Should a Christian Attend a Gay Wedding?

If someone invites you, a Bible believing Christian, to their upcoming gay wedding should you attend? What if it involves someone you really love: your child, a friend, a sibling, a parent, a co-worker?

This situation can easily lead to mixed emotions. On one hand, you may feel that it is okay to attend, even if you don’t support their lifestyle, because you want to show a Christ-like love to that person. However, on the flip side, you may feel that your attendance is actually supporting the union of these individuals, which the Bible calls immoral and unnatural.

Reasons Why You Shouldn’t

Although the Bible doesn’t explicitly state “attending a same-sex wedding is sinful,” here are some reasons why I believe Christians should not attend a same-sex wedding:

1. Marriage should be honored, and gay weddings dishonor its meaning.

Gay weddings twist the real meaning of marriage (Hebrews 13:4).

2. A Homosexual union is not marriage.

According to scripture, our Creator’s definition of marriage is a union between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24). Gay weddings are different than weddings of different religions because even if the bride and groom are non-believers, any marriage between one man and one woman fulfills the requirements of this Scripture.

3. Homosexual unions are not joined in heaven.

Homosexuality is called an “abomination” in the book of Leviticus (Leviticus 20:13). The book of Romans calls this behavior unnatural. According to this verse, it results from a society turning from God, exchanging Him for an image, and suppressing His truth for lies (Romans 1:21-32). Christians should not support anything God doesn’t support and is contrary to His design. God will not join the same sexes together.

4. Homosexual unions are a sin, not a celebration.

Scripture condemns homosexuality (1 Corinthians 6: 9-10). By choosing to attend a gay wedding, you are choosing to celebrate their sin. As a Christian, celebrating sin and condoning a sinful lifestyle is not a loving thing to do because we know sinfulness leads to hell and eternal separation from God.

5. Christian love should not rejoice in wrongdoing.

Christian love supports the truth. Scripturally, showing love to others is not tolerating, supporting, or rejoicing in someone’s iniquity or abomination. We don’t celebrate when a thief shoplifts or an alcoholic gets drunk. So why should a gay marriage be celebrated? This doesn’t mean that you reject or bully people living in sin; however, we should not support something that Scripture is clearly against (1 Corinthians 13:6).

6. Going to a gay wedding makes you a witness, which sends a confusing message to the world.

Acts 1:8 tells us that we should be witnesses of Jesus Christ and His gospel on this earth, with our allegiance to Him. When a Bible-believing Christian affirms gay marriage, you become a witness to the LGBT+ movement. This sends a very conflicting message to the world and to those attending the wedding that Biblical truth doesn’t matter because ‘love is love.’

7. Attending a gay wedding goes against our convictions.

As Christians, our convictions come from God’s Holy Word, not from a woke culture, Hollywood, or churches that affirm a sinful lifestyle. Our convictions should not change when our culture tries to bully and censor Christianity into silence. Instead, we need to stick with the truth of God’s Word (Romans 14:23).

If you are feeling conflicted about attending a gay wedding, I encourage you to decline the invitation and instead pray for those involved. Let them know that although you love them, you cannot support their decisions or celebrate things that the Bible calls sin. Express your frank concern for their soul because the Bible is clear that homosexuals will not inherit eternal life.  

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, I encourage you to tell your loved ones about Jesus’ death and resurrection and why He died for us all. Humanity was created in God’s image and likeness. He gave us His laws to live by, but they were broken. Because of this, we were born into a sinful nature and we desire to continue walking in sin. Jesus came to this world and died to save us from this.

Christians are not better than other people; instead, we are people who were once sinners but are now saved by His grace. We are not saved by our own self-righteousness, but rather by Jesus Christ, who leads us by His Holy Spirit to live a life pleasing to Him (Romans 6:23).

The truth is offensive, but that should not cause us to compromise the truth because unlike culture, God’s Word and truth are unchanging.

Read: Should Christians Use Preferred Pronouns?