Andy's Blog

Well it is in the news again, so I figured I better comment on it. Like the image to the left of this, Jesus said marriage is between one man and one woman. And I agree with this wholeheartedly. I do believe, the God-honoring, morally acceptable relationships is between a heterosexual male and a heterosexual female that have been bonded in the holy act of matrimony. So thus far, I have all the right-wing conservatives on my side, right?

Well here's where it gets interesting. I support same-sex civil union (whether we call it marriage or not, is just a matter of semantics). Why? Do I think it is right? No. Do I think it is necessarily good for our culture? Probably not. So why do you support this? Because Jesus said...

We recently had Shirley Phelps Roper from the wickedly world famous godhatesfags.com and for organizing the picketing of soldier's funerals on the radio show I produce. I was proud of Allen for sticking up, on theological grounds (which no one else in the Media can do), and saying with a loud voice, you don't speak for us. His point, and I agree with him, is that if you are going to have godhatesfags.com, you need to have godhatesdivorce.com and godhatespornography.com and godhatesstealing.com and godhates-dare I say-gossip.com.

And this is my point with Christians today. We scream, at the top of our lungs that we do not want homosexual marriage on moral grounds, this of course effects 2% of the population. Yet we do nothing to make divorce illegal, which effects 50% of the population. We need to be a consistent "political group" if we are going to be a political group - or else the world will continue laughing at us like they already do. We either need to take the perspective that we are going to be a "God-honoring" government in all aspects of law (including divorce), or concede to the fact that we are not a Christian nation. We will never be a Christian nation. And ultimately God does not call us to enforce a Christian nation, but rather seek change in people's hearts on a one-on-one basis, not through sweeping laws that will force God's law on those who don't want to follow it.

When I was doing my senior thesis on Globalization's effects on the Middle East/West Relationships, I came across an interesting quote that speaks to the dilemma of today's current political environment. This was said by a Muslim friend of Phillip Yancey. "In the Qur'an, I can find nothing to teach us how to be a minority religion, while in the New Testament I can find nothing to teach Christians how to be a majority religion." And that is why I think we are struggling as a political group. The past elections showed that Christianity has a lot of power in this democracy - maybe more than any other single force in this country. Yet Christianity was not founded on these grounds. We were small. We were persecuted. But yet we thrived. If Christianity can thrive in a culture as oppressive to their mission as Rome was before Constantine, I don't think Gay Civil Unions are going to truly be the downfall of Christianity in America.

Jesus said to live righteous and holy lives. Jesus said to turn the other cheek and love your enemies. Jesus said to love our neighbors as ourselves. But ultimately, Jesus said, I give you the choice to do otherwise.