I've been thinking about this one for a long time, too. Below are the most common reasons I've heard Christians use to justify their objections, and my objections to those reasons. Please read this seriously and give it some thought. If, after you have thought it through FOR YOURSELF, you still don't agree with me, that's OK. Just make sure you have reasoned and logical reasons, and you're not simply spouting rhetoric you've heard on Christian radio or whatever.
“The Bible says marriage is
between one man and one woman!”
Really? Let's take a look. Yes, God
created Eve for Adam. The Bible does not tell us whether Adam took
another wife; however, legend does tell us that Eve may not have been
his only wife.
Even if the original plan was one
man/one woman, a cursory reading of the Bible tells us that this was
hardly ever the case. Abraham was not criticized for taking Hagar to
wife; he was criticized for his lack of faith that the promised son
would come from Sarah. David was never criticized for having multiple
wives, and he was called a man after God's own heart. Solomon was not
criticized for his political marriages; he was criticized for
permitting them to lead him away from Jehovah. The only comment on
the subject in the New Testament is in 1 Timothy, where a pastor must
be husband to only one wife.
Using the Bible to object to same-sex
marriage mischaracterizes the Bible. The Bible does not define
marriage.
“I don't want to support that
lifestyle!”
Let's break this one down. You, as a
believer in Jesus Christ, don't want to support a lifestyle of sin.
(For purposes of this discussion, we will assume that homosexuality
is a sin.) So that means that you will also not support the lifestyle
of anyone who gets drunk regularly (Ephesians 5:17), anyone who uses
profanity regularly (Ephesians 5:4), anyone who exasperates their
children (Ephesians 6:4), etc. You get the picture. If you want to
say that you cannot support a sinful lifestyle, then you have to
reject all sinners, not just the ones who disgust you. And since
every one of us is a sinner (Romans 3:23), are you going to reject
yourself? No? Then you can't reject anyone else, either.
Let's also remember that many people
who identify as homosexual are not Christians (unbelievers). Without
the filling of the Holy Spirit, they have no way to do anything other
than sin.
And as for the professing Christians
who are also homosexual, you have not been appointed their personal
Holy Spirit. Their choices are between them and God. Not your
business, not mine. Your business and mine is to reflect the grace of
Jesus Christ.
“Hate the sin, love the sinner!”
Newsflash: When someone tells you “I love you, but I
hate what you're doing,” all you hear is “I hate.” And our God
is love. Our Lord invited all to His table. He promises rest to
anyone who comes. And He paid the penalty for all sin, so exactly
what is it you think you're promoting? Sin has been forgiven. You
don't get to judge someone else's sin, not when your Savior has paid
the penalty for it.
If you're dealing with an unbeliever,
the only issue is what they think of Jesus Christ. Sin is an issue
for BELIEVERS, because we're the ones who have temporal consequences
of sin – we're the ones for whom 1 John 1:9 is written. Believers
have to confess our sins so that fellowship with God is restored.
Unbelievers don't have this option. All they can do is accept Jesus
Christ as their Savior.
“America was founded as a
Christian nation! We have to preserve Christian values!”
Let's take a look at history, shall we?
Yes, the Puritans came over to escape religious persecution by the
Catholic Church and the Church of England. However, the Puritans
exhibited the same astonishing lack of grace to anyone who didn't fit
their narrow notion of what Christianity should be. And at that time,
they considered themselves English colonists.
The move for independence from England
was political, not religious. It was spurred by taxation issues and
other issues regarding the governance of the colonies.
The group of men generally considered
as the Founding Fathers consisted of both Christians and Deists. Some
of the Christians were Unitarians rather than Trinitarians, so the
idea that there was one religious faith accepted by the Founding
Fathers is laughable.
If the argument is that we have a
responsibility to preserve the values “on which this country was
founded,” then we logically should still practice slavery, be
anti-mixed marriage, and women should not have the right to vote.
Those were values of society at that time. Picking and choosing
societal values from history is never intellectually honest.
Besides, as pointed out above, the
Bible does not define marriage as one man/one woman, so which version
of those values are we espousing? Polygamy? Child marriage?
The only intellectually honest
objection to gay marriage is “It's icky!” And if you're disgusted
by the thought of sex between two men or two women, that's OK. You
can be disgusted. But you cannot use that disgust to deny them the
benefits of marriage, which is, after all, a civil institution.
Marriage is defined by the culture in which you live (just think of
the differences in what is required to be married under traditional
Christian rules, traditional Jewish rules, traditional Hindu rules,
and traditional secular rules. It's all marriage.). And one thing
that is very clear is that Christians are to live in the society
where they find themselves (Romans 13:1).
