One issue that is close to me is gay marriage. There are several. I generally support anything that restores the individual liberty.
Yes, I did just say that gay marriage is a restoration of individual liberty issue.
There are many reasons people oppose gay marriage. There are also many reasons people support gay marriage. The vast majority of folks on both sides have it wrong. I’m going to address a few of the popular reasons I hear in opposition and I’m also going to tell you how both sides are generally wrong.
Homosexuality is not psychologically normal.
Neat thing about the internet is that one can easily find a wealth of information. Some of it is even from original sources. Some of it is even credible. It’s all in how you look.
Through much of the 20th century, The American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disorder. Then in the 1950s, a woman named Dr Evelyn Hooker came along and conducted some pretty interesting research. She basically studied thirty heterosexual and thirty homosexual males matched for age, IQ, and education to test the hypothesis that gay men were mentally unhealthy and maladjusted.
Dr Hooker administered three tests to measure their thought patterns, attitudes, and emotions
- the Rorschach, in which people describe what they see in abstract ink blots,
- the Thematic Apperception Test [TAT], and
- the Make-A-Picture-Story [MAPS] Test, in which people tell stories about different pictures.
Dr Hooker then gathered three independent researchers unaware of the respondents’ sexual orientations to evaluate the results. Two of the researchers placed equal amounts of heterosexual and homosexual males in the three highest categories of adjustment using the results from the ink blot test. A third researcher reached similar findings using the results of the TAT and MAPS tests. All three researchers were unable to identify the sexual orientations of the respondents based on tests results.
Consequently and in conjunction with other empirical results, The American Psychiatric Association was led to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973. It publicly stated in 1975 that “homosexuality per se implies no impairment in judgment, reliability or general social and vocational capabilities… (and mental health professionals should) take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness long associated with homosexual orientation.” (apa.org)
Homosexuality is not exhibited in nature and does not preserve the species.
If you honestly believe this, you must not get outside much. Homosexuality exists in the behavior of “more than 10% of the prevailing species throughout the world.” (Yale Scientific) That deer you just ate may have very well just had some gay butt sex or knew a deer who had.
One can argue that homosexuality is an evolutionary disadvantage as it fails to pass along favorable traits through reproduction. The same can be applied to the converse. If one really believes in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and uses that an as argument that homosexuality is not natural, then how does he or she explain the idea that homosexuality prevents the passing along of unfavorable traits?
Furthermore, not all human traits are physiological. Unlike other creatures we have the ability to think. We develop mentally. Since homosexual males are just as well adjusted and psychologically developed as heterosexual males, there is no rationale that supports the idea a child reared in the home of a homosexual couple will not grow up to also be a well adjusted and psychologically developed adult.
Homosexuality is a sin and in direct opposition to God’s will.
This is more difficult to address. The idea that homosexuality is a sin is a very personal view. It comes from what one’s parents and society teaches. It also comes from the claim that a centuries old volume of canons contained in hundreds of pages specifically calls it out as sinful.
I can no more address the idea that homosexuality is a sin because “mom and dad said” than I can the idea that “niggers should pick cotton because they did for my daddy.” Both are plain ignorant and intellectually lazy statements. They reflect poorly on anyone that resorts to them. If you honestly think those are valid statements, you probably haven’t read this far anyway.
I can however address the idea that homosexuality is a sin because “God says so.” I recently got into a discussion with a self-proclaimed evangelical Christian on the topic of homosexuality and gay marriage. In that conversation, I did indeed address the “God says so” argument. I am going to refer to her positions specifically and also state that many evangelicals I have met usually resort to some of the same claims.
First, let’s identify where the Bible specifically states that homosexuality is a sin. We look to the Old Testament. Leviticus 18:22 says, “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.” The punishment for homosexuality is death (Leviticus 20:13) .
Levitican Law is a very curious basis for the argument homosexuality is a sin.
Leviticus 20:18 says, “If a man has sexual relations with a woman during her monthly period, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has also uncovered it. Both of them are to be cut off from their people.” I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anyone advocate for laws against sex during menstruation. If we do not legally allow gay marriage based on Levitican Law, then we should not allow sex during menstruation, right?
