the scriptorium

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

I've been hearing a lot in the news lately about all the debate going on concerning gay marriage. I'm trying to formulate an intelligent position on whether I'm for or against it, from an emerging Christian perspective. My gut response, of course, is that I'm against it--same sex marriage is not what God intended when He set up the institution of marriage. I am, however, sympathetic to those long-term gay couples who make the arguments about one partner being in ICU, for example, and the other not being able to get status reports or even visit. But those types of arguments are "legal" matters, things belonging to Caesar that should be under Caesar's jurisdiction and not the church's, if you will. My feeling is that same sex couples that are "gay" enough to want to get married are not the ones likely to be "evangelized" into leaving the gay lifestyle anytime soon. I would pray that they would come to see that homosexuality is not God's perfect will, but we must take people as they are. Anyway, my stated position when all these debates started was that I could handle "civil unions", but not actual "marriages" between gay couples. As the debate in the media has progressed, however, I have come to realize that, from a legal standpoint, I really don't have a good grasp of the difference between the two. Is there someone out there who can educate me on the difference between a civil union and a marriage, as far as government and the law is concerned? I have heard the ultra-conservative argument that the only reason that gays want same sex marriage legalized as opposed to civil unions, is that they have an agenda to get all us Christians to condone their lifestyle. This seems a bit facile to me. I'm sure that may be the case for some, but I know that there are many others who really don't care what anyone else thinks, they just want to live their life and be left alone. I really care about this issue, because I have gay friends--some who struggle with their homosexual feelings and are trying to live godly lives, however that plays out, and others who aren't struggling--they are happily gay and intend to stay that way. To the former I want to be part of a support mechanism to encourage them in their walk. To the latter I want to be a friend who, if and when the time comes, they can trust to be there to answer spiritual questions or just be there, modeling Christ in whatever way presents itself.

posted by #Debi at 10:38 PM | permalink | 0 comments