I had a friend try to show me a video of an MSNBC news cast where a reporter voiced his opinions on Prop 8 and the backlash that has followed it in the recent month. He tried to convey that it wasn’t an issue of marriage but an issue of denying happiness and love between two human beings. She tried to tell me that this was the core of the issue surrounding Prop 8 and why people reacted to a recent note I had written. But I wanted to tell her that it is not an issue of not knowing the other side of the issue or not coming at it from another prospective. I watched this clip when it had originally aired and my opinion still stands. I wanted to tell her that I will never agree on this issue, for so many other reasons than the one I poorly wrote out in that note. I don't agree with gay marriage, I don't support the homosexual lifestyle, and I use my rights as an American to free speech and the right to vote to show my beliefs. That’s it plain and simple. So people can show me videos, quote speeches, throw things at me, whatever. But I won’t change what I feel about this issue. I’m not ignorant and don’t know what I am talking about. I like to try to be as informed as I can be before I take a stance on an issue and this is no different. But part of why I am writing this note is that a ton of people told me that I was uninformed and didn’t know the whole story and the other side of the issue. But it is a two way street. People are trying to force me to see the other side of the issue without understand my own side. Very few of the people who did this to me, I believe, could not honestly tell me the reasons I believed what I believed correctly without resorting to cruel and harsh stereotypes that attack my religion. But, alas, because of our society and the type of people who I interact with on and around this issue I couldn't say that. So in order to have a piece of mind I will write it here.
The real heart of this issue is Religion vs. Lifestyles. This issue will never be fully resolved. It is just that. I know that I will always fight for propositions like Prop 8 because I believe that it is morally wrong and goes against the beliefs that are the core of my human being. I am slightly offended by this man on the news cast taking my religion completely out of context. It’s not that I don’t love people who call themselves homosexuals and want to sanctify their relationships or that I hate them without even knowing their faces. I want people to find happiness. I’m not this evil being that demands that everyone in the world should suffer. I see it day to day that this world is a horrible and evil place and part of it is due to what society has allowed people to do. I mourn the world and the horrible things that occur in it every day. But, and I’m sorry if I offend someone when I say this, but this is the problem for me. I am being asked to support an issue that I not only think is a sin and morally wrong, but diminishes an act that to me is the ultimate act that I can perform in this lifetime. An act that I would defend until the end of time and that is what I am doing.
I’m just going to say it. I don’t believe that homosexuality is anything but a choice that a person makes, plain and simple. Oh yes, now people will be offended, but that’s it. I do not believe these claims “That it is how I’m made”, and “I don’t chose to be this.” No. You were not physically made to love someone of the same gender. If you were then why do need a man and a woman in order to procreate? A woman and a woman cannot and a man and a man cannot.
Yes, my religion says that in the beginning God made a woman and a man and they were told to love each other and multiply. Yes, it says that marriage is only between a man and a woman and it is at the core of my religion. So obviously this is really important to me. There are over 500 references in both the new and old testaments that involve the phrases “marriage”, “husband” and “wife”. To me, we see the first wedding in the very first book of the Bible, right at the beginning and heart of my beliefs. To me marriage is God's idea, designed and instituted by the Creator, and the heart of God's design for marriage is companionship and intimacy between a man and a woman. It was Adam and Eve in the beginning, not Adam and Steve or Eve and Amanda.
Now I say this all in order for people to understand where I stand on this issue and why I vote the way I do. But know this. I do not agree with people who call themselves Christians and discriminate and act violently towards people who call themselves different. They aren’t Christians. They are people who have chosen a banner that has nothing to do with the actions that they are performing. Those people disgust me and for them to call themselves Christians angers me to the point where I almost give up and don’t tell people I am a Christian because I do not want to be associated with those people. They aren’t Christians and sometimes I even wonder if they are people. What they do are horrible and quite frankly are against the very religion that they claim to be acting under. I do not believe in homosexuality but I will love and call them my friends because that it what it truly means to be a Christian.
Excuses me while I get a little preachy but in order to feel like you truly understand how I think and for you to be truly informed on both sides of the issue I have to get a little biblical. Jesus came down to earth and what did he do? Did he lead a witch hunt to kill all of the sinners? Did he violently hate and openly abuse those who he believed were committing acts that were wrong? Did he sit in his high tower next to the “religious leaders” of the day and condemn and persecute those that were believed to be heathens and dark spots on society? NO! He spent all of his days among those people. He spent his day with the lepers, prostitutes, thieves, murderers, tax collectors, lawyers and the very people that the others were condemning. He went out of his way to love those people that the very people who were claiming to act in his name were attacking and hurting. BUT! He also let them know that he believed what they were doing was wrong AND he loved them anyways. So that is what I strive to do and be. I strive to love everyone unconditionally and be who I am and what I believe at the same time.
I have more than one friend that is of the homosexual persuasion and you can ask them, I don’t approve of what they are doing but I love them just the same. I won’t try to bash your head in with a Bible, I will hug you, tell you I love you but don’t agree with you and we’ll move on. I won’t stick a scarlet letter on your chest and kick you out of the village. If anything I’ll save you a place next to me in the pew always, even if you don’t come.
But I have severally rabbit trailed. The real thing is that it is against my very being to support and vote yes on things supporting homosexuality and marriage. It is and always will be. I will love you, hold your hand and be a shoulder for you to lean on but you will know that I don’t approve. Just like you will always vote for it because you believe that it is right and a matter of happiness and love. Sadly, I do not see a light at the end of this tunnel and don’t plan on being there to see the end.
