Family Values, High Morals, and Defending Marriage

Why do you suppose folks who rarely pick up a Bible can almost quote word for word the verses that they erroneously think condemn same sex relationships?

Why do you suppose these same people refuse to acknowledge the fact that the Bible calls their sins abomination?

Why do you suppose time after time, the same people are brought down for doing things that are less then ethical?

I have two sons.
I believe in family values.
I am married.
I have high morals, I have never cheated on my spouse.  I am honest, truthful and a hard worker.  I have worked for the same company for 20 years.
I believe in defending marriage.  I think that the decline of the family and marriage is appalling.
My family attends church regularly.
My Boys are boy scouts.
They attend AWANA every Monday night.
My boys are both exceptional students with straight A's.

How can people be against my family and my marriage?  How can people say that I am not for family values because I am a lesbian?  How can people say that I am less than them and that I don't deserve the same rights as a heterosexual couple?

I would like for my marriage to be recognized by the State and Federal governments.  I would like to not have to hide my relationship for fear of bullying.  I believe that the government is responsible for the bullying of the Lesbian and Gay people because they have not made us equal.  Bullies will always pick on someone that they perceive to be inferior to them and the US State and Federal government's failure to recognize us as equal, feeds right into their bullying. 
  
I am not the exception in the Lesbian and Gay community.  I am the rule.  Our families....our values.... our morals.........  We are pro family.  We are pro marriage.  We are for family values.  We would like to be treated equally as our heterosexual counterparts.

How can the US Government refuse my family equal rights and equal protection?  To continue to discriminate against us is immoral, anti-family, anti-marriage, and unAmerican.

Christians vs Gays

Today I read where a teenager, who is gay, said the following, "...I know that God hates me..."
As a Christian, when I read that, my heart sunk.  When did we as Christians fail a whole group of people?  When did we think it was right to tell them that God hates them and their "lifestyle"?  When did we as Christians go from the Great Commission to passing God's judgement onto a people?

I know what Romans says.  It was written by Paul to the Church of the Romans.  I am not here to argue that.  I am not here to argue that the Bible never condemns a monogamous same sex relationship.  I am here to say that as Christians, we have failed to tell a group of people that God loves them.  We are too busy pointing out what the Bible says that we have failed to point out what the Bible says...yes I meant that.

We need to look and see how the Son of God lived His life on this earth.  He ate with the publicans and sinners.  That was the biggest criticism that the ruling religious body of the time had against Jesus.  Jesus chose to hang out with them to tell them of God's love.  John 3:17 says, "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."  So God's sole purpose of sending His beloved Son into the world was so that they could be saved.

Christians today seem to have forgotten that Matthew 28:19 &20 says Go and Teach ... not go and judge.  They seem to have forgotten that God calls lying an abomination.  They seem to have forgotten that the reason Christians are left on this Earth and not taken to Heaven immediately after conversion is to tell others of Jesus' love, death, burial and resurrection.

My wife and I signed our son up for the Baptist Church Preschool.  Why?  Because we wanted him to learn about Jesus dying on the cross to save him from his sin.  We wanted him to learn about the Almighty sending His Son.  We received a letter stating that the preschool had nothing to offer our son.  We have reason to believe that the reason why is because we told them we are a lesbian couple.  Not one time did any of those people offer to us the Gospel.  The Good News of the Saviour.  

I am a Christian.  I am a lesbian.  There is no conflict.  I have the peace which passes all understanding and the knowledge that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

One more observation/question:  When is the last time, as a Christian, you have picked up your Bible and read it...outside of Church.  When is the last time you actually prayed for the salvation of the Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people?  When is the last time you thought to actually study what the Bible really says about it with a prayerful attitude?

Traditions are for Families.

"I believe in traditional marriage being between one man and one woman...."  --Eric Cantor speaking at the University of Michigan 

Traditions are for holidays.  Traditions are for memories.  Traditions are made for memories.  Marriage is a tradition I hope to have between my wife and I.  (Yes I am a lesbian)  We make our own traditions.  Traditions are not laws.  Traditions should not be made to be a law.  "This is the way we have always done it" is not the reason for a law.
Just because something is a tradition, doesn't mean it is always right.

                           Slavery
                           Women Voting
                           Black People's Rights
                           Interracial Marriage
                           Wigs on Men in Congress
                           Public Hanging
                           Public Flogging
                           Branding People With Letters (The Scarlet Letter)
                           A Sin Against God Being a Crime (adultery)

All of these were eventually changed.  If you think that God is against homosexuality, that didn't even make God's top ten list.  Sins that did make God's top 10:
                           Lying
                           Adultry
                           Stealing
                          

Remember that there is supposed to be separation of Church and State....not when it is convenient for the Church, but all the time. 

Traditions are for families.  Let my family have mine.  We need to pass the Respect for Marriage Act.  We need to pass the Uniting American Families Act.  We need to allow all Americans to begin to make their own family traditions!

Christian Attorney says, "DOMA is Unconstitutional"

While people may say that they believe in "traditional" marriage (meaning between one man and one woman), they still cannot deny that the "Defense of Marriage Act" is Unconstitutional. The American Family Association's in-house attorney says that while he and many members of his organization believe that marriage should be reserved only for heterosexual adults, the Defense of Marriage Act is "probably unconstitutional."

Here is my question: Exactly what is traditional marriage? They say that it is between one man and one woman. This is a fairly new "tradition". In the Old Testament King Solomon had 300 wives and 700 concubines. Basically, what they mean when they say "traditional marriage" is marriage by what we believe to be Christian standards. Indeed, it seems that the tradition they are speaking of is quite nontraditional.

Most of the "traditions" we associate with marriage are in fact comparatively new. It was only two centuries ago that people began to marry for love rather than for mercenary or practical considerations. Only 130 years ago did men start to lose their legal right to physically beat or imprison their wives. And only in the past 40 years have we established the principle that within a marriage wives and husbands have equal rights in decision-making.

Not until 1979 did the last American state finally repeal its "Head and Master" law, which had given husbands the final say over many aspects of family life. Not until 1993 did marital rape become a crime in every state, overturning the millennia-old tradition that a wife was obligated to have sex with her husband whenever he demanded it.

'Traditional' marriage has changed a lot Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 23, 2006

By Stephanie Coontz

Stephanie Coontz teaches history and family studies at The Evergreen State College and is the author of "Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage" (Viking Penguin).

So what are they fighting for??? A law that is unconstitutional and defends marriage that is nontraditional. Their reasons? They believe it is the Christian thing to do.

I do not want to take away their Christianity. I am a Christian. All I want to be able to do is marry my same sex partner and have it respected and recognized by the government both State and Federal.