When the Flintstones were singing “We’ll have a gay old time,” they must have had the 1997 television season in mind. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has released its 1997 “TV Scoreboard” and claims the fall lineup of programming includes “a record setting 30 lesbian, gay, and bisexual characters.”

Homosexuality is perhaps the most controversial issue of debate in American culture. Once described as “the love that dares not speak its name,” homosexuality is now discussed and debated throughout American society.

“What we have here is a scientific controversy,” explained Michael Bailey, a Northwestern University scientist and proponent of the “gay gene” theory. For the past decade, homosexual activists have staked their political strategy on claims that homosexuality is an inherited trait, like left-handedness, for a significant minority of human beings. Homosexuality, they have argued, is thus a “natural” condition and is not morally significant.

“It’s like the gay Super Bowl,” said one participant in a lesbian “Coming Out” party. The much-hyped and anticipated episode of “Ellen” was the homosexual event of the year, and the media joined in the celebration. Though ratings are not yet available, the episode was carried by 224 of the 225 stations that normally feature the show.

Acting in open defiance to the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church has voted to end a de facto moratorium on the election and consecration of openly gay bishops. The vote — overwhelming in both houses of the denomination’s General Convention — comes barely 6 years after the American church brought its worldwide communion to the brink of disaster.

The issue of homosexuality presents all morally serious persons with an unavoidable question:  What is the moral status of homosexual acts and relationships?  One way or the other, some judgment on this matter will be made.

Controversies and debates about gender define much of today’s cultural landscape.  In reality, if you take away all debates about gender, gender roles, and sexuality, our world would be a much quieter place.  Nevertheless, the world we know is a world increasingly in revolt against the idea that gender is assigned by our Creator and is thus a fixed category.

The church’s engagement with the culture involves a host of issues, controversies, and decisions–but no issue defines our current cultural crisis as clearly as homosexuality. Some churches and denominations have capitulated to the demands of the homosexual rights movement, and now accept homosexuality as a fully valid lifestyle. Other denominations are tottering on the brink, and without a massive conservative resistance, they are almost certain to abandon biblical truth and bless what the Bible condemns.

The past two weeks have brought new cogency to a question many have been asking for some time — Is the legalization of same-sex marriage now inevitable?

Even as Californians await the decision of their state Supreme Court on the same-sex marriage issue, momentum toward the legalization of gay marriage has now shifted to New England, where several states are poised to approve some version of homosexual marriage in coming weeks.