I realize the topic of gay marriage has many Christians grabbing for their Bibles and praying long and hard. I have seen many devout Christian leaders try to make compelling moral arguments as to why gay unions cannot be included as legally recognized civil marriage. They are so certain that if this is allowed to occur it's going to destroy the institution of marriage. I do not doubt the sincerity or convictions of their beliefs and I believe the vast majority are honorable in their intentions and mean no harm to anyone who's gay. As a Christian and heterosexual male who will mark 15 years of marriage this year, I have thought long and hard about this debate and have believed it should be stopped at one time but not anymore. My Christian brothers and sisters our opposition to gay marriage as currently formed is without logic and if we continue to pursue this present course we will be no better than the hypocrites who wrongly accused Jesus. Before you stop reading or quickly respond to what I am writing, all I ask is that you read my opinion in its entirety.
The basic arguments I have heard against gay marriage are it’s a sin in the Bible therefore morally wrong and can’t be legally allowed, marriage is to promote procreation so it should be reserved for a man and a woman and finally it should be reserved for the highest standard in an attempt to perfect the institution. All of these basic arguments and their various derivations all end up with the same conclusion that if allowed legally it will destroy the institution of marriage and weaken the very foundation of our country. Now for the sake of argument that the basic reasons of sin, procrastination and perfection of marriage are true and reasonable standards the debate should be over right? Wrong not so fast my friends we have some major issues to address. What about the not so little sins of adultery, murder, rape, incest, pedophiles and the biggest point of destruction for marriage divorce or other issues such as people not wanting and taking steps to prevent children, people too old to conceive or even another mortal sin of child abuse. In my view, the problem is if we want a prohibition on gay marriage then logic and our Christian values dictate that we must also insist on and create legal prohibitions of marriage recognition for anyone violating these other standards especially those who are divorced since even the most vocal opponents to gay marriage freely admit that divorce is a much bigger threat and will cause the destruction to the institution of marriage. If procreation is included in our standard, then anyone who is unable to do so should be restricted to civil unions. If we don’t change our position against gay marriage to include these other prohibitions and limitations we are no better than the hypocrites and I contend no different than the bigots who opposed allowing interracial marriage since we will again be picking on a minor issue while ignoring the elephant in the room. This is just this one Christian’s opinion.
I realized that my position may not be exactly clear after re-reading what I wrote above so I have added this section. I am in support of allow 65536 gay marriage since whose interpretation of the Bible will we use in setting the standards of who will qualify for a civil marriage? To me this is an impossible civic debate to have and besides to me civil marriage is only a legal technicality and has nothing to do with covenant made between two people in their religious viewpoint. My marriage bonds have nothing to do with the state's recognition of it.
Dedicated to Sandi, Kristin and Kavin as well as any other gay friends I have.
No comments:
Post a Comment