Some posts beg to be written. Some posts, although they command expression, are pushed into the shadows and left to die in the dark alleys of the mind or survive and hold the writer at gunpoint to be heard. This is one of those posts which refuses to die. It's not the first time I've addressed this issue. Somewhere back in the archives a similar post was given voice, but I don't remember the title now.
Posts like these spark bitterness, hatred, resentment, and on a bigger venue even threats. My reading audience is small and many of them are like-minded so I doubt too many comments will appear. And it's not comments I'm going for in this post. It's a reality that's being buried by shouts, by protests, by insistence for "fairness", and all matter of disagreements. I find it horrifically sad.
In Washington state Governor Gregoire, a progressive who has plunged this state deeper into debt following the example of the president and who is done with her pitiful two terms in November, signed into law the allowance for same-sex marriage without the measure appearing before the public for a vote. Granted that twice in California the people defeated the measure allowing same-sex marriage twice, but the Ninth Circuit Court somehow managed to rule that the people had no right to vote against it. ??
Marriage is what it is, has never been questioned as the institution that unites a man (husband) and a woman (wife) in matrimony, consummated by vows and a sexual union. But now a very small percentage of the United States of America demands that men can marry men and women can marry women because their love should have the same privileges as a man and woman who decide to marry.
The basis for their feelings has no origin in the biblical. And when people refuse to acknowledge the origins of moral absolutes, it's difficult to provide them with reasonable arguments they'll accept. So I'll try going a different route. I will say that bodies are built with certain structures and "equipment". These facillitate a natural process known as sexual intercourse and/or making love. What happens when bodies and minds decide to merge outside of their natural constructs presents a medley of problems for rationalizing such actions.
Please understand this: I recognize that same-sex couples care deeply for one another. I've known people who are gay. Like all other people of every gender, ethnic backgrounds, and cultural divides, some are good, nice, and wonderful people, and others are not. At all.
My moral code in Christ places homosexuality in the sin category along with every other kind of fornication and lust. No different, but sin nevertheless. And when we enable sin in our lives or in others' lives, we usher ourselves into the realm of consequential failures and results. Biblically, it's stated as "You reap what you sow" and in the world it's often said "What goes around comes around." Sin is inescapable. We're not going to defeat it in this life. But just because nice people welcome certain kinds of sin into their lives doesn't make it a necessity to praise it or them, allow it, and justify it.
I do find it odd that the sexual constructs of the human body get ignored when they aren't specifically designed for man to man and woman to woman sexual activity without challenging "normal" parameters. Please forgive me, gentlemen, if I shudder to see you lip-locked with another guy, or imagine women with their extra paraphernalia servicing one another. And lest you think I'm being sarcastic or poking fun here, I most certainly am not. I know that real relationships exist in the homosexual community, ones that respect each other, care for each other's needs, and ones that establish the same types of lifestyles as men and women who are coupled. Except for the matter at hand: the bodies don't fit right. I know that the men find a way to make them work together as do the women, but it's not the way they were designed to function. And if it's an hormonal disorder, a reactionary result from some physical or psychological trauma, or whatever might be the case, it's not the kind of relationship that needs to interfere with the longstanding and accepted norm of marriage.
If it was strictly based on legalities, partners can be given Power of Attorney, co-sign loans, bank accounts, etc., but don't need to tread on marriage. Establish your commitments to one another in spite of all objections if you're bound to do it, but don't take from the established union of a man and a woman to make your relationship fit into a contract that was never meant to be. Be a couple if you like, but don't pretend it's the same thing as marriage. It really isn't, no matter what some government types decide.
This is a difficult subject. Those of us who classify homosexuality as sin know that we fight to conquer all different kinds of sin in our own lives. Sometimes we succeed and other times we fail miserably. Recognizing what we do is wrong is critical to our well-being. If I can't convince you that what you're doing, feeling, is wrong, then so be it. But please don't try to convince me that what you're doing is right - especially when you want to push it into a marriage vow. It just doesn't fit.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men 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.
Romans 1:26-27 (NIV)
God, we're desperate for you. Every one of us. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
