Opponents of gay marriage often cite Scripture. But what the Bible teaches about love argues for the other side.
Excerpts:Let's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his beloved wife Sarah was infertile? Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)? Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel—all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments—especially family. The apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust. "It is better to marry than to burn with passion," says the apostle, in one of the most lukewarm endorsements of a treasured institution ever uttered. Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple—who likely woke up on their wedding day harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender equality and romantic love—turn to the Bible as a how-to script?
Of course not, yet the religious opponents of gay marriage would have it be so…
Not since 1860, when the country's pulpits were full of preachers pronouncing on slavery, pro and con, has one of our basic social (and economic) institutions been so subject to biblical scrutiny…
To which there are two obvious responses: First, while the Bible and Jesus say many important things about love and family, neither explicitly defines marriage as between one man and one woman. And second, as the examples above illustrate, no sensible modern person wants marriage—theirs or anyone else's —to look in its particulars anything like what the Bible describes. "Marriage" in America refers to two separate things, a religious institution and a civil one, though it is most often enacted as a messy conflation of the two. As a civil institution, marriage offers practical benefits to both partners: contractual rights having to do with taxes; insurance; the care and custody of children; visitation rights; and inheritance. As a religious institution, marriage offers something else: a commitment of both partners before God to love, honor and cherish each other—in sickness and in health, for richer and poorer—in accordance with God's will. In a religious marriage, two people promise to take care of each other, profoundly, the way they believe God cares for them. Biblical literalists will disagree, but the Bible is a living document, powerful for more than 2,000 years because its truths speak to us even as we change through history. In that light, Scripture gives us no good reason why gays and lesbians should not be (civilly and religiously) married—and a number of excellent reasons why they should…
http://www.newsweek.com/2008/12/05/our-mutual-joy.htmlSame-Sex Marriage Debate Has Roots Going Back Centuries
By Stephanie Pappas, August 15, 2010
LiveScience Senior Writer
http://www.livescience.com/culture/marriage-history-same-sex-marriage-prop-8-100815.html
California Prop 8, Aug, 4, 2010 - Deep misunderstanding - "We the People" means - US Constitution – DANGERS of majority rule - a reflection of prejudice, intolerance, ignorance, panic and crude self-interest…
by Geoffrey R. Stone - Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-oped-0808-stone-20100808,0,2223308.story
Geoffrey R. Stone is a law professor at the University of Chicago.
The Power of Marital Love – Marriage Equality – Maine 2009 – Minnesota 2010
It must be remembered that the importance and meaning of marriage is more than procreation. Two people pledging their love to each other is not just for themselves, because that is not a marriage. By being in love, two become one and they are better equip to be the best for everyone in world their families, friends, co-workers and beyond. In this way all marriages are contributing to the procreation of children by their enriching the social environment that children will be born into. I think that love; true love like energy is never lost, a bit like Einstein, maybe.
Gay Marriage - Truth Will Set Us Free Not Ignorance and Fear
by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/power-of-marital-love-marriage-equality.html
Anti-Gay Marriage DVDs Propaganda, 9/21/10 - Ratzinger, Nienstedt – Against Human Rights - Minnesota – Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
Holocaust – Perpetrators
The National Socialist German Workers' Party or NSDAP , known as the Nazi Party, controlled Germany from 1933 to 45. Nazis labeled and isolated Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, political prisoners, and the mentally and physically disabled. Some were passively killed by starvation and widespread disease. Millions were murdered in attacks by the Gestapo , the SA , and the SS , in mass killings of the Einsatzgruppen, in and around Nazi concentration, and later death camps.http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/anti-gay-marriage-dvds-propaganda-92110.html
PROTECTION OF CHILDREN
California - Prop 8 judgment, August 4, 2010 - Gay marriage
“Religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful or inferior to heterosexual relationships harm gays and lesbians.”
Judge Vaughn Walker
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/gay-marriage-religious-beliefs-that-gay.html
On Prop 8, it's the evidence, stupid
By Lisa Bloom - CNN.com
and related links:
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-prop-8-its-evidence-stupid-by-lisa_18.html
American Academy of Pediatrics
The Effects of Marriage, Civil Union, and Domestic Partnership Laws on
the Health and Well-being of Children – 2006
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/1/349
Gay marriage -> Restoring "Hope of Love" To Children In Early Childhood -> Marriage Equality – March 23, 2010 – Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
Marriage Equality, like Galileo, is the truth about the facts of growing up gay. Marriage Equality will not become a reality until people learn that its most vital purpose is that it restores the “hope of love” to children in early childhood – essential to their development and well-being for life. Without Marriage Equality we teach children how to hate love and how to be mean and indifferent to people as adults. With all due respect, without Marriage Equality we would teach them in much the same way as has been shown by Benedict XVI and the hierarchy, especially in their lack of care and protection of children for decades. http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/03/restoring-hope-of-love-to-children-in_23.html
SEXUAL CONVERSION THERAPIES
Jack Drescher, M.D.
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/sexual-conversion-therapies-jack.html
“Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.”
Erik Erikson
…whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Matthew 18:6
No comments:
Post a Comment