{"id":425,"date":"2015-02-13T21:13:39","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T21:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomzom.com\/blog\/?p=425"},"modified":"2015-02-28T08:51:13","modified_gmt":"2015-02-28T08:51:13","slug":"why-the-gay-marriage-debate-will-never-be-settled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tomzom.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/13\/why-the-gay-marriage-debate-will-never-be-settled\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the “Gay Marriage” Debate Will Never Be Settled"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blog-Icon---Religion\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As stated in previous posts, I am a Christian, and a conservative, but before you just click on to the next page, hear me out, because I may not come across as offensive as the title may suggest.<\/p>\n

For us Christians marriage was designed<\/em><\/strong> by God Himself when He created Adam and Eve.\u00a0 He created Eve as “an help meet<\/a>” for Adam as a companion and spouse.\u00a0 So because marriage is as old as the human race itself, it is by and far a religious institution<\/strong> and according to the first amendment <\/a>of the Constitution<\/p>\n

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” therefore Congress has no right or say on what “marriage” is defined as.\u00a0 Because, for us Christians, marriage was created<\/strong> by God, and trying to change the definition of marriage is as ridiculous to us as trying to change the definition of the law of gravity.<\/p>\n

What I’ve observed over the years is that those that believe otherwise, and feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, is that they believe that marriage is a government institution and therefore needs to be governed by the laws of man.\u00a0\u00a0 And surely this must be so if marriage is recognized by state laws, and we have tax breaks for married couples, surely <\/em><\/strong>marriage is a government<\/strong> institution, right?<\/p>\n

Well considering the fact that the Constitution was written specifically to protect religious freedoms, ie, that you may practice how you want, or are free to not practice any religion at all, and the Constitution specifically does<\/em> state, in the 10th Amendment,<\/p>\n

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”<\/p>\n

we can infer that marriage is not governed by the Constitution, and is left up to the states.<\/p>\n

But I’m getting ahead of myself.<\/p>\n

Lets examine the Bible for marriage references.<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 7:38, <\/a><\/p>\n

Luke 20:34,\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n

John 2:1<\/a><\/p>\n

Hebrews 13:4<\/a><\/p>\n

Matthew 22:9<\/a><\/p>\n

Ok, I could keep listing numerous scripture references, but I think you get the point…marriage is in the Bible, and if we read Genesis 4:1<\/a> it clearly states that Adam and Eve were married.<\/p>\n

If the Bible clearly states that Adam and Eve were married, and Adam and Eve were created by God, and the Bible is religious text, then it can hardly be argued that marriage is NOT religious.\u00a0\u00a0 And if marriage IS religious, then the 1st Amendment applies and “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

So say us Christians.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, I hear the argument all the time, “Marriage is between two people that LOVE each other.” And “equal rights for gays and lesbians!”<\/p>\n

But from a Christian viewpoint, if God created Adam and Eve, and Adam and Eve were married, then it stands to reason that only a man and a woman are even ABLE to get married.\u00a0 So like the gravity analogy, for us Christians, it’s like saying you want gravity to only apply in certain situations.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s like saying, “Well, just because the majority of right handed people are affected by gravity doesn’t mean we should all be affected by it, so gravity shouldn’t apply to anyone who is left handed. LEFTIES of the world unite!”<\/p>\n

So it’s not about us not loving you; we DO LOVE YOU! It’s not about discrimination, it not about hate, or bullying.\u00a0 But what you’re asking simply does not make any sense!<\/p>\n

…to us.<\/p>\n

And on that note,\u00a0 let it be known, that I do have many gay and lesbian friends, and no, not just “facebook friends.”\u00a0\u00a0 These are people from my childhood.\u00a0 From college.\u00a0 From life.\u00a0 And I would personally take a bullet for any of them because I love them!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I DO NOT CONDONE BULLYING, AND ABHOR IT IN ANY FORM!!!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

So back to trying to explain the flip side, I can empathize and attempt to understand why “it’s not fair” that just because laws are written a specific way, that it prevents you from “marrying” the one you love.<\/p>\n

So, here’s my solution.<\/p>\n

Government no longer recognizes marriage.<\/p>\n

Yup, I said it.\u00a0 Take marriage out of the equation.<\/p>\n

From now on, government can only recognize and authorize what I’m going to call “legal unions.” And ANY TWO consenting adults<\/strong><\/em> (younger<\/a> with parental consent) can get a “legal union.”\u00a0 You can only get ONE legal union at a time.\u00a0 You can sever it at any time through the courts, and get another legal union to somebody else, but only one current union at a time.\u00a0 Go ahead and transfer all current marriages into unions and throw away the “legal marriage certificates.”\u00a0 Put any name you want on it, bond, partnership, couple-hood, anything, except marriage.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 A government “legal union” will give you all<\/strong><\/em> the same rights, tax breaks, etc. as a marriage, but it is NOT a marriage.<\/p>\n

Because marriage is a religious<\/em> institution, marriages will still be performed, but only by authorized members of the clergy from religious organizations.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>If you want a “marriage” it can ONLY be done in a church, but a marriage gives you only<\/em><\/strong> the recognition of the church that performed the marriage, NO LEGAL RIGHTS.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to another topic that I have to address, but won’t go into too much detail.\u00a0 The Oregon<\/a> couple who were forced to pay $150,000 in damages to a lesbian couple for choosing not to bake them a wedding cake.\u00a0 This is where things cross the line.\u00a0 The Oregon couple had served and sold their bakery goods to this lesbian couple before, but because of their Christian beliefs, felt it was a violation of their conscience to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.\u00a0 (What happened to “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason?”) This baker couple’s 1st Amendment rights were violated when they were forced to pay anything for a reason like this.\u00a0 This is a very slippery slope<\/strong><\/em>, because how long before the government starts forcing churches to perform weddings that aren’t in alignment with their beliefs?<\/p>\n

So because all this is very unlikely to ever happen, this is why the “gay marriage” debate will never end, and probably never be resolved.<\/p>\n

Obviously any two people who are in love can’t deny their feelings.\u00a0 Conversely, people who are bound at a fundamental level in their faith, can’t deny their feelings either.<\/p>\n

My attempt at a resolution\u00a0 by introducing the “legal union” is an attempt to agree to disagree on a legal level, and to keep the peace, and try to make everyone happy.<\/p>\n

Your thoughts?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

-Joseph Forefathers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As stated in previous posts, I am a Christian, and a conservative, but before you just click on to the next page, hear me out, because I may not come across as offensive as the title may suggest. For us Christians marriage was designed by God Himself when He created Adam and Eve.\u00a0 He created … Continue reading Why the “Gay Marriage” Debate Will Never Be Settled<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-philosophy","category-political-philosophy","category-religious-philosophy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5DqJS-6R","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomzom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomzom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomzom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomzom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomzom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tomzom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"http:\/\/tomzom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomzom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomzom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomzom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}