Religion and gay marriage, part 2....?

Question

I just asked the question why does religion get mixed up with gay marriage when marriage is a legal entity and I received several interesting answers. One that jumped out at me particularly, was about "gay" being sinful and that's why they're not allowed to marry in a church.

OKAY, HERE'S QUESTION #2..... My ex-husband was a major born again Christian.....Jesus-freak to the core.....carried a bible everywhere he went. It's one of the reasons I divorced him. Of course, the main reason I divorced him was that he cheated on me......with someone at his church. After we divorced, he married his little tramp. Why was he allowed to marry in the church when a gay person isn't? Isn't adultery a sin? I believe it's even a Commandment!

Answer 1

Remember that most religions are set on excluding many people, or it won't be "special". How could a religion claim to be the only way to slavation if it said everyone was ok and on the right path? There will always be people defined as "sinners" by every formal religion, just to keep it exclusive, and make sure the adherents feel superiour to everyone else.

So, for now the big push is anti-gay. Not too long ago it was anit-black, or anti-jewish, or anti-female. This denigrating of people who don't think the same way as the religious adherents is one of the main reasons there is so much dehumanization in the world. This makes it OK to hate, or kill, or otherwise abuse people of other beliefs, cultures, races, sexes, etc., etc.

For all you judgemental Christians out there, remember, Jesus would NEVER HAVE EXCLUDED ANYONE.

Answer 2

Yes adultery is a sin,same as homosexuality, but homosexuality is also called an abomination to the Lord-a much more powerful term, don't you think? I agree, the church should've confronted your ex-husband about his adultery and even invoked church discipline, which the church leaders are commanded to do. Homosexuality is an abnormal, unnatural act. That's why the union of 2 people of the same sex can't reproduce offspring. That's an impossibility. You are right that some churches seem to turn a blind eye to some sins while judging others. However, if the sinner is repentant -turns away from sin and goes the opposite direction- they are forgiven by God, homosexuals included. But I've noticed that once a person decides to live a homosexual lifestyle they are almost always forever enslaved by that sinful lifestyle. When someone commits adultery and is convicted of that sin by God, they usually repent. Also, homosexuals who want to marry in a church must be prepared to repent of their sin of homosexuality, which makes the entire point moot. They won't repent and therefore won't be married in a true Christian church, be ordained by a true Christian church nor be admitted as members of a true Christian church. Churches which call themselves Christian that do any of those 3 things have left the teachings of the Bible and are in danger of having their candlestick removed from before the Lord. And if a homosexual does repent then no marriage would be taking place anyway.

Answer 3

Adultery is a huge sin. And yes a commandment as well. If your ex-husband repented of this sin and has answered to the church congregation, then its possible to marry in the church. A gay person can marry in the church if they repent of that sin and dont go back to it..so basically they will stop 'being gay' and will give their life to Christ and be obedient. Which your husband must do as well. All Christians stray...Jesus brings us all back to Him. And remember you divorced him, so he's allowed to re-marry.

Answer 4

The truth is that adultery is just as serious of a sin as having sex with someone of the same sex. In fact sex with anyone you are not married to is a serious sin, it is called fornication, and it is not limited to intercourse. If you were to ask me, if homosexuals should be married? Well marriage is an institute initiated by God, in the Garden of Eden, and he clearly codemns, not homosexuals, but homosexual activity, ie; having sex. If you asked me should homosexuals be able to legalize their union, in order to get the benefits offered by the government, I say absolutely, but that would be up to each government to decide.

As far as divorcing and remarrying, most "churches" completely ignore the counsel that Jesus himself gave. That is that God hates a divorcing, but because of your (he was speaking to the jewish religious leaders) hard heartedness, he made a provision. That account can be found at Matt. 19:7-9 "They said to him:"why, then, did Moses prescribe giving a certificate of dismissal and divorcing her?" He said to them: "Moses, out of regard for your hardheartedness, made the concession to you of divorcing your wives, but such has not been the case from the beginning. I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except on the ground of fornication, and marries another commits adultery."
Thus the only scriputral grounds for a divorce is adultery. That doesn't mean that someone couldn't leave their mate if they are being abused or something, but they are not free to remarry in the Lord, unless their mate commits adultery.

