Thursday, August 9, 2012

I am a Christian & for Gay Marriage

I have been a Christian all my adult life. I came to faith by the love and encouragement of my grandfather, a Baptist minister and seminary professor, and grandmother, a woman who loved the Bible so much that she taught conferences on “Hiding God’s Word in your Heart” and memorized chapters of scripture. Since then, I have faithfully attended and participated in church, and not just Sunday morning, but weekly Wednesday night groups, early morning and late night prayer meetings, worship nights, bible studies. I have served meals to the needy, laid hands on and prayed for the sick, shared the gospel with teenagers, friends, strangers. I have read through the Bible several times and spent countless hours in study, devotion and prayer.

And I am for gay marriage. On the Day of Judgment, perhaps I will learn I am wrong, and for that and my countless other mistakes and sins, I will cling to the cross of Christ as my only hope.  But in the wake of witnessing on Facebook so many of my friends and loved ones stand up for the intolerance recently promoted by Chick-fil-a, I cannot remain silent.

The movement to legalize gay marriage is the civil rights movement of our time.  My grandchildren will learn about this time in their history classes and be shocked and appalled by those who stood in the way of such a basic, fundamental human right being arbitrarily denied to a segment of the population, as I was shocked and appalled to learn of the Jim Crow laws and “separate but equal.” In America, homosexuals can hold jobs, vote, even serve our nation in the military, but not get married.  This is a sickening injustice.

Giving same-sex couples the right to get married does not diminish marriage’s sanctity in the least. It is instead an undeniable tribute to the power of marriage. As two consenting adults who love each other, same-sex couples are asking for the right to prove and celebrate their love for each other, and there is no other greater statement of that commitment than marriage. There are things that are legal now that do greatly diminish the sanctity of marriage, namely, divorce and living together before or instead of getting married. These do diminish the sanctity of marriage. But there is no Facebook campaign to ban either one of those things. That would be absurd. Therein lies the true absurdity of the “Sanctity of Marriage” movement. It is not about protecting marriage. It is about intolerance of a lifestyle that Christians find aberrant.

Gay marriage was legalized in California, and then made illegal by Proposition 8, which was later struck down by California’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This is from their decision: “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.” If you can deny the truth of that and still claim that there is any justice in denying same-sex couples the right to marry, I am ashamed of you. Your grandchildren will be ashamed of you.

I have nothing to gain by writing this.  I am already married and have no openly gay friends or relatives, and I regret to offend those that I respect and love.  But I cannot remain silent. This is not an issue of political left or right, or anyone’s religious belief, but an issue of right and wrong.  Of the equal protection under the law provided by our constitution. Our nation was founded by those seeking freedom and equality.  I am for gay marriage because I love America and the justice, freedom and equality for which she stands.

7 comments:

Scott said...

I like it and am glad you put it in w/ Tom's discussion. We need more Baylor Alums to think this way.

Anonymous said...

I am a Christian & not for Gay marriage. I am also not for divorce and not for living together before marriage. But I also respect my gay friends, love and care deeply for them. And..if they want to get "married" that is up to them. I will still love them and care deeply for them.

Since America socially rejects the Judeo-Christian ethic it should not surprise Christians to see homosexuality so readily accepted in our culture today, and we will have to get used to the idea of "gay marriage."

I guess what I disagree with in your article is that Chick Fil A is being intolerant...or to have an opposing view is intolerant. There are still many people who have a Judeo-Christian ethic in their life, and for them it would be morally wrong to accept something that they believe is not wholesome.

So, at the end of the day, eventually both sides need to quit calling each other names: i.e. haters, intolerant and homophobes and just meet in the middle, shake hands and agree to disagree and love each other regardless.

Anonymous said...

Two thoughts...
1. Marriage is an institution created by GOD who designed it to be a union of a man and a woman.
2. Too many to list, but the Bible is very clear about homosexuality being a sin.

I sympathize with your desire to be tolerant, but tolerance needs to be rooted in the foundation of the truth of scripture not just a desire to be tolarant... much as Dr. King did....

Casey M. said...

I would ask both of those that made anonymous comments to distinguish their opposition to same-sex marriage from miscegenation as found to be in violation of the Equal Protection clause in Loving vs. Virginia. Make a legal argument, not a religious one. This case will be decided based upon the Constitution of the United States. Not the King James Bible.

Both of you relied upon a religious institution to justify your continued bigotry. Fortunately, congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion. That keeps our wives free from wearing burkas and hijabs and allows us all to live in freedom and liberty with equal protection under the law.

Anonymous said...

My concern is not with making a legal argument, but with, as a Christian, making sure that "the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart are acceptable in the sight of my LORD--my strength and Redeemer" (Psalms 19:14). I was drawn to your statements because you BEGAN with the assertion that you were a Christian. I challenge you to hold your beliefs in the light of the word of your God to see what His perspective is.

(for id purposes, my previous post was at 3:10pm)

Casey M. said...

Anonymous, I made no such assertion that I was a Christian.

As I see you are unable to make a legal argument showing that a prohibition on same sex marriage is rationally related to a legitimate government interest, I can only surmise that you are advocating a theocracy.

You hide behind anonymity and deny equal protection under the law based upon the reading of your religious book.

The blog author was right. You should be ashamed.

Tim S. said...

I am a Christian, and I'm neither for or against gay marriage. It's pretty clear to me that the Bible would be against it, but it's also pretty clear to me that we shouldn't make a law forbidding it. We don't live in a Christian nation, so the government forbidding it doesn't make sense. Why do we ask non-Christians to obey Bible-based laws?

I don't understand why this is one of the few issues Christians rally around each other to support (really, rally "to oppose" would make more sense). If you want this law, you should also want an anti-divorce law unless you follow the exceptions in Matthew 5 and other places. You should also want there to be a law enforcing the commandment "You shall have no other gods before me," which I guess means we have to outlaw Islam, Hinduism, etc.

I also don't see how gay people marrying each other has anything to do with my heterosexual marriage. It feels like Christians are afraid that, if gay marriage were allowed, straight people would just "become" gay and get gay married left and right.

There are thousands upon thousands of people every day who get married with no belief in God, and no respect for what the perfect idea of marriage should be--they think as soon as they feel like it, for any reason, they should be able to get divorced. If they can get married with no intention of following through on what marriage is "supposed" to be, why not gay people?