As I write my first blog post in what seems like forever I notice I'm at 999 views. Hopefully this takes me over the 1,000 mark......
I have felt the need to write this after hearing the discussion of gay marriage and whether its right or wrong be at the forefront of many of our lives. There have been viral blogs from people about it that were extremely well written and of which I mostly agreed with. There was even a reply to that blog written by another USF student about why she did not agree with gay marriage and what this discussion is doing to the church. I agreed with that blog as well. Here's where I'm going with this.
I don't know what I think about whether being gay is a sin or not nor do I know where I stand on gay marriage.
Wait for it, this may come as a shock.
Not knowing is ok.
People who are pro-gay marriage and who do not believe it is a sin; don't look down on me for being closed minded and too "right-wing", because I don't know what I think yet.
People who are anti-gay marriage and who do believe it is a sin; don't look down on me for going against the Bible and being a "left-winged nut job", because I don't know what I think yet.
It seems as though society as forced Americans to be on one side or the other in this argument. That not knowing what you believe yet obviously means that you're taking the opposite viewpoint as theirs. I'm sick of it.
Here's a frequent conversation that goes on in my head as I try to hash out the details of my beliefs here.
(The following text is an excerpt from my inner being arguing with itself. If you can follow it, you should let me know to see if you understand it better than I do).
Does the Bible talk about homosexuality as a sin? Yes it does. Does the Bible talk about being stealing, lying, coveting and many more things as sins? You bet it does. Is a sin a sin? Sure is. So why is it that being gay is that much more of a sin than anything else?
If being gay isn't a choice and you are born gay, then why would God create someone to be an inherent sinner? Well, we're all inherent sinners, but why does this affect the very core of their being? Something like 1/3 of all teenage suicides have to do with sexuality. Why would God create people like that if it were wrong?
(Then my mind goes here)
Maybe God created gay people the way they are in order to draw them nearer to Him. I've heard many stories about gay people who are celibate their entire lives. This means that those people rely entirely on God for those intimate moments. For those times that they want someone physical to hold and to be with, they go to God. What's so bad about that? Some would say that it isn't fair to those gay people then that they get no human intimacy on earth. Who said God would ever adhere to our definition of fairness?
Being in a relationship where you are sexually active outside of marriage is the same thing as being in gay relationship. It's a sin and to gently paraphrase NBA analyst Chris Broussard, "if you're living an openly homosexual lifestyle or a heterosexual lifestyle where you're having pre-marital sex, it is an open abomination to God."
But what if our understanding of the Bible is off? Many of the passages that people quote are either in the Old Testament which we are not bound to anymore by Christians, or talk about "unnatural relations" or something to that effect. What if those "unnatural relations" actually means that gay people are having sex outside marriage? What if the term "unnatural relations" (or whatever your translation of the Bible uses) actually means being engaged in ANY pre-marital relations?
---Confused yet? Because I sure am after all that goes through my head. If you actually read all of that and can come to some sort of concrete belief, I'd really appreciate you telling me how you got to that concrete belief system.
One funny thing I have to post here that is a complete tangent and makes no sense is a semi-quote from a video that Anne Wentworth posted on Facebook a while back. It was in another country (I think England) in a hearing or court proceeding of some sort talking about gay marriage. The man said this, "I once heard a Catholic Priest tell me that gay people are engaging in an unnatural act. That sounds kind of funny coming from someone who has been celibate all of their lives".
My conclusion to this whole rambling blog post is this. I don't know what I believe yet. I'm still figuring that out. And that's ok. What I do know is that until I figure out what I believe, I'm going to continue being friends and loving those gay people in my life. Even after I figure out what I believe, I'm going to continue to do that.
Let me, and others who are like me, figure out what we believe before you persecute us for not taking a stand.
--After this all my thoughts become pretty jumbled, but hopefully you get the jist of what I'm saying here.
