Schwarzenegger promised to veto another bill aimed at legalizing gay marriage in California. The popular vote shows that the people of the California do not want this bill to pass. The following is an excerpt from an AP article:
Geoffrey Kors, executive of the gay rights lobbying group Equality California, said Friday that he hoped Schwarzenegger would take the time to meet with gay and lesbian couples before promising another veto.
"How would the governor feel if his right to marry First Lady Maria Shriver had been put to a popular vote?" Kors said.
Why do people just expect that if you are not a proponent of gay marriage than you don't know any gay couples or are a homophobic? Maybe the reason people don't want gays to marry has more to do with the gays we know than the ones we don't. I'll admit I've only known four gay couples (only one of which is still together but I guess if you count the number of relationships there are 7 gay couples that I know or have known). There is only 1 that didn't have some kind of substance abuse issue and/or domestic violence issue. The couple that have been together so long? They don't care if they get married or not. Besides, single heterosexual couples aren't lobbying for being recognized as married - they choose not to be. Why do you need a bunch of idiots that don't even know you to give you the right to be called 'married'? Don't you see that it really doesn't matter all that much?
On the other hand, why do we even reject gay marriage? Our married people don't care much more about their marriage than the couples that cohabitate. The rate of divorce is climbing as well as the rate of co-habitation. Why have 'marriage' as a legally binding contract. Let's just abolish marriage altogether as a legal institution and put it back in the religious realm where it sprouted from. There is little or no benefit to Jesus for us to fight this way. Does it really matter? Please tell me why.
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5 comments:
What a ballsy post, Sam.
Isn't it interesting how the fires seem to heat up around something, and then everyone gets consumed by it? I'm really not thinking about gay marriage, whether it should or should not be legal, or co-habitation, or hetero marriage, or divorce, or cigarettes, or gambling. I'm eating, sleeping, drinking, thinking about my wife, my kids, my friends, working for a living, looking for romance... Then all of a sudden, something flashes to warn me that there is imminent danger of something being made legal or illegal, calling me to choose sides!
I wonder if it's possible to love in ignorance of all the fire alarms, from within. Or maybe part of love is to answer the threats without. It sure seems like more of life is the latter.
Steve,
I'm turning this one around some and looking at all the ways that God may turn it into something beautiful. I am not in favor of same-sex relationships. I feel it is what Paul called it. Divorce is aweful too and I'm guilty of that one. The hatred that has come out of Christians over the marriage issue looks alot more like the world than the body of Christ so I have prayed and thought and questioned and have finally found some ground I am confident I stand with Jesus on. I cannot say "love the sinner hate the sin" anymore. How can I love the sinner yet say that something we enjoy, tax breaks, insurance perks, social security benefits, etc. cannot be available to them? It puts me in a pluralism I don't want to live in so I have explored a solution.
Humanism is the new state religion. According to the Humanist Manifesto I (1933), and the Humanist Manifesto II (1973) and a couple of court cases dealing with secular humanists applying for concientious objector status it is a state-recognized religion. Very few Americans are innocent of worshipping at the altar of personal peace and affluence, including myself. This religion has taken over what God made Holy and has stolen the definition of marriage, that being the sacramental joining of man, woman, and the Holy Spirit into an earthly image of the Trinity (the 3-strand chord that is not easily broken). It is now a contract to be legislated, litigated, probated, and basically turned into a business arrangement with the commodity being sex, money, insurance benefits, etc. Even though without God marriage as we have long viewed it makes no sense, there is still this material attraction to it that has polarized Christians against a segment of the population that needs our love and the beckoning into the covenant we enjoy with the living Christ. As long as this is an issue Jesus appears the fool, marriage is further materialized and soiled and along with it the Holiness of our sovereign Lord. Nope, I'm all for giving up and giving in. Our battle is not with flesh and blood. What will marriage mean if there are no benefits to doing it from a humanist standpoint? It will be reclaimed by the church as a sacrament and enjoy the lofty status of a man and a woman joining as one in Christ. I don't see as though there is much to lose. Already there are more people that get divorced than ones that don't.
I guess what really clinched it for me was doing my taxes and actually feeling a pang of guilt for not having to pay any because of the benefits for giving and the number of kids I have. No wonder everyone wants marital status. I know a couple that is separated but won't get divorced because they'd lose money by doing so. They each have their own home and live-in paramor. I'm tired of marriage being drug through the filth.
I know its crazy and seems like a step backward but I believe that it is when we are weak that he is made strong. The civil disobedience of the Christians during Roman days wasn't that of trying to take over the government, it was disobedience of a law that went against God. I think that is where we've been making the mistake. The world really would like to believe in Jesus we just have so many ways of proving them right. You can hear it in the way they talk about things. We think we need to make Jesus popular but the people of this country are flocking away from popular religion because it hasn't worked as far as they are concerned. What they are running toward is love.
Thanks for the comment Steve. I enjoy what you have to say and the way you say it.
I'm with you on marriage being holy ground. I also think charity is holy. So is friendship. Of course the holiest of all relationships is that of father and son.
Why should someone pay me for these? Maybe if I gain by being married, being charitable, or being a father, then it actually perverts it. I bought a new laptop in December, and it was the tax deduction that pushed me over the hump.
Of course, no one really paid me for the laptop, or for my marriage, or for having children, or for giving to others. For that to happen it would have to be their money first. But I don't want to lose the idea in all that.
The point is that there is an incentive to do these things. But if there is a monetary incentive to be holy, doesn't that make it not as holy? Isn't part of holiness the sacrifice, the severing of the world and heaven within me? Isn't part of our glory the attitude of "Who cares? I'd rather be poor with Christ than rich with Mammon."
The church will be better off when tithes and offerings are no longer tax deductible. It's only a matter of time. Come quickly.
Truly, I'm ready to give up the fight for a Christian Culture. It's not because I think it's a fight we can't win. It's because I think we're better salt and light when it's dark and bland.
Thanks for bringing this up. It's been good for me to think about again.
Oh, and I forgive you for being divorced. You are freed from the guilt that came through that experience. May you love your wife and family and friends freely and unashamedly, and may you offer this same grace to the many who find themselves in the same shoes.
I talked with my wife about it this morning and she asked me if I wanted a divorce. She sure helps me bring my thoughts and prayers into our kitchen.
That's awesome!
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