that assertion made by old Will. The truth is the truth no matter what you call it.

But, in our day and age, we are seeing the converse applied with the same assertion that the truth is the truth no matter what you call it. However, in this case, the name has been misappropriated and misrepresented rather than the object itself. Let me explain.

For instance, take Vidalia onions. The Vidalia onion is a sweet onion that comes from a twenty-county area in the great state of Georgia. That is a fact. To be a Vidalia onion, this particular type of sweet onion must come from this region. Thus, the name "Vidalia onion" is unique. It can only refer to one object, to one true reality. So, while Shakespeare might be correct in saying that it doesn't matter what you call a sweet onion, it does matter what you call a Vidalia onion. Vidalia onions are sweet onions, but not all sweet onions are Vidalia onions. Now, why does this matter?

It matters because some grocery stores in other parts of the country were acquiring sweet onions from outside of the twenty-county area in Georgia that is legally recognized as the only producers of Vidalia onions and were calling them "Vidalia onions." They were using the same name, but meaning something entirely different. Just because they called it a "Vidalia onion" didn't mean that it was a Vidalia onion. In fact, it was no where close, because, as all Georgians know, the Vidalia onion is simply the best sweet onion in the entire world and all others pale by comparison (Take that, Walla Walla!).

So, let's get to the real point. What does our illustration about Vidalia onions show? First, it shows that, despite Shakespeare's assertions, sometimes what is in a name matters. Sometimes it matters a lot. For instance, think for a moment about the name of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. You see Jesus' name used a lot. You hear Jesus' name being used a lot. In the Bible, in Christian literature, from pulpits, in church documents, even in religious blogs. We all know Who we mean when we say, "Jesus," right? WRONG!

On occasion, I will be disturbed in my living room early on Saturday mornings by the visit of uninvited guests. They have come by my house on this fine morning to share with me the good news of salvation that we have in Jesus. Now, I love talking about Jesus with other people. In fact, it's what I do. So, I welcome the conversation.

I listen as they open their holy text and share with me who Jesus is and what Jesus does and then, it hits me. The Jesus they are talking about is not the Jesus that I know. I don't remember the Bible talking about Jesus coming to North America. I don't remember my Jesus being the physical son of a sexual union between Heavenly Father and his wife. I don't remember reading that Jesus and Lucifer (Satan) were actually brothers. And then I understand what is going on.

We are using the same name (Jesus), but we are meaning something entirely different. The Jesus that I know from the Bible, the Second Person of the Trinity, God incarnate, is not the same Jesus that they have been sharing with me. And I wonder how many people have been led down a false path simply because this other group misappropriated a Name that means everything to me and to the world.

Names are important. That's why God changed people's names quite frequently in the Bible. That's why Abram became Abraham, Sarai became Sarah, Jacob became Israel, and Simon became Peter. Names stand for something. They have meaning, and if used in the wrong way, they can cause a shift in understanding that will have effects all the way down through history. In other words, if you change what a name means, then you are exchanging the truth of that name for something entirely different.

We see the same thing going on right now in the push for same-sex marriages in our country. For years now, same-sex marriage has been an issue that has caused confusion, division, and discourse from federal and state politicians and judges to denominations and churches to the average man or woman in the grocery store.

On the surface, the issue appears easy enough -- why not allow homosexual couples in America the right to enjoy the same relationships and priviledges that heterosexual couples have enjoyed since the beginning of time? What is the harm in doing so? How does it affect heterosexual marriages in any way if we let gay couples marry? I can't tell you how many times I have heard those questions thrown my way in discussions with friends after work.

It all comes down to what I have been saying: Names matter. From my limited understanding of the issue and from what I know to be true from the few homosexual people I know, when the conservative Christian community uses the term "marriage," it means something entirely different than what the homosexual community means when they use it. When we use the term "marriage," we are referring to a God-given institution that was defined as one man and one woman whose lives, including their sexual lives, are experienced solely through that union. They leave their mothers and fathers, they cleave together, and they become one flesh.

However, when the majority of the homosexual community uses the term "marriage," they are not referring to a closed institution lived out between two persons (yes, I know that there are many gay couples who have lived monogamously during their entire relationship, but that's not the real issue here). Instead, they are referring to an institution that allows for openness among partners in the area of sexual intimacy, an "open" marriage, if you will. And, that's fine, if that's the type of relationship they are looking for. I can live with and tolerate things I don't agree with.

However, if the push for gay marriage succeeds, then more has been accomplished than just allowing homosexual couples to enjoy the same legal benefits of heterosexual married couples. What will have been allowed is the complete redefinition of "marriage." No longer will marriage mean the same thing it means today. No longer will marriage be defined through the religious communities that originally recognized it as a gift from God for men and women meant to reflect our relationship with God Himself. No longer will marriage be defined as one man and one woman living in a committed monogamous relationship for life.

Instead, "marriage" will mean something entirely different, and from the moment that same-sex marriage becomes the law of the land, the meaning of the word will have changed forever. The original institution of marriage will have been lost because of what scholars call an epistemiological shift. In other words, once the definition --the meaning -- of a word changes, it can never revert back to its original definition, and the new meaning takes hold in the hearts and minds of the people.

Thus, the battle over same-sex marriage is not so much a fight against the rights of others to enjoy relationships, but a fight for tradition and honesty and meaning. It is a fight for the true definition of marriage over a false definition that will change our lives forever.

This is the inherent danger with the push for same-sex marriage. This is the inherent danger with other groups who use the name "Jesus" but mean entirely something else. And this is why Shakespeare was wrong.

A rose may be just as sweet if you call it something else, but to call a garbage dump a "rose" and to change the meaning in the process, is just wrong.