The Church and Homosexual Marriage

This post may ramble a bit before I get to the point.....It's absolutely unfair that of all the classes I'm taking this semester, the one that makes me think the most is only a one credit class that I should have been able to breeze through. The name of that class is "Current Issues and Scripture: Homosexuality."I'm not looking to start another "Is homosexuality condemned in the Bible?" thread. For the sake of this thread, let's assume that it is, just for discussion.Even if the Bible condemns homosexual practice, I'm not certain that it's the churchs place to take a political stand against homosexual marriage.Here's my thought process....I'm not certain that attempting to impose the LETTER of the law of the gospel on unbelievers is what Christ had in mind.In 1 Corinthians 5:11-13 it states: "11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you."Whether it is for the protection of societal good, like I've heard on several family oriented websites, or not, whether we are attempting to consciously judge or not, that is what it looks like to the world.yes, Scripture indicates judgement, but the judge is God. You don't see Jesus in any of the gospels walking up to a sinner of any sort and telling them that they are going to hell. The ones that he gave scathing condemnations to were the religious leaders of that day. He was never soft on sin, but recognized that telling people straight out that their going to hell isn't necessarily the best way to keep them from going there. Look at the woman caught in adultery. He didn't condemn her, like the law said he should, but told her to go and quit doing it. There was mercy and love there.On a political scale, the church (pick a denomination, any denomination) is a faceless organization to a world that already thinks badly of them. All they see is a pointing finger telling them that they are wrong.I'm not saying that on a face to face level, on a personel level that Christians shouldn't call sin what it is, but one on one it can be tempered with love and everything else that comes with the gospel that the world often doesn't see.I guess this all leads up to the question.....Christian or not, how do you perceive the church's stand on homosexual marriage? And do you see any validity in the different arguements presented against homosexual marriage?

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For me the answer is the same that I use for most issues. If you don't like it don't do it. Then there is no problem. Churches who are opposed to homosexual marriage simply don't have to perform them.

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I wish it was the straight forward. Even though my location currently says Tennessee, I've only lived here for six months and am actually Canadian.There are many people there saying that if your not willing to marry homosexuals then you need to turn in your credentials to perform marriages. In at least one province, any non-church officials who are unwilling to perform same-sex marriages were told to turn them in. There has been some protest in some places that ministers shouldn't get an opt out.Although on that note, I have heard that some countries (wish I could remember where) only civil unions are legally binding. If you want a church ceremony, you have to do the legal ceremony seperate. I'd have no issue with that.

Fair enough. I suppose than the only difference is that in those countries most ministers aren't also licensed to perform marriages.

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And what's new here?

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Nothing. I agree. However, it's true that the church hasn't always done what the founders of the religion would deem as acceptable. If the whole country was Christian we would have some basis for discussion in the political arena, however, being as a whole country never is, or never has been, I think we've overstepped our bounds on many occasions.This guy was moving in with his girlfriend and knew that his conservative Christian aunt would object, so in an attempt to be sensitive to his Aunt's religious leanings he made a statement along the lines of "I know you disagree but it's still my decision." His aunt looked at him and said "Your not a Christian, what difference does it make?"That's kind of where I'm coming from. If someone recognizes God's authority in their life, there's room for discussion about it. If not, why the heck should I expect them to live by my standards?

And the peasants rejoice. yeah.Added by edit - I think that's the meanest thing I've ever posted here. I'm sure it's going to come back to haunt me.This message has been edited by Angeldust, 03-02-2005 15:53 AM

I was hoping to attract someone on the other side of the debate instead of just finding people who agreed with me.

In short, it seems unscriptural to me to attempt to force Christian morality (in this case prohibitions against homosexuality) on a secular public.The scriptural morality statements are for the believing community and therefore it is wrong for the church to take political stands on issues that are only moral. Human rights issues would fall under a different category.Or refer to post 1 Here.

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They just need a better P.R. department!

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I agree, but what should the P.R. department say on this topic?I also agree with lives and speech needed to match, words are cheap. Actions and character mean something.

well, that's kind of what I was asking you. I'm not sure that the church should make any kind of statement on homosexual marriage because than it appears that we are promoting hate on a large scale which I think goes against the Spirit of the gospel and just makes the individual Christians work much more difficult than it already is. So should we say anything? And what?