Here we go again, the pressure to force lawmakers to please the perverts.  Why worry when the gays think the law is on their side because they use piece meal tactics to get public acceptance for their

amoral sexual choices? This civil act of disobedience by Gays is no different that of a child who plays the manipulation game to get his or her parents to fulfill the child's selfish wants and needs. Gimme want I want or I will cry lake a baby and embarrass you in front of

everybody. This is the same kid's game only it is played out by adults to achieve the same results. Are you aware that God hates this despicable asexual act between adults whether they are consenting or not?

Apparently, this guy has a very low opinion of democracy since he compares it to a child playing anything at all.  Perhaps he'd like to live in Saudi Arabia where you actually are forbidden from demanding the government be accountable to the public.  More to the point, for me, is that he wants to hide behind Christianity in order to justify his hatred.  Join me below the fold for a faith-based discussion on the cleaving of spirits, the "abomination" of homosexuality, and the proper place of faith in politics.

Yeah, I'm about to step on some toes with a great-big steel-toed shoe.

The chief frustration of this nameless author is that we are trying to legalize a sexual act that has been specifically set against the Law of Moses.  If you'll flip over to Leviticus 18:22, you'll find (King James Version):

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Ok - one point for our anonymous bigot for knowing the Bible.  Let's see if he can get any points for context or if he's just pulling this verse out to justify hatred.  Let's just pull out the three preceding verses to give a framework:

19Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.

 20Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her.

 21And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

Ok - so if we are to justify upholding an unequal system of marriage with Leviticus, then we should also make it a criminal act to have sex with a woman during her menstrual flow, having sex with your neighbor's wife, and the original "baptism by fire".  I'm not saying that any of these are necessarily bang-up great ideas, but I fail to see why they should be the subject of a specific marriage law to ban people who enjoy those things from getting married.  

Leviticus 20:13 is even harsher:

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

So if we are going to jump to the Bible for an example here, then we have to round up all the gay Americans and kill them.  Someone call Jerry Falwell and Pat Roberson!

Again, the context of the passage must be considered.  The vast majority of this chapter is concerned with incest.  But the chapter starts out with the command to stone any Jew who "gives his seed" to Molech (Molech was a fertility god whose followers gave offerings of burning their firstborn child alive) and follows with these invectives:

7Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.

 8And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.

 9For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.

 10And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

So being gay is on par with telling your Dad to "Suck it" or having sex with someone else's wife.

Yep.  It's easy to see why we would want the death penalty for all of that.  Since our emailer isn't advocating any of that, I'll have to say he's hiding his hatred behind a thin veil of scripture.

Or we could embrace the commandment of Christ (John 13:34)

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

And if we want to expand that verse for context, we have this to follow it:

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Now Jesus isn't talking about sexual love there, but he isn't talking about a stingy, self-serving, "I'll go where you lead except when it conflicts with my bigotry" love, either.  No, he is talking about a transcending love that lifts every human being to perfect equality.  It's the love you feel when you drop your change in the Salvation Army bucket or leave your old clothes on the doorstep of the church for the homeless to pick through.  It's the love that burns in your belly when you see a child mistreated or an adult misused and abused by those with greater power.  It's the love that won't let you sleep at night until, by God, you've damn well done something about the injustice you've seen.

Like the Good Samaritan didn't leave the stranger on the side of the road.  Like Jesus accepted the lashes of the Roman whip and the agony of crucifixion.  

Like Mary gave birth to a Christ-child in a filthy stable without an attending physician or even warm water to bathe her baby.

Now, this is not to say that the Bible is meant to be recipe for our lawmakers, because it isn't.  And anyone who says that it is should be examined closely for using scripture against its intent (to enlighten and uplift humankind).  The Bible is meant to stir the spirt of humans so they can see an evolution away from strict obedience to impossible law and towards a greater love and acceptance that makes forgiveness possible.  It is meant to be our conscience when we would too quickly forget our brothers and sisters because they look differently, sound differently, or love differently than we do.

Christians are called to be the salt of the world - the condiment that hides itself while bringing out the best tastes arranged by the cook.  But when they try to overpower the world, they kill the dish as surely as the Morton Girl boosting her stock price by dumping a pound of salt in your soup.  Then there is the "false salt" Jesus spoke of as well - those who would take on the trappings of his followers without actually giving themselves over to the deeper commitment to love and accept each other.

I'll leave it to you to figure out where my mysterious emailer is in that paragraph.  My question for you, my dear reader, is this: Where are YOU?