"Jesus would rather kill, not marry, gay people" - Franklin Graham

[The Grand Nudger]

Christians: God will judge me if I don't fight gay marriage.

-and they can tell people not to get gay married from here to sunday without once invoking our law as a shield.  

That's part of why these rationalizations are worse than the underlying bigotry.  Theyre merely pointing to a concurrent trend of bigotry in magic book.  Its not justification..its simply

"Yeah, well...... god is a bigot too, then!"

[robvalue]

I just thought: if Steve isn't concerned with the law with regard to marriage, and since it's nonsense to suggest we can alter what God accepts as marriage, he must be objecting to changes in dictionaries specifically. What does this matter? Why the objection to this word and not others?

Are dictionaries more powerful than God's will?

[Cecelia]

I just thought: if Steve isn't concerned with the law with regard to marriage, and since it's nonsense to suggest we can alter what God accepts as marriage, he must be objecting to changes in dictionaries specifically. What does this matter? Why the objection to this word and not others?

Are dictionaries more powerful than God's will?

Well dictionaries probably do have iron chariots.

[robvalue]

I just remembered he was complaining about the high court, though. Does he think the high court decides dictionary definitions?

[Ravenshire]

I just thought: if Steve isn't concerned with the law with regard to marriage, and since it's nonsense to suggest we can alter what God accepts as marriage, he must be objecting to changes in dictionaries specifically. What does this matter? Why the objection to this word and not others?

Are dictionaries more powerful than God's will?

He's adamantly dodged the question whether the recent change in definition of the word literally bothers him or not. I'm betting it's because he has zero fuck's to give about the definitions of words, unless they make a useful smoke screen.

[robvalue]

I think there's two possibilities here.

1) He knows he can't come out and say what he really thinks, because it's unacceptable by today's standards (or at least on this forum); so he uses smokescreens, like you say. I wonder if he's more forthcoming when surrounded by like-minded Christians.

2) He has an inner battle between the religious part of him that's expected to oppose gay marriage, and the part of him that feels there's something unacceptable about doing so. Therefor his dissonance manifests as tying the issues up in knots and conflating all these different aspects, so he doesn't have to take ownership of the conclusion.

---

PS: There is a third possibility that he really doesn't understand how any of this works, but I find that hard to believe. I'm coming down more on the side of him being against a secular government as a whole.

[Pat Mustard]

I believe there is only one significant question left, whether Steve is a giant douche or a turd sandwich?

[robvalue]

I don't think he's necessarily a bad guy. He's clearly addled with indoctrination, which stops him being able to think clearly about this matter, and is probably surrounded by like-minded people every day. "Christ way or the highway".

If my first case scenario is true, then he's so far down the rabbit hole that he's prepared to try and lie his way to some sort of victory. In the second scenario there is some hope, because his subconcious is muddying the waters to try and distance him from the results of his own beliefs.

[SteveII]

Since some prefer to guess or simply to assign beliefs to me and and then supply the reasons why I believe them, I thought I would clear a few things up: 

My position on gay marriage: I prefer the definition does not change. I am not devastated that it was--it was expected. 

My position on what legal rights gay couples should have: All of them.

My position on homosexuality: No problem.

My position on whether homosexual activity is a sin: Yes.

My position on what I should do about it: Nothing.

There, you can stop guessing and making things up. 

What every last one of you failed to do is prove I am somehow a bigot. If that was your goal, you have failed. If you think otherwise, you are foolish and/or ignorant (probably both).

[Amarok]

Or we can judge you on  how you have argued the last 72 pages and not the position you retreat to once you have been called out .Let's go with that .