Same Sex Marriage

With all the hub bub of same sex marriage rights I have decided to write down my two cents worth here on this website. Maybe this will make my opinions more concise and clear on the subject. Lately I've had so many opinions but I haven't been able to piece them together yet.

I think the main thing I struggle with is the fact that I strongly believe in the separation of church and state. I think that the church should be its own entity without any regulation from the state government. Likewise, I think the government should be representative of all its constituents, not just one religion. We as Baptists supposedly believe strongly in the separation of church and state as this is a very important component that started our denomination in the first place. I'm not sure all Baptists realize this certain fact, but it's true nonetheless.

With all that being said, homosexuals are pounding at the government's door for equal rights. And I don't blame them, because they haven't gotten stellar treatment over the years. The one thing they're looking for is the legal right to marry. And I don't understand why the church is so huffy about all of this.

The worst case scenario for the conservative right wing folks is that congress does pass a law that permits homosexuals to marry. This does not change the church. This simply means that two homosexuals can go to a courthouse and get married. So what. The church doesn't have to change, we don't have to marry them if we don't want to. That is how this country works. Sheesh people.

Do I support same sex marriage? Well let me say this. They deserve to live legally together and receive the tax benefits that we hetersexual folks have. They deserve to be treated as first class citizens and not second class citizens. I support them because they are people and I am no better than any one of them. But when I'm a minister some day, I don't think I would be able to marry them in the church. My theology doesn't run that far to the left.

I just think this whole issue has been blown way out of proportion and the conservative evangelical Christians need to go back to their day jobs and start preaching the gospel like they're supposed to. Let the government do their job, and let's be responsible citizens, but not an angry overwhelming mob.

Sometimes I think issues like these hurt the church more than help the church. When we get off the topic of preaching Christ and him crucified, then we've lost our purpose.