Friday, 07 November 2008
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Come on, Christians. Why isn't gay marriage a civil rights issue? And why not just ban divorce?
"Some say they are uncomfortable with the thought of gays and lesbians marrying. But our rights as Americans do not depend on the approval of others. Our rights depend on us being Americans." - Congressman John Lewis
As both Christians and Americans, how can we say that it's not discrimatory to tell people that they can't marry the person they love? Didn't we go through something similar in 1967? And while we're on the subject, why do we have to have all these amendments outlawing gay marriages in the name of "protecting marriage?"
How does more people wanting to get married threaten marriage? What does one family's marriage have to do with anyone else's? Isn't divorce the biggest threat to marriage? If the real desire is to protect the institution of marriage, why don't we stop picking on people different from us who want to get married and start focusing much-needed energy on curbing the escalating rate of divorce and broken families among Christians and Americans of all faiths?
In the words of our Lord: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”
Mildred Loving
"Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the 'wrong kind of person' for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights.
I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about."
Mildred Loving, along with her husband, Richard, were plantiffs in the historic Supreme Court decision "Loving v. Virginia" which overturned state laws preventing two persons of different races from getting married.
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Comments (4)
Traced the forum thread back to your entry.
To be honest, I really enjoy reading from someone who has done some critical thinking. Often, I have the same thoughts as well--that sometimes it's become increasingly difficult for us to know how to separate personal belief vs. a state governing.
Sometimes, it's hard for me to even understand why some Christians have such narrow scope of life--as if one could legally ban gay marriages, one could wipe one kind of sin from this earth.
Kudos for speaking out.
@wanderingthinker@xanga - Thank YOU for taking the time to reply.
Obviously, I feel very strongly about this. It's very refreshing to hear that a lot of people have given the issue a lot of thought.
In my home state, Florida, Amendment 2 passed, barring not only same-sex marriage from the state constitution, but also invalidating existing domestic partnerships and preventing civil unions from ever becoming legal here in the future.
Almost all the gay people I know are loathesome of Christians because of the way they treat the gay community, even though these same gay people actually believe in Jesus Christ.
The 2 great commandments don't seem to get much airtime from evangelicals these days. Instead, the message that's coming across is, "Be like us or be damned."
More than sad...
Anyway, again, thanks. You give me hope.
@laughingstock -
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You said: "In my home state, Florida, Amendment 2
passed, barring not only same-sex marriage from the state constitution,
but also invalidating existing domestic partnerships and preventing
civil unions from ever becoming legal here in the future"
_________________________________________________________
In many ways, I find it tragic. On on hand, the society is consist of very diverse groups of people and it's a privilege that we can indeed enjoy freedom of speech and expression. On the other hand, it's human nature as well that conflicts are inevitable--and the beauty of diversity has evolved into a self-righteous kind of judgement, which in turn, spawns hatred and misunderstanding.
However, note that over the course of history, things do change. Perhaps Florida may not ever allow these unions, but the same legal changes have not happened in the states yet. There's still hope.
_________________________________________________________
You said :"Almost
all the gay people I know are loathesome of Christians because of the
way they treat the gay community, even though these same gay people
actually believe in Jesus Christ. "
__________________________________________________________
Even more of a tragedy. I have to be mindful not to judge others as well, and it's easy to fall into the trap of the "you Christians" and "us Christians" talk even within the Christian circle. Homosexuals or not, deconstructive judgements and misunderstandings are very detrimental to fellow believers. It's even more sad that sometimes our beliefs get misrepresented, so that people would become defensive when they hear the word "Christians".
Either way, I can't even say what is "more" right than another. I do understand both sides of the coin...say...
If homosexuality is a sin, just like being deceitful is a sin (and everything else), does one let the people they love continue to sin and not confront them?
On the contrary, we're all sinners, and all I know is, it is NOT right to discriminate, look down upon, and reject people of particular kinds of sins. We are all humans, we all stand on equal footing--we're called to be witnesses, but we aren't called to be responsible for the "good/bad outcomes" upon witnessing to others.
In the end, I can just say that I'm on the journey searching for truth. Whatever struggles we have as believers, I just hope and pray that we'd have wisdom to guide our decisions and understandings, and the capacity to embrace others.
Sorry for the long reply, I look forward to more of your blog entries.
I agree with you very much laughingstock. Its amazing how Christians rant
on and on about how gay marriage will threaten our families. Have we
any proof of this? Can heterosexuals(especially Christians) really brag
about their faithfulness to the family unit? Although different sources
give different statistics, all average out to show that divorce among
Christians is just as high as divorce among non-Christians, and both
are far from acceptable(anywhere from 30%-50%). I've seen divorce break
down family units. I have yet to see gay couples break down family
units.
Even if we can somehow Biblically prove with confidence that homosexuality isn't pleasing to God, so what?
Are we to ban marriage between compulsive liars, Muslims, bigots,
gamblers, atheists, alcoholics, gossips, strippers.....people who have
been divorced....and everyone else the Church disapproves of?
I personally am still wrestling with the idea of homosexuality and the
Church, but regardless of what conclusion I come to, it matters not
because we are not talking about the Church, we ARE talking about Civil
Rights in the USA.
I believe this is where Christians start to
make asses of themselves. So many Christians insist on imposing their
interpretation of Christ's standards on a whole nation, and see nothing
nonsensical about it. Separation of Church & State? Shouldn't the same Christians throw the same fit pushing to outlaw pride, arrogance and greed? And shouldn't other religions be illegal, then?
I would never expect our U.S. law to mirror the Bible. If it began to, I would
honestly run for my life. God's law isn't meant to be imposed on
non-believers, it is meant to be embraced by those who chose to serve
him.
Again, I'm not concluding that God's law does or doesn't forbid homosexuality, I just don't think that it should be relevant to our nation's law.