I'm a Christian that supports gay marriage. Many teens are kicked out of their homes by their parents for coming out, or just as worse, told that they're "being sinful" and need to "suppress their urges." Also, remember when "reparative therapy" was a thing and Exodus International said you can "pray the gay away?" Too bad Alan Chambers, the founder of that entire organization, admitted he still had same-sex attractions himself, eventually shut down the practice, and even issued an apology. From the Kansas City Star in June 2013, “We’ve hurt people (and) caused years of undue suffering.”
The recent study done by John Hopkins and Harvard University confirms what common sense told us all along: that being ostracized or hated for loving someone of the same gender makes gay teenagers more likely to commit suicide. In states that barred gay marriage before the 2015 Supreme Court ruling, the statistic for gay teens attempting suicide was 28.5%... do you know what it was once the law changed? 24.5%. Gay marriage is saving lives.
It's amazing, no church cares about divorce and adultery anymore (conservatives just elected a man as president that's been married three times), but homosexuality is apparently the big sin. In my own church, they allowed a divorced man to play in the worship team, but they would never allow a married gay man to do the same. It’s the Pharisees and the blind leading the blind all over again. How many times do we have to fight for civil rights and the church be on the wrong side of it?
In the antebellum South, there was a belief that all black people were actually descendants of Cain, and their black skin was there to outwardly show their sin. This “Curse and mark of Cain” was the actual worldview of white slaveowners. That’s how they conditioned themselves to be monsters to innocent people. They would also quote Ephesians 6:5 as it says, “Slaves obey your earthly masters...” Flash forward to 1958 and not much has changed… here’s Jerry Falwell doing his best racist rant he can muster, “If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God's word and had desired to do the Lord's will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never had been made. The facilities should be separate. When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line.” Yes, even after almost a hundred years since the end of slavery, the Southern Baptist Convention was still that stupid.
I'm going to be real honest here. I don't care what Leviticus 18:22 says about not lying with another man, Leviticus also tells us to stone disobedient children and to kill a man who works on the Sabbath. These laws were specific for the Israelites 3000 years ago, not us. And now this moves us to literally the only other verse in the Bible that mentions homosexuality: Romans 1:26. Yes, it does say that God gave them over to unnatural passions… but again, we’re talking about a generation and a culture that existed 2000 years ago. Was Paul honestly talking about a devoted gay monogamous relationship here? Paul also says for women to be silent in church. Jesus (who never mentioned homosexuality, but did repeatedly talk about divorce and adultery) also tells us to turn the other cheek and to not match evil with evil. Last I checked, women are still talking in their churches in America. Last I checked, our so-called great “Christian nation” has been involved in numerous wars that have bombed children and butchered their tiny bodies. Doesn’t really sound like loving your enemy to me…
The bottom line is that you can easily handpick a verse in the Bible (which is not one book, but 66 books written all across ancient history) and say, “Aha, see! You’re wrong!” What’s harder to do is actually look at the heart of scripture… which can only be Jesus. Sometimes people can’t see the forest for the trees. It’s like the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus says the First Great Commandment is to “Love your God with all our hearts, souls, and minds.” Jesus then says simply this about the Second Great Commandment: "Love our neighbors as ourselves.”
I merely ask if we’re loving our neighbors as ourselves when we tell our gay brothers and sisters that they must live alone for the rest of their lives. That they can never be married or have a family. Many gay people are pillars of support in their own community, some even serve and die in the military. I am unapologetically liberal, but it’s as a Christian that I cannot say to a gay teen thinking of suicide, “Sorry buddy, but you’re just going to have to suck it up and deny your identity and live in solitude for the rest of your life… but don’t worry, Jesus loves ya though!” This is not love, and I just refuse to do it. If I’m wrong about believing in a God that loves us too much, then I suppose I’ll follow old Huck Finn’s example, “All right then, I’ll go to Hell.”
"And these children that you spit on, as they try to change their worlds, are immune to your consultations. They're quite aware of what they're going through." -David Bowie, Changes