Answer 5

Yes I see your point. He broke one of the major sins of the church yet he is still allowed to marry. Unfortunately the church allows for you to atone for your sins in this situation. I guess gayness is too deviant for the church to handle. In some ways I can understand the church saying no to gay marriage b/c the bible states its a union between men and women. So yes it is a legal entitiy (marriage) but in the eyes of the church there is only one 'legal' way to do it. Which is why people are trying to get legislation to allow marriage legally without the church necessarily being involved. We already have the province of British Columbia and state of Massachusetts allowing it, although they are not forcing the church to do it.

And just for the record not all ministers, priests, etc disagree with gay marriage. My cousin-in-law's father is a Minister of the Anglican Church and he would marry gay people. He just likes to see people happy.

And unfortunately the church contradicts itself in many ways. Anyways sorry for rambling on, lol.

Answer 6

Well I understand your anger about what your husband did. As a Catholic your marriage to him is still a marriage (if it was a church marriage) and he is committing adultery with this woman. However, Protestants wrongly believe that people can get divorces and then remarry, but the vow still says, "till death do you part." People forget that part of the vow. Protestants have thrown out the part of the Bible that talks about divorce being evil.

Answer 7

The ONLY place that you'll find homosexuality forbidden is in the bible. If you have a biblical worldview - that would be the only reason in the world a person would have to believe that homosexuality is a sin. A normal reading of the bible makes it clear. So, if you have a biblical worldview - God created marriage - he created them male and female - with the ability to procreate. Homosexuality is an artificial construct of man where we decided on it - not God. But to equate a marriage of a man and woman - to a man and man - isn't right - really the only true basis for marriage is the bible to begin with - otherwise - marriage is truly whatever you want it to be - with whatever boundaries and description you want it to have. So, based on the fact that the world has moved to secularist worldview - why even call it marriage and connect it to governmental affairs at all - it really doesn't mean anything if it's whatever you want it to be. The bible says that it's one man and one woman for life. But most people don't live that way regardless of the religion they practice or the sexual practices they choose. There are alot of people who call themselves Christians who are not - a TON of them. Many are worse sinners than the average person who chooses homosexuality for their lifestyle. The only reason why we as a nation married people in the first place is because we used to have a biblical worldview as a nation - and believed that the family (man, woman and natural children) was God's order and we were honoring that fact. There is no more honor for God or the bible anymore. It's life as every man pleases. That means fewer and fewer things will be called wrong - or against the law - and in the end - if you take that thinking as far as it can go - it ends up mass chaos and confusion - but that's the way of man - not of God.

Answer 8

Just because someone talks the talk, doesn't mean they walk the walk. We are all sinful human beings who have to stand before God someday and account for ourselves.

Your ex will have to give account someday, just as we all will.

If sinning was a reason to not be allowed to get married in church, no one would be allowed to get married in church as we all sin, in though and deed, every day.

Answer 9

You will get tons of answers on this, but there are only two fundamental issues:
-- there is no legal reason, according to our constitution, do deny marriage to anyone regardless of gender
-- religions can decide how they feel about it, and even hate the idea if they want to -- but their opinions and feelings have nothing to do with the law.

Fear is what drives the religious side of this debate. Even if a religious person believes it is the most abominable sin in the world for people to be gay, and they will absolutely not allow gay marriage in their church, *legal* (civil law) gay marriage does nothing to harm their religious beliefs in any way. But that doesn't matter to them -- it's fear that matters. They're afraid that if gay marriage is "ok" legally, their own kids might just grow up to be gay, since they see it as acceptable. In their ignorance they fail to realize that there already ARE hundreds of thousands of gay christians, that their kids will be what they're going to be regardless of the legal status of gay marriage, and that they should do what their religion teaches them to do -- love everyone no matter what they are, who they are, or what they do. But their fear drives them to contradict their own religion, to high levels of hypocrisy (as you mentioned), and to try to legislate their morality despite it being unconstitutional. Very sad.

Answer 10

I don't know about your church, but most churches that I know would not have allowed such a marriage to take place in their church. Our church requires someone to go through at least a six month "mentoring" program with a same sex elder, and a premarital counseling course, before they will marry anyone, and they refuse to marry divorced people (of course, if someone gets married somewhere else, they will simply treat the couple as married under the equivalent of a don't ask don't tell policy.).