Gay Marriage or Gay Partnerships?

Across the nation the issue of homosexual marriage and or partnerships are all the rage, what should a liberty minded Christian make of all of this?

What is a marriage? We find at the very start, God saw that it was not good for the man, Adam, to be alone and so God made the man a woman to compliment and be a partner to the man. They were made in God’s Image, male and female, equal, and yet different.

God established marriage as a union between one man and one woman until death do they part.
Since God established marriage in this way, the church should never recognize any bastardized version of marriage between man and man, woman and woman or human and animal, but only the way the God of truth has established it to be.

Thus far for the Christian and the citizen of the kingdom of heaven. What about the citizen of this earth? How should I as a freedom minded American view this sort of thing?
As an American citizen and one who believes in contracts and obligations under the law, I recognize that for the majority of Americans who reject the truth of the Bible, marriage is not viewed as I have stated above.

Marriage in the secular world is often viewed not as a sign of God’s love for His church, but as a contractual partnership between two parties. To this end we see prenuptial agreements drawn up as insurance against a failed partnership and endeavor.

If we live in a secular country (which we do), and if we have freedom of association (which we do), then we may well see partnerships between man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, and so forth. These partnerships may be for the reason of jointly holding property, jointly conducting business, and for any reason provided for under the laws of the land.
To this end, under the laws, which provide for free association and partnerships, why should we care what the sexual interests (as long as legal) the partners should be involved in? Thus far, the liberty minded citizen, now for the reality of the issue.

Unfortunately, in this current climate of political correctness, where college students may be expelled for simply holding to values and standards that our country’s founding fathers held to, the reality is not what it should be. In this current day where everyone except for the white, heterosexual, middle class and upper class male is entitled to some special rights, privileges and or monies. Ah money, that’s the ticket.

Follow the money; if homosexuals are allowed marriage instead of partnerships, then by law,
they may receive extra compensation.

As partners, they may leave each other their estates in wills and or trusts, but they do not qualify for government money in the form of Socialist Security, Medicare, and other givernment (a typo that seemed to work out) compensations. If we were to privatize instead of expanding entitlement programs, this would cut one leg off of the chair of gay marriage.
The homosexual activist community has one other arrow in their quiver that they wish to shoot, and that is mass endorsement of their behaviors.

With hate crimes now a part of today’s America, it seems that if anyone except a middle class, white, heterosexual, male is assaulted, that the crime is befitting the death penalty as being extra hateful. If the victim is a white, heterosexual, middle class, male, the perpetrator should be commended for punishing an evildoer. To illustrate this, the FBI’s website on the standards of whom “hate crimes” may be applied to says…

“The types of bias motivation to be reported are limited. — There are, of course, many kinds of bias. Some of the more common kinds are those against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin. But, there are also biases against rich people, poor people, men who wear long hair and/or beards, people who dress oddly, smokers, drinkers, people with diseases such as AIDS, motorcycle gangs, rock musicians, etc…”
Who is missing here? Once again, the white, middle class, heterosexual male with short hair is the low man “person” on the totem pole.

The homosexual lobby, knowing these things to be most certainly true, are in the process of making sure that they may mount up (let the reader understand) on high courts to assert themselves as superior to the “breeders.”

Ultimately the rub is that the “gay lifestyle” is being portrayed (with the help of the media) as being nothing more than a sense of fine fashion and the uncanny ability to decorate a room. But the reality is anything but this.

The gay lifestyle is one of unnatural sexual activity between man and man and woman and woman. What is being sanctioned is often nothing less than disturbing.

Not too long ago, I was talking to a friend who related a story to me about a contractor that he knew who was doing some work for a wealthy gay man. The contractor showed up earlier than expected to do some work in the bedroom. The man met him at the door and suggested that he didn’t go in there quite yet as the place was a mess. The contractor said that he too was a slob and really didn’t mind, and headed for the bedroom. Upon arriving in the bedroom, there on the bed was fecal mater and blood all over. This is the gay lifestyle. We also do not hear much about other problems in this lifestyle like distended rectums, torn sphincter muscles, hepatitis, and a dictionary full of Sexually Transmitted Diseases rarely seen in the heterosexual world – shocking? The truth usually is shocking.

