The Debate: The Bible and Gay Marriage

Contents:

• GAY MARRIAGE: THEOLOGIL AND MORAL ARGUMENTS
• SAME BIBLE, DIFFERENT VERDICT ON GAY MARRIAGE
• THE MOST POPULAR BIBLE VERS FOR DEBATG GAY MARRIAGE
• WHY THE ARGUMENTS FOR GAY MARRIAGE ARE PERSUASIVE
• WHY ‘GOD AND THE GAY CHRISTIAN’ IS WRONG ABOUT THE BIBLE AND SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS
• 31 BIBLE VERS ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE
• THE TOP 10 ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE: ALL RECEIVE FAILG GRAS!
• THE DEBATE: THE BIBLE AND GAY MARRIAGE

GAY MARRIAGE: THEOLOGIL AND MORAL ARGUMENTS

We already set the trajectory for this answer when we noted that all the biblil texts on homosexualy, both the OT and NT, are negative. Often the church’s rponse has been that human sign reveals the wrongns of homosexualy bee of childbearg. In the end he will judge —heterosexual or homosexual—for how we’ve lived the areas, regardls of our natnal laws.

Statistics suggt, however, that gays and lbians are not creasg number, if we accept the bt rearch data of Edward Lmann, who puts the number at about 5% of the populatn1.

SAME BIBLE, DIFFERENT VERDICT ON GAY MARRIAGE

What has grown is a much greater acceptance of gays and lbians our culture, as well as the social and enomic eedom for gays and lbians to emerge om the closet that has nfed them for so many generatns. The recent addn of same sex mment ceremoni the Sunday New York Tim weddg and engagement announcements and the populary of shows as "Will and Grace" and "Queer Eye…" dite a shift our culture's attu toward gays and lbians.

In every class, for the past 20 odd years, I have ved a gay former stunt, Lee FzGerald, to speak on gay relatnships. My tent was two-fold: first to ve stunts to dialogue wh people different om themselv; send, to work to elimate, whatever small way I uld, homophobic attus on our mp and our muny. The attus of Santa Clara stunts have evolved signifintly the last two s vis à vis gay and lbian relatnships.

My purpose today is not to support or fend gay and lbian marriag—ed, many gays and lbians do not want to marry—but simply suggt a theologil approach that might open up the possibily for greater Christian acceptance of, and eccliastil approval for, same sex unns. A person is born gay and lbian and grows up this way; is not a matter of cisn, one possibily among others for the mature dividual. "Consiratns Regardg Proposals to Give Legal Regnn to Unns Between Homosexual Persons" (CDF): nnot promote any form of civil regnn of same-sex unns, formally or materially.

THE MOST POPULAR BIBLE VERS FOR DEBATG GAY MARRIAGE

Catholic sistence: one n uphold the digny of homosexual people while not upholdg their right-to-marry; no unjt discrimatn towards homosexuals is acceptable; they mt be treated wh rpect, and their rights fend. The bate over gay marriage is not jt takg place the natn’s urts – is also a subject of tense discsn the natn’s church.

Matthew V, an openly gay, evangelil Christian and the thor of “God and the Gay Christian: The Biblil Case Support of Same-Sex Relatnships, ” has been actively enuragg nservative Christians to re-evaluate their beliefs about homosexualy.

Caleb Kaltenbach, lead pastor of Disvery Church Simi Valley, Calif,, to talk privately wh a small group of evangelil lears to discs what the Bible says about gay relatnships.

WHY THE ARGUMENTS FOR GAY MARRIAGE ARE PERSUASIVE

Kaltenbach is the thor of the forthg book “Msy Grace, ” which is about how he rencil his nservative Christian nvictns wh his experience as the child of gay the ssn, they were each asked to terpret some of the most ced vers relatg to homosexualy the Bible.

Therefore, Christians today have to ask whether gay relatnships n fulfill the re prcipl of Scripture’s teachgs about marriage. Do not be ceived: Neher the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostut nor homosexual offenrs nor thiev nor the greedy nor dnkards nor slanrers nor swdlers will her the kgdom of God. In this text, Pl two Greek words—malakoi and arsenokoai—that likely refer to some forms of male same-sex behavr, but not the morn ncept of homosexualy.

WHY ‘GOD AND THE GAY CHRISTIAN’ IS WRONG ABOUT THE BIBLE AND SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS

Even if I don’t agree wh , shouldn’t those who intify as gay and lbian still have the same eedom I have to get married? The state is not gog to prohib those homosexual relatnships om mtg themselv to each other public ceremoni or relig celebratns. The tablishment of gay “marriage” enshr law a flty view of marriage, one that says marriage is sentially a monstratn of mment sexually exprsed.

31 BIBLE VERS ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE

See Katy Fst’s strikg article, “Dear Jtice Kennedy: An Open Letter om the Child of a Lovg Gay Parent, ” which she matas that she is “one of many children wh gay parents who believe we should protect marriage” bee “the ernment’s tert marriage is about the children that only male-female relatnships n produce.

Crawford, “Mechanism, Public Reason, and the Anthropology of Orientatn: How the Debate over ‘Gay Marriage’ Has Been Shaped by Some Ubiquo but Unexamed Assumptns, ” Humanum (Fall 2012): 8; available onle at /pdfs/CRAWFORD_SSU_ma_17pp_(fal).

”V is the thor of the book God and the Gay Christian and founr of The Reformatn Project, a nonprof group that aims to give LGBT people nservative, Christian muni and their straight alli the tools necsary to argue favor of gay rights on strictly biblil terms.

THE TOP 10 ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE: ALL RECEIVE FAILG GRAS!

He se a pro-gay terpretatn of biblil scripture, one that rpects the reverence many evangelils feel toward the text self. He was gay, and he wanted to be open about to his muny, but there was no precent for young people who had grown up his church and then e out immediately separated themselv om the spirual fay that had nurtured them. ” Like how crics of anti-gay relig arguments will pot out the hypocrisy of how people will pick and choose which parts of the Bible they want to follow to the letter.

THE DEBATE: THE BIBLE AND GAY MARRIAGE

While liberal Christians argue the Bible should be terpreted as society chang, nservativ argue for a more leral readg, leadg to differenc belief about God and homosexualy. Homosexualy: In Biblil Terms It's te, says Carmen Fowler LaBerge: You n be a Christian and support same-sex marriage, but, she says, "nobody n say gay marriage is biblil. Still, LaBerge says, om Levic to Pl's wrgs Romans and First Corthians, homosexual acts are lled vile and ttable, and legalizg same-sex relatnships do not change the s.

Reactn In Black Church Homosexual behavr is a flt le spltg Christian nomatns two — Epispalians, Methodists, Prbyterians, Catholics — there's even a wi gulf between young and old Evangelils. " Hagler not that there are plenty of blacks who are gay, and they, too, should have accs to the God-given stutn of marriage. Sce 2007, the topics of homosexualy, same-sex marriage, and gay marriage have received over 30, 000 vot across 940, 000 pageviews, providg a reasonably broad wdow to the passag that people–largely evangelil Christians–apply to the bate.

This is squarely le wh the church’s official posn on homosexualy, which is that is “patible wh scripture”. Do not be ceived: neher the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practise homosexualy, nor thiev, nor the greedy, nor dnkards, nor revilers, nor swdlers will her the kgdom of God. The excerpt om Corthians, above, lists alongsi homosexuals, adulterers, the greedy and dnkards to jt name a few.