Recently there has been a lot of upheaval over North
Carolina’s vote to deny gays the right to marry. In the interest of full disclosure I have
known gay people my entire life, and I have several gay friends. I also know two separate gay couples that have
been/were together for more than 30 years.
I only personally know two
straight couples that I can say the same thing about, so in my eyes gay and
straight marriage are on even ground. I know this is a hot button topic and most
people fall either on one side of the fence or the other, very few people have
no opinion on the matter. I try to respect
everyone’s opinions, even when they are wrong.
Honestly, what it boils down to for me is civil rights. Why any state should be allowed to require
gays to live by the same laws, and pay the same taxes but not have the same
rights as all other citizens is beyond me. I believe gay marriage falls under the
Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, as simple as that. That is not really what I want to talk about
though.
A week or so ago I had a discussion on Facebook with a woman
that actually said “being gay is a sin, just like murder.” At first I was
dumbfounded by the stupidity of this statement… no I still am. To equate
a hate filled murder to being in love with or even just attracted to a member
of your same sex, is crazy! She went on
to say that she had to believe and obey the entire Bible; she could not pick
and choose what to believe. I of course
came back with some rules/laws of the Bible that are at best out of date, only
to have her ignore my points. I also
pointed out that in this country we have a separation of church and state. I asked for one, just one, non-religious reason
to prevent gays from marrying. I was
told “The Constitution is wrong, the further we get from God the worse off we
are.” This would be the same
Constitution that gave blacks and women their rights, and gave this idiot the right
to religious freedom. That really riled
me up (if you didn’t notice).
I thought about what things would be like if we all went
back to the strict ways of the Bible. I
also noticed that the same people telling gays live your life according to what
we believe; don’t really live their own lives that way. Let
us explore some of these rule/laws that these people do not “pick and choose:
·
Leviticus 11:7-8 And the pig, because it parts
the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. You
shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they
are unclean to you.
Easter ham anyone?
·
Leviticus 19:19 “Keep my decrees. "'Do not
mate different kinds of animals. "'Do not plant your field with two kinds
of seed. "'Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.
Well, they probably don’t own a Liger but they may own a
mule, even if they don’t, what are the chances that none of these religious
people own a poly-cotton blend, or plant a garden?
·
Leviticus 19:27
Ye shall not round the corners of
your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
In other words no haircuts or shaving.
·
Leviticus 20:9
For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put
to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.
Ironically, this is the same fate should befall gays
according to the Bible
Long story short we all pick and choose what parts of the
Bible we cling too. Do some homework;
look up what the Bible says about rape, slavery, and any number of other things
that shouldn’t be going on in this day and age.
I guess that is the beauty of
small town life, everyone walks out of their glass house with a pocket full of
stones.
