I am a Christian. That means, among many other things, that I have been asked certain questions on multiple occasions. Questions regarding homophobia in the church and the judgmental nature of Christians are common. If you are a Christian living in a secular culture then I am sure you can relate.
There is one thing, however, which surpasses my distaste for these questions. I am more disgusted with the fact that most of their presumptions turn out to be quite accurate.
There is no doubt in my mind that a select few in the Church are just as homophobic and judgmental as these questions assume. To me, that is the problem which ought to be addressed.
Let me explain why.
Right now there are a lot of Christians that see the widespread acceptance for gay marriage as more of an epidemic than an advancement. Their claim is that, since, according to their beliefs, homosexuality is a sin, gay marriage should not be allowed to occur. There are some problems with this argument and I want to highlight them. These problems, which I want to draw attention to, exist whether or not the beliefs are accurate.
First, the world is not a Christian world. Even Christian doctrine is founded on this principle. The world is not a Godly world by any means and, if we look at the Christian texts, it isn’t even meant to be anymore. It is becoming more and more secularized. To try and create a Christian world is nothing more than attempt to justify being of the world instead of apart from it. They want to fix the world to look pretty, so that they don’t have to put so much distance between them and the things they actually do enjoy.
Second, God gave people free will. How in the world can we expect to give our fellow human beings less than that? If this perfect God is willing to give everyone a choice about how they live their life – should we not respect that ? Even if you think that homosexuality is a sin, would it not be their God-given ability to sin as they see fit? Everyone is free to sin. That’s what makes the whole concept of pursuing God consistent with love. If we force people to abide by our rules, there is no love in that. There is also no real possibility of love developing out of that.
In addition to this, law-making in Western society is not a moral decision, by any means. It is a political decision. This means that, in our democracy, the authority comes from a vote instead of from whatever we deem to be moral. In other words, and do not take this as harsh, whatever you think is right or wrong does not matter. What matters is what the majority of people think. What I am saying is this: You can argue until you are blue in the face that Homosexuality is wrong. You may even have a strong argument. But, at the end of the day, whether it is right or wrong does not matter.
Whether or not you believe homosexuality is a sin or not, there isn’t really a Christian perspective which justifies forbidding gay-marriage in Western society.
I respect your choice to believe that certain things are holy and some are not. I respect your belief that you have insight into what God wants from us.
I do not respect the idea that you get to decide how the rest of us get to sin.
Nathan Olmstead 