mikeandtim

Gay Marriage

I was watching Bill Maher's show on HBO last night, which is a fairly predictable onslaught on Conservatism and Christian Values, and there was a guest named Dan Savage (a columnist) on his show last night. Savage is a well-spoken and intelligent man. He is also gay. He stated that he has been with his partner for 10 years, and that they have a 7-yr. old adopted son that they are raising. Savage was doing a great job of using a defensive tone against the "aggressor" Mike Huckabee. Huckabee is the Governor of Arkansas, and while I had never seen him speak before, I was quite impressed by his demeanor, his reasoning, and his position on most of the topics that were addressed on the show. Huckabee was never hostile or anything less than cordial with Savage, but Savage unfortunately takes the victim's position as is popular with any "minority" group in America.
Something jumped out at me during the course of the show though. As much as Huckabee probably wanted to say something outright about gay marriage, he didn't . Part of me does not blame him at all. It is such a divisive issue in America that speaking anything in opposition to it could mean the end of a future opportunity at higher office. I realized that I wanted to say something at that moment, "Gay marriage is wrong." It is a simple statement. In accordance with my beliefs as a Chrisitan man, homosexuality is a sin. Marriages exist in large part as a proper arena for sexual interaction between a man and a woman, not for hedonistic purposes, but for reproduction! Here are passages that support this from the Bible: (from Romans Ch. 1)

²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

²⁶Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

This passage is to me the most clear passage about homosexuality in the Bible. There is also the passage in Genesis 19 about Sodom and Gomorrah, where the men of the city threaten to break into Lot's house to have sex with the two Angels that have come to visit him. (The Bible does state that they appeared in the image of men, not women.) The one example used to display the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah has to do with sexual perversion VIA HOMOSEXUALITY. There is no doubt that there were other sinful acts being committed, but out of everything that could have been written about in the Bible, it is homosexuality that is spotlighted. Is there any doubt that homosexuality is wrong in the eyes of God, and that as Christians we need to continually be vocal about our opposition to gay marriage? I don't think so. Think more deeply... Love the sinner, hate the sin.

posted by mikeandtim @ 6:23:00 AM