My Christian Argument for Gay Marriage

 I had another one of the conversations with a conservative Christian about gay marriage. I have had this conversation a million times with fellow Christians and have no problem having it again and again. My latest iteration is probably the most succinct I have been able to be.
First, if you read the Bible from a fundamentalist, literalist perspective, its tough to have much of a conversation. But the truth is even fundies interpret the Bible, even if they don't want to admit it. Homosexuality is case in point. 
Leviticus 20:13 says that homosexuals should be put to death. Yet very few fundamentalists today advocate such a measure even though the Bible clearly states as much. The interpretation is that the new Convenant of Jesus makes the capital punishment of homosexuality obsolete, but this is an interpretation and certainly not stated as such. Indeed, Paul offers his own warnings about homosexuality and unfortunately most modern day fundamentalists are still in favor of the death penalty for other crimes.

Most fundamentalists are still not willing to admit that they have their own interpretation of the Bible as demonstrated by this case, by not favoring the death penalty for homosexuals. Even with the inability to acknowledge their own reading of the Bible as one of many, I nonetheless argue next for historical context.

If you want to use a literal interpretation of the Bible, you are going to run into a whole host of historical issues. The Bible says that the Earth is 6-20,000 years old, when it clearly isn't. On social issues, it approves of slavery (even Paul gives instructions for how slaves are to be treated by their masters and vice versa), and does not overtly condemn multiple wives. In the same chapter of Leviticus for example, verse 9 says: " 'If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death." If we implemented that, no teenager would make it to adulthood. 

The point is that over the last 3500 years or so, we've done a lot of, excuse the term, evolving in our thinking about social relations. The Bible was in fact used to justify slavery, because the verses are there to support it. Society moved on, grew up if you will and adopted a concept of human rights that excludes slavery, even though the Bible says its okay. 

Likewise with homosexuality, we're growing up as a society. We understand the biological basis for homosexuality and that some people are born attracted to the opposite sex. We understand it exists throughout the animal kingdom. We know that God does not make mistakes with his creation. We must therefore accept that gay and lesbians are indeed part of God's creation deserving of the same love and respect of their relationships that all couples do. 

Finally, like all Christian belief, everything goes back to Jesus, Jesus as love. I believe that God sanctifies loving, committed couples. That's my belief. That's my interpretation of God's role in our relationships. Knowing so many committed gay couples, I can't help but believe that God is with them and working in their relationship.

Now, you can forget the religious argument when it comes to what should the policy of the government should be. There should be equal protection under law meaning laws that prohibit discrimination based on orientation and yes, we should give loving couples equal rights to marry. Our system does not allow for one religious opinion to be implemented over another. I have yet to hear an argument against gay marriage that wasn't rooted in a religious belief rather than a legal argument. Equal rights, like other social justice struggles before it, we've reached the inflection point that Dr. King spoke of when he told us that the arc of history bends toward justice.
Equal rights: It about that time.