![owen[1]](https://santamonicachurch.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/owen1.jpg)
“The new mark of being culturally acceptable is affirming homosexuality as virtuous (not merely okay, but virtuous, even exemplary). This is the litmus test. I don’t think many of us expected that it would so quickly fill this role, but it has. The mark of being a progressive, kind, socially courageous person today is simply this: affirming same-sex marriage. There are other cardinal virtues of a contemporary au courant identity, but this is the lodestar, the one that hangs one’s personal moon.
“This shows us that the cultural middle is indeed vanishing. The space where broad-minded people could hang out is rapidly disappearing. Either you are for same-sex marriage or not. If you’re not, and you’re a known commodity, you’re now behind the curve in a public, image-driven sense. Expect in coming to see a veritable torrent of declarations of affirmation of SSM. Celebrities, news anchors, intellectuals, politicians, religious types, tycoons, and many more are heading to the pro-marriage exits. They’re going to be calling press conferences as quickly as they can. They’ll be getting into line with the value that drives the New Cultural Acceptance: affirming same-sex marriage.
“We are witnessing in these very moments the propulsion of the New Civil Rights movement: the homosexual lobby. A decade ago–five years ago!–it seemed unthinkable that this issue would have vaulted into the cultural mainstream. But it has. Not only is affirming same-sex marriage part of our cultural conversation, though. It has become the moral pearl of great price. Public figures like Rob Portman, Bell, and Clinton–a strange assortment, admittedly–will deny prior statements, their own personal commitments (to marriage, that is), and the will of many of the people they serve or lead to be on the right side of history on this issue.”
(Owen Strachan, “Rob Bell, Homosexuality, and the New Cultural Acceptance”, thoughtlife)
Santa Monica Church Blog 
A wise indictment of the moral perversity of our times. It is Christians now who are climbing into the closet. Persecution is not as unthinkable as it once was, and it’s changed alarmingly quickly.
DJ, I’m just as surprised at the speed that all this is happening too. I started following the homosexual movement and their move to legitimize themselves since the late 90′ early 2000’s when ex Roman Catholic priest and practicing homosexual Daniel Helminiak wrote a book attempting to make Biblical arguments for homosexuality. James White would later release a book (The Same Sex Controversy) refuting his arguments. I thought back then that it would at least take two generations for the West to accept homosexuality. Boy was I wrong.