Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Olbermann: I have some questions

I identify religiously as a Christian, however I am in support of legalizing gay marriage (I explain why here). I know to some this is an oxymoron, and some of my friends disagree with me, but this is my opinion nonetheless.
I stumbled upon a video of Keith Olbermann explaining his take on the subject, and it resonated with me so much I decided to link to it here.


6 comments:

Emily said...

Melanie you know I love & adore you, but while I respect your opinion, I definately differ. The only thing I'd like to say, is to me...being a christian means seperating yourself from the world. I agree we should love everyone and not judge them, however, I believe that is a seperate aspect then voting against gay marriage. Loving and nonjudgement does not necessarily mean being politically correct or supporting something that God clearly addresses in the Bible as wrong. I work with many men & women that are gay & lesbians and while we disagree on this issue, I never show them anything but love & respect because they are in fact a child of God. You can love the person and hate the sin.

Mel said...

Hey Emily,
When I was typing up this post, you and a few other friends actually ran across my mind. I thought, Oh man, I'm gonna be in big trouble with Emily (lol).

From my point of view, I'm not interested in legislating Christianity. I think adults should be free to make their own choices, and have the same legal privileges as long as they aren't bringing physical harm to another person.

For years Americans justified slavery based on biblical principles since the bible does not condone slavery, but that doesn't mean I believe it was right.

One could also argue that since God clearly hates divorce, Christians should rally to make divorce illegal, but we don't do that. Why not? I'm sure there are several reasons, but I believe a big one is because it would affect a majority of Americans, Christians included. Gay marriage affects a minority of people, and when it's only a minority that will be oppressed, that always seems to make the oppression palatable.
(side note: I am definitely not arguing that divorce should be made illegal, I'm simply using this example to make a point).

Anyway, thanks for dropping by and sharing, and showing me love in spite of my radical views ;)

Mel said...

Correction:
I meant to say "For years Christians justified slavery based on biblical principles..."

Anonymous said...

Interesting thoughts from the both of you. Mel, not to say I agree or disagree with your stance on this; let me ask, now that you are a parent how do you suppose decisions like this will affect your child? How do you teach your child that "TECHNICALLY" your (our) God says that it is wrong for little Bobby's parents (Mike and Tom) to be together? What happens if your son comes home one day and says he wants to explore dating little Johnny because he seems really nice and everyone else is doing it?

Not saying this will ever happen, but as a parent we all know that outisde society is a huge influence on our children. Wouldnt your stance on this issue make it even harder to raise a child not only in the eyes of God, but in the eyes of what that childs parents and grand parents expect?

What are your thoughts on that?

Mel said...

Hi Anon,

Good questions.
First off, my intent with raising Ian is to focus on teaching him what he should do, and what is expected of him, rather than what someone else should not be doing. The latter sets the precedent for comparing and judging yourself against another person, and I'm not too keen on that. So I wouldn't focus on teaching Ian that Mike and Tom (or Lisa and Beth for that matter) should not be together, instead we would have to discuss why his friend Billy has "two Mommies" or "two Daddies".

Now in circumstances where our (referring to Dan and myself) values differ from society's, we would outline what we believe to be true and enforce that. Just like my parents told me "As long as you live in my house, you follow my rules."

You also asked: "What happens if your son comes home one day and says he wants to explore dating little Johnny because he seems really nice and everyone else is doing it?"
In my eyes, that situation is not pertinent to whether or not gay marriage should be legalized. Ian could come home and express those feelings whether gay marriage were legal or not.
I don't want Ian to become an alcoholic (and I'm not making a comparison between being gay and being an alcoholic), however I would never suggest drinking should be illegal because of the possibility that Ian might become an alcoholic. I will say this though: There are a lot of things that I would lose sleep over as it relates to Ian; If he became a drug addict, a thief, a rapist,etc but being gay doesn't make the list.

Lastly, I think I need to expound upon something that I've never said directly, but probably needs to be addressed. I honestly don't know what God thinks about gay marriage. In a religious world where everyone wants to have cookie cutter Christians that know EXACTLY what God approves and disapproves of, I have to bow out. My understanding of God's truth, is just that, my understanding, and I don't have the authority to say the way I see things = the way God sees things.
Now, I know the standard bible verses used to show that God disapproves of homosexuality, but as not to make an already long comment even longer (yeah, I tend to ramble), I'll just say I'm not sure. Hmm, I may have to find time to make a separate post on that subject.

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