I'm in London right now during the worldwide celebration of the Olympics. I am out of my comfort zone and surrounded by every race, creed, gender, religion and possible amalgamation of human being possible.
All the while, my Facebook is BLOWING up with Chick-fil-A beliefs left and right. I usually stay away from most debates of a political nature, but gay marriage is one I must stand up for. Why? Because it's not a political issue, it's a civil rights issue. And not only that, but because I love Jesus, and the way that many Christians are responding to the idea that gay people should be able to marry makes me cringe.
There are all kinds of places in the Bible that can be quoted to support "traditional marriage," New and Old Testament. There are also places in the Bible that can be quoted to support stoning your son to death if he is rebellious (Deuteronomy 21: 18-2). There are also places in the Bible that say that male and female have no boundary within the body of Christ (Galatians 3:28).
But as far as I can tell, there is nothing in the Red Letters of The Bible where Jesus preaches against homosexuality. It's just not there. If it is, please show me so that I can stand corrected.
What I DO know is this... Jesus DID give his TOP TWO Commandments, in fact, Jesus says that "All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:40).
So, what are these top two Commandments? As a Christian, a lover or follower of Jesus, wouldn't you want to know what these top two commandments? ESPECIALLY if "ALL THE LAW and the Prophets" hang on them?
Now, by Law and Prophets, I can only accept that Jesus meant for us to forget EVERYTHING else that we've heard, no matter who said it or what the Law says. This MUST include everything in the Old Testament and everything that every other prophet or disciple wrote BEFORE or AFTER Christ's death. These are his TOP TWO irrevocable commandments that PRECEED and HOLD DOMINION over ALL OTHER LAWS and PROPHETS!
So... what are they?
Simple... Read in Matthew 22:36-40. Here goes:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Now, Jesus didn't stutter. He did not say, "Love your straight neighbor as yourself," or "Love your gay neighbor as yourself," or your "white neighbor," "black neighbor," "Christian neighbor," "atheist neighbor," etc. He said it PLAIN, SIMPLE and without stuttering: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
If you are a Christian or a lover of Jesus like I am, then it BEGINS and ENDS here. Why? Because Jesus said in His own words that these are the TOP TWO commandments that EVERYTHING else lay upon.
This is not out of context. This is not to be subverted because Paul said something, or another Prophet said something else in the Old Testament. Jesus was VERY clear that these two commandments TRUMP everything and everyone else and what they said.
So, if that is the case my Christian friends, let me ask you a question: If you are a straight Christian, do you want the right to marry? Yes, or no? Do you think as a straight person you have that right? Would you want that right? How would it feel to not be able to marry the person that you love? If someone said that they supported you not being able to marry the person that you Love, how would that make you feel?
Jesus calls us to have empathy, compassion and an open heart for all human beings. Not just people who follow Him. Not just Christians. Not just believers. Not just straight people. BUT EVERYONE. And this includes gay people. They are your neighbors, too. So if we are to follow what Jesus is asking of us, we MUST demand that gay people have the right to marry. Why? Because to NOT do so would not be loving them as we love ourselves. And that would make us hypocrites pretending to love Jesus.
Christians and lovers of Jesus should be the first people to allow people who love each other to get married, regardless of their sexual orientation. Jesus was all about Love, not rules and regulations. But LOVE.
It's that simple. Based on these top two commandments, I believe that Jesus would support gay people getting married.
On top of that, the idea of gay marriage is absurd. We live in a time where we are being asked to open our hearts, expand our minds and step into a larger world view. Marriage isn't gay or straight, any more than voting is male, female, white, black or yellow. There's just the right to vote. The right for every HUMAN BEING to vote. And the same goes for two consenting adults who want to get married.
Calling it "gay marriage" is akin to "separate but equal." It's still not fully recognizing the closed mindedness of such a label.
If we love Jesus, if we call ourselves a Christian, then we must follow these top two commandments above all else and rise to the occasion so that every consenting adult has the right to Love and be Loved as they please.
It's that simple.
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Again, the strange thing is that both sides of the arguement play out on an unstable or 'assumed' belief that the whole thing is in fact the truth and light of the lord...when there are 31 flavors of Jesus in the Baskin Robbins of Religion. I like Superman Jesus personally. 6lb 8oz tiny Krypton Jesus in assorted bubble gum flavors. The gum, ice cream, and the cape alone would bring in all the kids that the priests need into the halls of our beloved lord....and you could fortify it with vitamin D...oh wait..they already did.
"I don't know what Jesus thought about gays and all, but he did hang out with a dozen dudes and have a hooker on standby.
Besides, isn't good old Jesus just a passover from Egyptian Religion...since he's the 'sun' of god? And the 12 diciples are re-representations of Egyptian / Roman / Greek star formations for each month representing the earth's swatch? That's the latest internet crackpipe i've b...een smoking.
I get too caught up with religion and it's tones. If I want scaffolding in my brain, i'll just open up my skull and diy. God is always there, becuase God to me is simply existance, and existance exists. That helps me take one topic off the table for procrasterbation.
