My Gay Marriage Day 22 :: What the Bible Thinks

A few months ago a member of my family flippantly called me an atheist; nothing could be further from the truth. After all, the quiet simplicity of faith does not require evangelizing, ever; I hold that a religion that proclaims its truths to be of greater value than those of the individual (even if the individual believes in no god at all) is merely on the path to converting the weak or unthinking - not a glamorous pursuit.

The fact is, children are all too often indoctrinated de facto into religious belief systems by those who have made no well-considered faith choice of their own. It's the equivalent of spiritual nepotism: what my parents did, I do, often because it's the easiest path, or the only path of which I can conceive. Neither rationale makes any sense. Faith is meant to be discovered by each of us, and not through weekly calisthenics in a church. By questing for higher meanings in our lives, and struggling with our own place in the cosmic order, each person on the planet is offered the critical ability to formulate their own beliefs - and it is only when the majority of these beliefs resonate in an organized religion that a person should join one.

Frankly, I think no child should be permitted to join an organized religion until they are of an age to make such a conscientious choice on their own. But then, we must understand the difficulties of an organization being heavenly-focused while grounded on earth: they must make a buck too.

You're thinking, "What has this got to do with your marriage, dude?"

A lot. An inordinate number of persons at my wedding belong to an organized religion that has judged my homosexual love to be a sin, and my marriage to be an abomination of some kind. I'm not suggesting that those individuals feel the same way; in fact, like many Christians I know, they're quite conflicted about this issue. The gay community has become quite visible in the past thirty years, and the casual definition of doomed sinners, like an article of clothing tailored for a vastly different physicality, just doesn't fit those friends, family members and celebrities who self-identify as gay.

In short, they don't think it's right. But a surprising number of them feel that what the Bible says, goes. It is, after all, the only concrete evidence of the voice of God, irrespective of the bevy of people who claim to talk to him/her on a regular basis. And yet it is not, in fact, the voice of God - it's a book. I won't invite calumny by defining it in my own terms, for the Bible is sacred to so many; but it is nowhere written that participation in an organized religion requires absolute subscription to every tenet written therein. You should be free to believe in a higher power (God, Allah, etc.) on your own terms, be welcome in any house of prayer whose constituents believe as you do, and still stand by the universal civil right of marriage - for everyone.

If, on the other hand, you think that marriage should be limited to one man and one woman, you're perfectly entitled to stand by that belief. But have the courage to stand up and take responsibility for your opinion; don't blame it on the Bible. If, on the other hand, you're so weak-willed or thoughtless that you require an organized religion to tell you what's right and wrong, your voice should be soundly ignored, casually and constitutionally.