Leviticus Chapter 20 also states that eating unclean animals is a sin. This list of unclean animals from chapter 11 includes rabbits, pigs, any water creature without fins or scales, and other tasty creatures many of us enjoy. Not anymore! We have to ban that shit!
Makes a lot of sense, huh? I questioned her about this. Her response was quite curious.
Just minutes prior she had said, “The Bible is the word of God and God is perfect. Therefore, the Bible is perfect.”
“If the Bible is the word of God and God is perfect, making the Bible perfect, how do you reconcile that you eat pork? Furthermore, since you do eat pork, how do you reconcile that homosexuality is a sin?”
She responded, “My God is a God of order. Homosexuality is not natural. Therefore, it is sinful.” Basically, because homosexuality did not preserve the species through reproduction, we should outlaw it. Evidently, she hadn’t read the previous two sections of this blog. Nor had she considered how being a single woman in her mid to late twenties was doing nothing to preserve the species through reproduction. If homosexual marriage should be illegal because it doesn’t preserve the species through reproduction, then being single should also be illegal.
When pressed about the other pesky little sins in the Old Testament, she conceded that the Jesus clarified the Old Testament and some laws were no longer valid. This is often a claim I get from evangelicals.
Out with the Old in with the New.
Ok, so what does the New Testament say about homosexuality? Romans 1:26-27 says, “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
Pretty clear, right? Homosexuality is sinful. Well… the Bible actually uses the word shameful. It also says that they received due penalty in themselves for their acts. Their internal guilt is their punishment. Romans chapter 1 goes on to also condemn, greed, gossiping, deceit, hating God, arrogance, boastfulness, disobeying one’s parents, inventing ways of doing evil, as well as lack of fidelity, love, and mercy.
If homosexual marriage is not legal because it’s sinful, where are laws that don’t allow disobeying one’s parents? Where are laws banning arrogance and boastfulness? Where are laws banning lack of love and mercy?
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 tells us that homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God. It also says that idolaters, adulterers, the greedy, and drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God. It closes with that pesky little bit about accepting Jesus and being washed in the Spirit of God.
Unlike other creatures, we have the ability to reason. The one uniquely human characteristic is the ability to choose. In fact, God gave that to us over all other creatures. Scripture again and again refers to free will and loving Him out of choice.
If God gave us free will, do Christians contend they know better than God and that law of man should remove our right to free will?
But what this is really all about is legislating behavior. The government wants to encourage breeding, so they give married heterosexual couples tax breaks. They give couples who have children tax breaks. Do both? Get both breaks.
By giving special consideration to heterosexual couples, the government is discriminating against anyone who does not enter into a heterosexual marriage. By giving special consideration to parents, the government is discriminating against anyone who does not have children.
Wanna stay single? Can’t have that! We’re gonna make you pay higher taxes until you hitch up.
Hey autistic boy, sucks to be you! Yeah, you’re socially adjusted just enough to keep a job and not go to jail. But because you can’t maintain a relationship and will never marry, we’re going to punish you with higher taxes.
Hey, lady with the non-functioning uterus! Can’t bear children? Not enough money to adopt. Congratulations! You win a life of higher taxes!
I challenge ANYONE to justify tax breaks for married couples or parents after reading those last three paragraphs.
This is where most proponents and opponents of gay marriage have it wrong. Instead of encouraging government intervention in something that should be a holy rite, they should be trying to remove legislation from it. Instead of encouraging the government to legislate certain behaviors, they should be working to restore the right to choose.
So, how do we solve the problems of insurance, hospital visits, and the myriad of other reasons some people use to argue for gay marriage? Easy. We remove all government control and allow individuals to enter into contracts that ensure both parties are equally served.
The purpose of laws and our legal system is to protect the innocent from those that wish to do them harm or who do them harm through negligence. This protection is provided in the deterrent of punishment and removing those who do not value others. Anything else is the legislation of morality and has no place in a free society, my country, the United States of America.
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