the reason i don't support gay marriage

As a Christ-follower I am called to love everyone.

Because of this, I try to love everyone.
I'd say I try to love everyone equally, but that's not entirely true.  Because many people are jerks and have opinions that are in complete opposition to mine I have to try to love them more.  It is very easy to love those that are easily loveable, but not those that I don't like.  That's tough.

With that being said, I try to love all gay people.  Again, I say try because some of them are jerks and some aren't.  The reason I aim to love them is because Christ loves them and desperately longs to be in a relationship with them.  Some would say this is wrong because they are in complete opposition to Him in their deliberate sin.  Yet, if this were true, we'd all be screwed because we are all unloveable with that criteria. 

Instead, Jesus loves us despite our sin (which we all have enough of even if it's not things we consider "major").  The fact of the matter is any sin, yes just one, warrants seperation from God.  It doesn't matter if that sin is acceptable to the current government, society as a whole, or your grandma.  If it falls short of God's perfection, it seperates you from Him.  So, being gay is no different than lying to your boss about what time you got in this morning when you were running late.

In the case of gay marriage I have one major beef.  While I love my country and feel I've been called to obey its laws (within the bounds of not going against God's will to glorify Him) I can't support a cause and idea that promotes going in direct contradiction to God's righteousness.  God sees homosexuality as a sin, thus I cannot support it as a lifestyle or law. 

Let me be very clear though.  I also don't support any law that allows the wealthy to abuse power and take from the poor.  I don't support any law or idea that promotes children not being fed well or one that promotes heterosexual sin (such as prostotution, etc).  My beef isn't with gay marriage because it involves homosexuals.  My beef is with the support of something that goes against God.

While I won't support any law or idea that promotes sin, I do aim to love those that are in the sin that the law or idea promotes.
I love gay people.
I love gay people and want them to come to Christ and live abundandly in Him as much as I want the banker who's job it is to cheat people out of money every day.  I love gay people as much as I love the government official who takes advantage of his status for his personal gain.  I love gay people as much as I love the guy that looks me straight in the face and lies to me about something petty.  I love gay people as much as I love my own mother (and I do love her-see this post).  In all these cases I am called to love people that are sinners, who have fallen short of God's perfection.  They each need Christ's forgiveness, I am called to aid in them better realizing that.

Does it irritate me that this particular issue is based on a group that maintains their identity based on their sin? Yes.  But this is no excuse to love them any less.  We do not have to love what any sinner does in their sinnfulness.  Instead, we should strive to love everyone as Christ loved us because while we were still sinners He died for us.  He didn't wait until we were squeeky clean and had everything figured out.  He came down and grab us in the midst of our mess and filth and loved us anyway.

When it comes down to it, this is not a civil rights issue or one about justice for everyone.  Instead, it is a much deeper moral issue that points to us as a nation and people pointed down a path that continues to open the door to more and more loose judgement in light of God's Word.  While I don't think that we should be a nation that forces Christian beliefs on everyone, I do know, as history has shown, that nations and people that consciously live in opposition to God don't fair too well.  I don't want to see that in my generation or future generations.  This is something that goes above and beyond simply being a civil rights or government issue.  Instead it is an issue of how history and ultimately God will look upon us in light of God's standards.
Again, I love gay people (at least try to) but cannot support anything that opposes God's Word and will.



-peace