More on Gay Marriage...

Gay Marriage

That sound you just heard was a can of worms being opened.

I've been thinking about this for a long time.  I've talked to many people about it.  A lot of times I just don't say anything when the topic is brought up, but I think it's time for me to make a stand (notice that I'm making it here, and not on my main page, to alleviate at least a bit of controversy).  Also, blogging helps me think through things, so here we go.

I don't think gay marriage should be illegal.  America stands for equal rights for all (little thing I like to call the Constitution).  If someone grows up in California instead of Michigan, should they have fewer rights than the Michiganian?  It is completely arbitrary to say that a man and a woman who live together are allowed legal and property rights while 2 men who live together are not.  Yes, yes, the Bible.  I'll get to that.  If you want to argue symantics, call a gay marriage a civil union with the same legal benefits.  No one's forcing you to marry them in your church (another little American value:  separation of church and state.  Marriage is both a civil and a sacred ceremony.  I'm arguing here for the legalization of the civil marriage, as religious marriage is up to the church which marries you). 

The main argument for Christians against homosexual marriage is that the Bible says it's a sin.  Ah, but what exactly does the Bible say is a sin?  "Do not lie with a man as you lie with a woman, that is detestable" (Leviticus 18:22).  Last year a sophomore in a Bible study I was leading asked about that exact verse, saying, "The Bible says that the act of homosexual sex is a sin, not that feelings of attraction toward a member of the same sex is a sin.  So could a woman be attracted to other women and not to men, but not be sinning?"  I think that the answer is yes.  As much as I'd like to think that homosexuality is a "chosen" way of life, there is increasing evidence that people are born with genetic predispositions to homosexuality and/or that homosexuality is caused by different sorts of upbringings.  Would you choose to be marginalized and cast aside by society of your own free will, if you could choose that simply?  There are other factors than just a choice.  Tony Campolo argues that many Christian homosexuals, wanting to please God but not deny the way they are, have struggled with homosexual desires and others have lived in committed homosexual relationships without having sex.  Interesting arguments.  I'm not sure I agree with Campolo on every issue, but he has a good point to consider, at least.

When it comes down to it, what do we know?  We know that Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost.  Not to heal the healthy, but the sick.  He lived among the marginalized outcasts of society, and was called horrible names for the company he kept.  He was friends not with members of the day's "Religious Right," but with unschooled, ordinary men, prostitutes, and tax collectors (perhaps today's modern-day equivalent would be telemarketers).  He not only conversed with, but stood up for women (a major no-no at that time).  If we are trying to win people to the Kingdom of God, ostracizing an entire group of people who need Jesus is not the way to do it!  Have we forgotten that we, too, are sinners?  "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 6:23).  "Why do you look at your neighbor's eye and see the speck, but neglect that there is a tree in your own eye?"  Oh hypocrites!  "Remove the tree from your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to remove the speck from your neighbor's eye."

I understand that this post is pretty inflammatory.  But this is what I believe.  In a nutshell, I'll repeat what I said at the beginning:  civil marriage between homosexuals should be a-ok.  In the church, it's up to the church.  Gays, however, are Americans, and therefore should have equal rights as Americans to the legal benefits of marriage.

Curious for opinions (and NO, I'm not hinting at anything):

What's the difference between like and love?  You see, Turkish only has one word for both:  sevmek.  I can sevmek a soccer team, or I can sevmek my mom, or I can sevmek Oreos (which I don't, by the way).  Ancient Greek has three:  agape, fileo, and eros (divine love, friendship love, and physical love).  English has like and love.  But what's the distinction?

Full of questions today...

Would a God that is wholly good and loving really send people, whom He created, to "eternal conscious torment" because, as McLaren says in The Last Word and the Word After That, "they don't believe in Jesus in a certain, prescribed way?"

Why did 1st Temple Jews not believe in physical heaven or hell, but believed in "Sheol," which was merely death, the grave?

In Genesis, we were given an option between a tree of life and a tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  If we had to eat from a tree to get eternal life...if the "wages of sin is death"...then are we immortal beings?  If we're not immortal beings, how do we gain eternal life, either in heaven or in hell?  Christ said that he came to bring eternal life...that the Kingdom of God is at hand...emphasizing righteousness and repentance...

Have we distorted the gospel?  What is the gospel?

Am I really that arrogant to think that I have all the answers?  Or that I need all the answers?  Can my way of thinking about the Bible ever be the "right" one?

Deconstructing...

After many requests, I am updating my secret blog.  Here is my latest epiphany:

Boys are AWESOME.

That's pretty much it.