Why I'm Still a Christian

[Jenny A]

The thing about gay marriage is that no one is trying to tell the church what they can and can't do as ceremonies in their church. No one is demanding they perform gay marriage ceremonies, or that any gay christians become married.

But in return, christians seem to want to apply their opinion of what should and shouldn't be allowed to other people who share none of their beliefs. We're already godless heathens, what difference does it make if we are gay and get married? What business is it of christianity?

I just created a religion where I think marriage should be between 3 people of the same sex only. Anyone who gets married in any other way is offending me and is not respecting my religion. Is this reasonable? Or should I keep this restriction to myself and my religion?

I'm talking about how the secular nation of the United States of America has defined marriage since it's beginning. Can this nation decide to change that definition now? I guess so, but I'm against it. Like my previous example of fraternities and sororities; you don't have to forcibly change an institution that is dear to many to afford equal rights to all citizens.

I think fraternities and sororities are a silly comparison. Marriage is an agreement between spouses enforced by the state. It isn't a club to which all married people belong. Whether other people are married does not affect your marriage.

This nation has changed what it means to be married progressively over time. It has never only applied to Christians as Jewish people and involuntarily imported Africans were here pretty early and marrying. Not to mention American Indians. Many states banned inter-racial marriage with the same vehemence you want to ban gay marriage. That too has changed. For a while Utah had polygamy (theoretically that's over now).

Originally the marriage law in this country could be summed up this way: man and his wife are one person before the law and that one person is the man. That has thankfully ended. Simply by giving spouses equal rights in a marriage, we changed the definition of marriage radically.