Continued on Part 2
I don't really believe that Jesus supports gay marriage, no more than I believe he supports drinking, smoking, adultery, the list could go on and on.... All of these things are ways that humans fall short of Gods desires for us. BUT the thing is that we ALL fall short all the time, so we cant judge each other... Christ is pro choice though and not about condemning his children in any way. So just like adultery, and hanging out at a friends house on a Saturday night getting wasted is not illegal (though not right in the sight of God) why should "gay marriage" be illegal?...... I actually don't believe that we as people should decline other people the right to marry who they want...In my opinion its a freedom of choice. Jesus loves us all the same, we should just focus our lives on loving each other, looking past our differences, and realizing we are really all the same. #peace
..... *grabs mic and shouts---> "Only God Can Judge Me!!* {in my Tupac voice} lol *drops mic and exits stage left*
Blessings to you all :)
~JazzyPhae
Paige
“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Matthew 19:4-6
Yes, He did say that we must love God with all our heart, and our neighbor as our self. To love God means to obey Him. Obeying Him means I must stand by what He has said regarding marriage. Marriage that He ordained as between one man and one woman. To love my neighbor means to speak truth in love. It does not mean to support and condone that which is wrong. If my neighbor is an alcoholic, I could love him, but would it be love to also buy him alcohol?
Jesus was quite clear on marriage. Since God's plan is clear, it is also clear that to support anything other than His plan is not to act in love, not for Him nor for my neighbor.
In the eyes of the law and government there is only "marriage". But in the debate over marriage equality, the term "gay marriage" is no more of a separate but equal thing than talking about inter-racial marriage or inter-faith marriage. Now civil unions would be because you are having the government distinguish between two relationships and saying one is more valued than the other.
The Bible is the unfolding of God’s plan to restore His Kingdom on earth and all that it entails. It also reveals the character of God: complete, holy, just, sovereign and yes, love. Why? He wants us to know all of Him.
Some refer to Christians as not loving all people and not accepting those for who they are. Well if you pick only certain attributes of God that you agree with leaving out the rest are you not doing the same thing?
Amen that God doesn’t think the way we do. He loves us unconditionally even though it seems we love ourselves & sin more than Him.
Mastin you are great at encouraging people and seem to strive to grow. Seek to study the full council of God to rightful divide the word of truth. It is the true bread of life.
The Bible is the unfolding of God’s plan to restore His Kingdom on earth and all that it entails. It also reveals the character of God: complete, holy, just, sovereign and yes, love. Why? He wants us to know all of Him.
Some refer to Christians as not loving all people and not accepting those for who they are. Well if you pick only certain attributes of God that you agree with leaving out the rest are you not doing the same thing?
Amen that God doesn’t think the way we do. He loves us unconditionally even though it seems we love ourselves & sin more than Him.
Mastin you are great at encouraging people and seem to strive to grow. Seek to study the full council of God to rightful divide the word of truth. It is the true bread of life.
the OT says we can have hebrew slaves for a period of time...
Some more words of Jesus... "Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery." Mark 10:11-12 If my husband and I get a divorce and I meet the "love of my life", I am NOT free, as a straight person, to marry the person I love. "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart"? How do you love God? By OBEYING Him. Was it such a big deal that Adam and Eve ate a piece of fruit when they were told not to? By human standards, no. By God's standards? It's what screwed over all humanity and caused God to have to come HERE to die. Think about it. GOD left PARADISE to come.... here. A world filled with death and corruption. But He loved us enough to die so that we wouldn't have to. The caveat? We have to die to this world. We are in it, but not of it. We have to take up our crosses and follow Him. So, if you were born gay, and I do believe that some people are, then, if you actually claim to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, you are called to live a chaste life. Like it or not, that's the way God rolls.
Where is this 'call' in Scripture? Perhaps it can be found in someting Paul might have said, but no one here is calling themselves a 'Paulian'. (Wasn't Paul the one who told slaves to obey their Masters? And women to "keep silent, not to preach"?)
But I've never seen this "God's call" for gay people to be celibate anywhere in Scripture.
Besides, America is not a theocracy.
You also forget that Jesus didn't come to do away with the law but fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). Just because Jesus died for our sins doesn't mean we get a free pass to sin (it just alleviates us from the eternal consequences of it.)
Re: "The government should basically get out of marriage."
You're welcome to your opinion, but if you want others to agree with you, you should tell us WHY you think that way.
The government is NOT - EVER - going to "get out of marriage". Like it or not, the government governs. That is, they pass and administer (secular) laws that govern "the effects that flow from marriage". That is its very job. Government was in the business of regulating marriage many centuries before any Church got involved. (And I sure wouldn't want "The Church" to be deciding on things like inheritance rights, child-custody, alimony/support payments, immigration sponsorship, pensions, etc. We'd have to agree on WHICH Church would get to administer such laws, and that ain't ever gonna happen.)
You see, the only purpose of marriage in the eyes of the law is to establish legal kinship where none previously existed. No church can terminate a marriage contract, so maybe we should urge The Church to get out of marriage, and stick to performing the religious Rite of Holy Matrimony. Remember, it is only because the State grants clergy the authority to perform marriages on behalf of the government that The Church can perform marriages in the first place.
And, we let atheists marry, do we not?
P.S. Homosexuality is not a "sin" in my religion.
We apparently just disagree over defining the term "marriage" which I'm saying is defined within the religious Rite of Holy Matrimony (where the term "marriage" comes from).
While your thesis has several logic issues I will focus on one. Wait, make that two. I will state your use of Gal 3:28 is out of context as it speaks of salvation through Christ alone and the relationship believers have within the Body Of Christ, the spiritual Church.
You have established your argument with what Jesus said in Matt 22. What are your thoughts on what Jesus said three chapters previous in Matt 19:4-6? “And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made [them] at the beginning made them MALE and FEMALE, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Hmm, this is also written in the book of Mark 10 as well the very foundation Gen 2:24. Marriage defined in God’s word in the very book use for your argument.
And you have done exactly what Karen does - pull-quote a reference to Christ's response to whether or not heterosexuals should be allowed to divorce, and tried to make it somehow pertain to same-gender couples getting married.
do better.