The Big Question 91: What About Same-Sex Marriage?
Feb 22, 2022 804
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What about same-sex marriage?
This is one of those very controversial questions in society. The stereotypical divide is that you will usually find religious people on one side of the debate, and people who don’t believe in God on the other. But I actually want to be fair here, and, as a matter of fact, I have Christian friends who are very supportive of same-sex marriage.
My own view is that I don’t think that you can get around the Bible’s teaching that God’s intention from the beginning was that marriage is for men and women. In the same way, you can’t get around the Bible’s understanding that same-sex marriage ultimately falls short of God’s original purpose and will.
However, there are other very important aspects of this equation that we need to consider.
One of these aspects is that people who are not heterosexual often seem to have very little choice in the matter. Because we are in a world that is far from ideal, there are many environmental and possibly even genetic factors that lead to people adopting lifestyles that are outside of God’s original plan.
In the Bible, one of the passages often used by Christians to condemn homosexuality has been his letter to the Romans, in the first and second chapters. But here’s the thing, right there in that passage, it basically tells us that things like gossiping and disobeying your parents are just as bad as what the text calls “unnatural sexual relations.”
In the past, Christians have liked to go on “crusades,” making one particular thing that they consider evil the focus of their attention. So why not go on a crusade against gossiping then?
The focus of my attention is on Jesus and on my relationship with him. The reality is that I’ve got enough going on in my life with stuff that I know is wrong, that I have no time to focus on trying to work out whether someone else is wrong or not.
For a minute, let’s stop focusing on the possible “sin” side of the equation and let’s look at the grace side of the equation.
When Jesus walked among us, he loved spending time with those whom the religious types considered the scum, the outcasts of society. He copped a lot of criticism for that.
These weren’t the people who weren’t quite holy enough in church. These were people who were considered really bad sinners, and who would never have dared set foot in church.
But obviously, the people Jesus associated with didn’t feel judged by him, or pushed away in any way. And actually, the only sin that you ever find Jesus speaking out against was the hypocrisy of the religious leaders.
Yes, there is right and wrong, and even Christians might not always agree on where the line goes, even though we all read the Bible.
But there is something that definitely not all Christians have always understood, and that is that our Christianity will be revealed not so much by what we believe, but by how we treat others.
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