Homosexual men are much more given to physically abusing one another than
Heterosexual couples. “The Gay Men’s Domestic Violence Project” (http://www.gmdvp.org/) website says,

“Myth: Only straight women get battered; gay, bisexual, and transgendered men are never victims of domestic violence; lesbians, bisexual, and transgender women cannot batter. Battering is less common in same-gender relationships.Fact: Men can be victims, and women can batter. Numbers reflect this: An annual study of over 2,000 gay men reflects that 1 in 4 gay men have experienced domestic violence…” The website then asserts that the numbers are roughly the same as the heterosexual population.
Again from another website from the University of Western Ontario Canada http://www.sdc.uwo.ca/ , we read, …

“MYTH TWO: Domestic Violence is More Common in Straight Relationships Than in Gay Male Relationships.

This is not true. There is no reason to assume that gay men are less violent than heterosexual men. We estimate that at least 500,000 gay men are abused by their lovers each year in the United States. With two men in a relationship it is possible that domestic violence occurs more frequently in a gay male community than in straight America . One thing is certain: domestic violence is acknowledged, talked about, and dealt with more in straight relationships than in gay male relationships.”

In my years of pastoral counseling, I have come across some physical abuse among married couples, but not nearly at this 25% or higher rate. This is what we are not being told that we are supposed to accept to be “normal and acceptable” and our children should not shy away from (since they cannot breed, our kids should love them too).

So if this is the lifestyle and we find that active homosexuals live shorter lives due to diseases and also high risk, self-destructive behaviors, which their “spouses,” if recognized as such may collect big dividends under the laws that govern married couples and not merely partnerships.
The larger the government grows and the more money the government redistributes, the louder we will hear the homosexual community shout, scream and throw tantrums for gay marriage.

Now, we come to the point where we are at a crossroad, The Ranting Reverend and the Ranting Citizen come face to face in the two kingdoms.

As a Christian, I will say what Scripture says, homosexuality is an abomination before God, but still no more or less damnable than gossip, lying, stealing and not honoring God in general (that’s how serious those sins are too in the face of a perfectly righteous God). As a Christian and a clergyman, I will never accept homosexuals as being married no matter what the Government may determine, as this is not what God established marriage to be. As a Christian, I also do not want to see people harmed for any reason be it race, color, creed or even sexuality.
As a citizen, I see once again, where the government is the perpetrator and enabler of immoral behavior in the name of tolerance, kindness, compassion and dare I say it, “love.”
If the Government would decrease in size and scope of its influence instead of always growing and always limiting freedom, we would hardly be facing this and many other problems in our great American experience.

What is the answer? Get government out of the business of enabling every so-called minority group to collect from the rest of us. Get government out of the business of redistributing wealth from the “haves” to the “have nots,” and get government out of the work of being the morality (or immorality) and thought police of the citizens. When free people act freely without infringing on others rights, then mankind has the ability to achieve true greatness.
In short, the Government who governs least, governs best, or, “no government is better than our government.” Take it how you like.

WAR MOVIES

By the Ranting Reverend

An old man slowly approaches a cross shaped headstone standing amidst thousands of others. He quietly sobs and falls weeping before one. The camera slowly zooms in on his eyes and we are transported back to the storming of the Beach at Normandy replete with screaming men and exploding bombs, and lots and lots of blood…

Thus the movie “Saving Private Ryan” begins. This is one of the bloodiest, gruesome movies (except perhaps “The Passion of the Christ”) that I have seen.

I find it interesting that many, if not most women and many men just do not get why war movies and cowboy movies are considered “Guy Movies” and then real men are mocked for loving them so.

Ladies and girly-men, please direct your attention to the screen. It is not about the blood and guts. It is not about seeing people’s limbs being torn off nor is it about seeing someone’s brains being spilled on the ground. What is it about? It is about Christ.

