http://hayleyghoover.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-christians-can-believe-in-gay.html
This is what I believe. It's like Hayley went into my head, fished around for the more coherent of my thoughts, and put them on her blog, even before I realised I believed it.
There is still a part of me that says "Marriage is a sacred institution, it should only be between a man and a woman." That's mostly my upbringing and my own personal sexuality. Most of me says "Marriage is a sacred institution, and just like all of the sacred elements of my religion are not limited to heteronormative people, neither should marriage."
Let me say this: I am straight, and I am Christian. There are times (more often than I like to admit) when I question both of these claims, but that is a topic for another post. The point remains, you don't have to be gay and/or nonreligious to believe in gay rights.
There are a few things that I would like to add to Hayley's wonderful post:
First, in both Matthew and Luke, Jesus says: "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." Word for word, the same speech in Matthew and Luke (Matthew 7:3 and Luke 6:41). If homosexuality is indeed a sin, (which I don't believe it is) then so what? I lie. I cheat. I don't love others how I would want to be loved. I gossip and slander. Who am I, that I should judge any other sinner, let alone one whose sin is so ambiguous? Along the same lines is the "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7) story. Who am I to judge anyone?
Secondly, I am not God. I do not claim to be all-knowing, ever-present, etc. I am JR Urban, a seventeen year old girl living in Ottawa, Ontario. At this point, I doubt if I'll ever amount to much of anything. So how can I say who may love whom? Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' All the Land the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-39) All I can do is love my neighbour, who Jesus identifies as anyone I come across. I cannot judge, I can only love. Who am I to say who can be happy and who can't be happy?
Finally, it's not homosexuality that is the issue in most common Biblical aguments against LGBT rights. It's violent homosexual rape that is truly the issue. In Genesis 19, Lot takes into his house three angels, not realising that they are, in fact, angels. During the night, the men of Sodom came and said to Lot, "Where are th emen who came to you tonihgt? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." (Genesi 19:8) When Lot refuses, and offers them his two virgin daughters instead, they "kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door." (Genesis 19:9b) Later in the chapter, Sodom is destroyed, not because of the homosexuality, but because of the violent tendancies and the profanity of the men and women who lived there. Genesis 19 is one of the most quoted passages when I argue homosexuality with other Christians, and it makes me wonder if people actually read the Bible or if they just listen to what their parents and Sunday-school teachers have taught them. For generations, this passage has been misread and misunderstood. Isn't this the sort of thing that Martin Luther wanted to change when he nailed his 95 Theses to the cathedral door? Isn't this the type of misunderstanding he hoped to avoid by translating the Bible into the vernacular?
Those are my thoughts. Please feel free to offer rebuttals. Please feel free to tell me I'm wrong. I look forward to those arguments, and I hope that I may defend myself in a respectful and well-researched manner.
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