To have this be a legal marriage means everything to both of us

[AlecBGreen]

12. I disagree

"I used to think that having civil unions and marriages would be the answer until I finally realized that would be setting up a 2-tier system...and those never treat people equally."

Lets assume a hypothetical reality where gay couples could be wed civilly and have their partnership legally recognized by the state with all the benefits currently enjoyed by todays married citizens. Lets also assume that the majority of American churches would still refuse to 'marry' them in a religious ceremony, although there would be exceptions as there are today (UU, some Episcopal, some Lutheran, etc). Do you think that this system would a true 'two-tier' system that would make things worse? I think it would be a step UP from our current situation and would be the logical next step into full acceptance for our gay brothers and sisters.

"It is your world if you are going to a church that would deny gay people the right to marry." Equality & gay rights are important issues to me and it is an issue on which I disagree with many Christians. I feel that gays SHOULD be allowed to marry and not be forced into a life of celibacy. I absolutely do not think they should be denied the right to spend their life with whomever they pick. I have spoken to my close church friends and pastor about this frequently. As Dr MLK Jr said, "The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice." I see myself as part of that process.

"If God made "mankind"in His image as sexual beings, why would He be so cruel as to deny some of those beings the ability to act on their sexual feelings?" This is a question that could take up several days of thinking and writing. What it really boils down to is, does the OT commandment of "A man shall not lay down with a man, as with a woman (etc)" mean what we think it means, and if so, does that still hold true? My thought is no, it does not. While we Christians are not given license to sin however we wish, we have been told that we are no longer "under the law." That phrase and ones like it is all over Paul's letters. Ex: Romans 7:6: “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”

Anyway, I could talk about this all night but its late and I have work and I just got done grinding up a whole hog leg (ha! there's another OT commandment we seem to ignore ) Anyway feel free to respond if you wanna keep talking about this. Its a subject that is very important to me. Gnight!