Gay Marriage

In Christianity, the Bible is used as a guide for setting moral standards for society. Today I was talking with my brother about homosexual marriage and I rhetorically asked, “Why are we using obscure passages from an archaic book to dictate laws (whether or not homosexuals should be allowed to marry) in America?” It was pointed out that Paul condemned in Romans 1. I admit, I was more thinking of the Pentateuch passages dealing with this “abomination”. It was also pointed out that Paul is responsible for most of modern day Christian thought since his books, in number at least, contribute the most to the New Testament and also that his legitimacy was reinforced by Peter. I guess the word “archaic” is subjective in that the OT is 4000 years old versus 2000 years old for the NT. Either way; it is a long time ago and we are dictating law for our present day society with ideas from thousands of years ago in a completely different society.
The Romans passage says this (NIV):

“24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:
25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” ---Romans 1:24-32

This could be interpreted that homosexuality, according to Paul, is at the very least “unnatural”. So, don’t be gay. This is a home run for the Christian heterosexuals. That’s like asking me to not ever have a menstruation cycle. I CAN AND WILL FOLLOW THAT COMMANDMENT. Check that one off the list and let’s have a law that says that men can’t marry men and women can’t marry women.
Here is where the “pro-family” Christian movement loses all credibility. I’ve not heard of many (outside of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church) supporting any of the following. Even the most fundamental of Christians aren’t calling for laws supporting these passages:

Ex. 22:20 He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.
Lev. 24:16 And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death.
Ex. 31:15 Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
Ex. 21:15 He that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
Ex. 21:17 He that curseth his father or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
Ex. 22:19 Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.
Lev. 20:13 If a man lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death.
Lev. 20:10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, the adulterer
and the adulteress shall be put to death.
Ex. 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
Mal. 2:1-4 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If you will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name,...behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces. (Will Jesus do the spreading of the dung??)
Deuteronomy 22:5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so [are] abomination unto the LORD thy God.
Leviticus 12:2,5: 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean… 5 But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation: and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days.

But that is the OLD Testament! Modern day Christianity follows the NEW Testament. So it’s OK to have a law for something in America today because it is in the New Testament? Paul also wrote:

1 Corinthians 11:14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
Romans 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to [her] husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of [her] husband.
1 Timothy 2:9 – 15: 9. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; 10 But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. 11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
1 Corinthians 11:7 – 9: 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover [his] head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. 8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. 9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
1 Corinthians 14:34 – 35: 34. Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but [they are commanded] to be under obedience, as also saith the law. 35 And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

Peter says:

1 Peter 3:1 -3: 1. Likewise, ye wives, [be] in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
2 While they behold your chaste conversation [coupled] with fear.
3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward [adorning] of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;

In my opinion, the vast majority of Christians do not want a law for any of the above. Furthermore, very few believing Christians follow the above with any amount of regularity. But those same people want a law so that homosexuals can not be married. Why doesn’t the Christian community take the advice of Jesus and remove the plank in their own eye first? The arrogance and hypocrisy of the “pro-family” movement is this: They decide for everyone else and seek legislation based on their own beliefs, preferences and predilection without considering what life would be like if the shoe was on the other foot. And, all the while they decide to ignore and disregard other passages that are less convenient and relevant. In my opinion, this sort of thinking falls somewhere on a continuum of myopic and tyrannical.
One of the great things about our country is that we protect the minority from tyranny of the majority. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter if 99% believe that a Holy Book is telling them that women shouldn’t be able to vote or that dark skinned people should drink from a separate but equal water fountain. The law should protect the rights of the 1% regardless of the religious preferences of the majority and not the other way around. This is so fundamentally important to our free society. Freedom of religion also includes freedom from religion. In my opinion, we should nurture that idea or we may eventually risk the possibility of a theocracy and we may or may not get to pick the God.

(More Later)