Christianity and the End of Proposition 8

As you surely know by now, a federal judge has ruled Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional in California.  This ban on homosexual marriage has been struck down because the judge felt that "moral disapproval" was not enough to save the voter-passed Proposition 8.

You might be surprised to find out that I'm not very concerned about this.  Proposition 8 didn't interest me much when it was written, and it's removal today doesn't get me out of my chair.   It just doesn't mean much to me.  I'll explain.

As I've said in the past, I don't like the idea of the federal government regulating marriage.  If Uncle Sam can tell homosexuals not to get married then he can tell me not to get married with that same power.  I'm not a fan of giving the government powers it can use against me, so I don't get excited about banning gay marriage - that could come back to bite me.

Furthermore, to hit on a common talking point, I don't think gay marriages will make me feel like my marriage has been devalued.  That's already been done by high divorce rates, abusive/cheating spouses, and people who treat marriage like a form of dating that some people only get into so they can profit from the divorce.  I'd like to see the church deal with these problems from its own members before criticizing anyone outside of the church.

Finally, I don't think there will be cataclysmic reactions to this.  Since I'm not Pat Robertson I don't believe God will curse our country for this - if He cursed every country that accepted homosexuality things would have turned out very different in history for a lot of countries.  We are each expected to take care of our own personal devotion; we are judged individually by what is in our hearts and not corporately by federal laws.

This doesn't mean that I am happy about the judge's ruling, today, but I just really can't get that worked up about it. (I realize this puts me in the minority, because most of the people I know are either celebrating or plotting revenge.)

But I'll tell you something that does make me angry.  Very angry, in fact.  TheWrap.com wrote an article about this federal ruling, and the very first comment on the story was written by a hateful person who insulted gays and called them all sodomizers.  His screen name? HeDied4u.  That's right, the very first comment on this story managed to make Christians look hateful and ignorant.  Being hateful to homosexuals is something that Jesus would not do, and yet some of my fellow believers have occupied this sinister outpost.  I want to hang my head in shame because I have to be associated with that sort of thing.  This is why I can't tell someone I'm a Christian without being called a gaybasher or a hater even though I'm a very accepting person.Christians acting hateful and misrepresenting Christ is a far bigger problem than anything California's courthouse can bring.

Before we take any action on gay marriage, let's clean up our own house.  Stop hating.  I can't make it any more simple than that.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  While this is being perfected we should not look too far outside of ourselves.

Gays Attack Rick Warren's Church (It Sounds Like Something From The Onion...)

While Obama was being elected as the next President of the United States, California quietly passed the now infamous proposition 8, which has effectively banned gay marriage in that state. An angry group of homosexuals have been rioting ever since and their protests have become so violent that an old lady who was being interviewed by a news outlet was harassed by a crowd who pulled a cross out of her hands and stomped on it. (The blogger over at the Gay Patriot is asking if any grown ups are there.)

Glenn Reynolds (who certainly doesn't consider himself to be a Christian) has been defending the Christians involved, which is probably the first time he has done that since I started reading his blog. He wonders why these angry gay activists are not taking out their anger on Mosques, of course, that would be a hate crime.

There is a terrible rift between America's Christians and America's homosexuals and this doesn't have to be the case. We can blame some of this on foolish Christians who have blamed gays for hurricane Katrina or insisted that every gay person is a child molester. This is not the view of most Christians, only of a small few, but as always that vocal minority has made the rest of us look bad. (Rick Warren is not a gay basher, so it is unfair that his high profile church is under attack.)

Let's take this opportunity to get rid of the "us vs. them" attitude between Christians and gays and not add to the clamor. Let's show the homosexuals in our families and at our jobs that we not interesting in fighting them, but in showing true Christian love to them.