Now that seems to be a stretch for so many people to grasp on the surface, but war movies and many cowboy movies like “Tombstone” are nothing less that stories of salvation. Furthermore, they are pictures of the Christian life of service.

Since, I started with “Saving Private Ryan,” lets continue on with that one. Here is a story about one soldier who is caught up in the middle of impossible circumstances in the middle of an awful war. All three of his brothers were also in the same war and all three of them died at nearly the same time. Thus Private Ryan is the sole surviving male in his family and he is to be sent home and now the story truly begins.

Someone must be sent, at great risk to bring Private Ryan home, and so begins a heroic tale of brotherhood, valor, sacrifice and even atonement. These are Biblical themes, these are themes that reflect Christ Himself.

Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) and his band of soldiers are dispatched to find this one lost sheep. They are entrusted with his protection and safe return. Does this theme sound Biblical in the least? Something about a Good Shepherd come to mind? More on that later.

After great personal cost to this band of brothers and their leader, upon receiving word that his mothers other sons had died for the sake of freedom, Private Ryan declares his brothers in arms to be his new family and he refuses to abandon them and leave them even more short handed than they already were. He makes the decision to stay, fight and if need be die rather than leave and save his own life. They all dig in and Captain Miller makes a spectacular last stand, propped up against a jeep firing at a tank with is .45 pistol. In the end, Private Ryan is indeed left alive and returned home to father generations to come.

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.”

This is what a good war movie is about, not the blood, not the guts, and maybe even not about the guns and explosions (no matter how much I like guns and explosions). A real man is moved in his soul when he sees true, heterosexual, brotherly, manly love portrayed in such a way. This is what is so glorious about these movies and what is glorious about war itself. I wish I could remember which Civil War General said that it was a good thing that war is so terrible because otherwise mankind would never put down his weapons. Brotherhood is born of blood. If you bleed with me, you are m brother or so says Shakespeare. This is why I myself played one of the most violent sports around – rugby. Ruggers have a brotherhood born of blood and pain, we go through a hell of a lot of pain together and we wear our injuries as badges. Broken noses, torn ears, concussions, separated shoulders, torn up knees, the list goes on and we carry each other off of the field of battle and then we drink ourselves silly and tell the stories of our heroic deeds. Hardly war, but definitely a battle.

Back to war movies how grateful would you be, knowing that someone gave up his life to save yours? How unworthy would you feel if your best friend selflessly jumped on a live hand-grenade?

And so, we get a picture of Christ. He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep (John 10:11). He is the friend who has the greatest love as He did indeed lay down His life as He exchanged His life for the death penalty that we, through our sin, deserve. He is the one who does all good things on our behalf because we are not able to do them for ourselves.

In the movie “Tombstone,” Wyatt Erp has a rendezvous with destiny, as he is to have a showdown with the deadly Johnny Ringo. Erp is not fast enough to beat him, but Wyatt’s dear friend (who loves him like a brother), Doc Holliday, who is fast enough and bad enough to beat Ringo tricks Erp and beats him to the showdown. Of course, Holliday defeats Ringo and Erp lives, even though it was not his own doing.

There is one other great scene in this movie. As the Erp brothers head down to the O.K. Corral, Doc approaches Wyatt and offers aid, Wyatt tells Doc that it is not his concern. Doc is hurt by this (as they are dear friends) and he says that is a hell of a thing to say. Doc, loves his friend enough to die next to him in battle if need be.

Why do I love war movies, because they are not about killing, nor are they about slaughter (those are the slasher movies – which are truly senseless), instead war movies, truly good war movies are about love. The sort of love that pulls at the hearts of men, the sort of love that gives us a glimpse of our Savior’s love for us.

Like the old man who collapses before the cross shaped gravestone of Capt. Miller, likewise, we collapse before the cross of our Hero, our Savior, our Redeemer who gave up His life so that we might live. His name is Jesus, but unlike Capt. Miller, the grave cannot hold Him.

Some of you who will read this still will not get it, and for that, I am truly sad for if this is you, you have missed out on one of the truly finest things in life.