Homosexual Marriage
One camp believes that marriage is a thing that can be defined any way the participants want. Another camp believes that marriage is and always has been defined as one man and one woman. There are some that believe multiples of one gender can be married to one of the other gender. I am in the second camp (which actually came first chronologically). I don't believe marriage between two individuals of the same gender is valid to God or his Son, Jesus Christ.
That said, I believe Christianity teaches us to love sinners. We are not supposed to love the sins, but the sinners we are commanded to love. This means we need to be willing to let people make bad decisions. This goes both ways in the current debate.
When two people want to marry against God's law we do not need to support the decision but we do need to approach the situation in loving ways. A church that will not perform such weddings is definitely within their right to refuse. When those same individuals want to worship in the church they should be allowed to.
If a business chooses to withhold their services it is probably a bad decision but they should be allowed to. In today's social and economic climate they probably are damaging their chances of success in business. They should be willing to serve those with same gender attraction for other events in any case.
The Muslim Question
Another place where a lot of Christians seem to have lost their bearings is in relation to those of other faiths, particularly Muslims.
Jesus told us to love our enemies and do good to those that despite fully use us and persecute us. When asked how many times we should forgive he said not 7 times as the law of Moses said but 70 times 7. This doesn't mean we should keep count until 490. It means we should forgive so much we stop counting and just keep forgiving.
The Muslims who perpetrate terrorism are not the ones we regularly see on the street. I do not believe that all Muslim people are out to kill all Christians or Jews.
I also believe that the evil forces in the world rejoice when they see people of faith cutting each other down. If they can get Christians to cut down Muslims and Jews and get Muslims to cut down Christians and Jews and get Jews to cut down Christians and Muslims then their job is a lot easier. The real battle is, and should be, people of God vs. godless people. Instead of fighting each other Christians should join forces with Jews and Muslims to win the war with evil.
Christians vs. Christians
The hardest one to understand is the fight between Christians of different sects. In Rome Christians were persecuted, until they became the dominant religion. Then they started persecuting and they've been doing it ever since.
Protestants were persecuted by Catholics then Protestants persecuted Reformers and their new churches. Reformers and Protestants then persecuted Quakers in the new world. I have Quaker ancestors that were persecuted by Puritans in Massachusetts just a few short years after the Puritans fled persecution in England.
When my religion arose through the Restoration through Joseph Smith they were persecuted by all types of Christians. Now that we have the 5th or 6th largest Christian denomination in the world members of our religion have learned how to persecute others.
Why? What is the justification? It certainly is not in the words of Jesus Christ or his Apostles after his ascension. There is no mention of how to persecuted your neighbors in the Bible.
I'm Wrapping Up Now
The bottom line is that the Christian thing to do is to love people. Love your family in all their weirdness. Love your friends, even when they turn on you. Love your enemies, especially when they hate you with a passion. Be kind to everyone in every way you can.
I am not perfect in any of this. I want to be someday and I am trying to be more each day.
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