When the news broke that the Senate had passed Bill C-38 and gay marriage was now legal across Canada, I was on vacation—and glad of it.

All I saw were a few seconds of grainy, black-and-white images on a small TV screen in a cottage on Lake Winnipeg. I heard what I needed to hear and turned off the set. Having tracked this story for more than a decade, receiving word of such a watershed event in Canadian history in such a low-key manner seemed almost anticlimactic.

But my relative lack of contact with the outside world matched my desire not to be exposed to the predictable boilerplate coverage in most of the mainstream media of how progressive and enlightened Canada was by taking such a bold step in the furtherance of human rights. Yawn.

Nor did I wish to be exposed to the indignation of those against redefining marriage promising how those MPs who voted for C-38 will face the wrath of their constituents.

It’s not that I disagree with that sentiment. I am personally committed to seeing my MP defeated in the next election for that very reason. But I have also come to realize that Christians who reject same-sex marriage as a matter of faith cannot so quickly blame their politicians alone for this sad outcome.

A couple of Sundays earlier, I heard a powerful sermon preached at a church in Alberta. We should not be surprised, the pastor said, that the majority of MPs did what they did in passing C-38. What could be more natural than for sinful people to do sinful things? They simply don’t know any better.

No, he went on, the problem is not the darkness, but the light. We are the problem. As long as we who claim to follow Jesus act no differently from the rest of society, why should we expect anyone to take us seriously? Well said, I thought.

Ron Sider’s book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, makes much the same unsettling point. He cites study after study that show how U.S. evangelicals consistently fail to practise what they preach. For example, their divorce rate is either the same as—or actually higher than—the rest of society. If their own homes are in such disarray, how can evangelicals honestly expect to be perceived as credible defenders of marriage?

Given that our culture is more pervasively secular than American culture, I don’t doubt that similar trends are occurring here as well.

The challenge we face is much more profound than the albeit necessary task of changing the face of Parliament. If the light of Christ in us is to truly penetrate our darkening world, the onus is on us to first repent of having let that light flicker and even die out.

And if we will do that, God has clearly promised to respond in power:

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14, NIV).

Just imagine what would happen to Canada if every committed follower of Jesus claimed this promise! Now that would be a news story worth watching.