I have been reading a lot of information, these last three days. I have been reading scripture, I have been reading commentary, I have been reading web forum posts, I have been reading the news, and I have been reading my self. I was on a mission. It was a simple mission, so I thought, a mission to provide an acceptable and adequate theological reason why I am not, and why I believe God is not, any more offended by same-sex marriage than the marriage of a heterosexual. It was not a simple mission, and some may say I have failed, but I am finished. I will provide what I have come to realize are the guiding ideas I have regarding God and Christ, ideas that some will say are simply incorrect or down-right heretical. I will be alright with that; I am a heretic in good company, that is for certain.
I believe that one reading this expecting to have their mind changed (or expecting I am attempting to change one's mind), will not. These positions and thoughts are not taken and put on like masks or costumes, to be paraded about as fads or hip-thinking. These thoughts and ideas are ways of thinking, ways of life, that have been arrived at over years of prayer, tears, relationships, reading, living, and a little bit of dying, dying to old ways and to old selves. I do not wish one to read what I am writing as a challenge inviting argument, though you are free to do so. Read as if I am opening up to you who I am and why I believe the way I do, whether for wrong or for right, because I wish to convert no one through these particular thoughts today. I seek not to argue, but to explain, expose, and lay myself bare for you to understand.
First and foremost, God is Love. That's Love with a capitol "L". God is also just, holy, and righteous, but, knowing that God is Love, I have come to firmly believe that God's justice, holiness, and righteousness will look like Love. Because of this, I strive to err on the side of grace. When God judges what I have believed and done, I would rather hear that I loved too much to a fault than to not have loved enough. I do not say this to mean that anyone who does not accept same-sex marriage is unloving; I say this to mean that this is where the Love of God has led me.
Regardless of whether or not science ever produces a biological trigger for our sexual orientation, the fact remains that one can not genetically prove that they are biologically heterosexual or biologically homosexual. Neither group, as a being, chose their orientation, either. Demands of proof that one "is born gay" from the heterosexual community should be met with the same demands from the homosexual community that the others were "born straight". I have yet to meet a single person, on either side of the issue that is capable of telling me when they choose their orientation, because orientation is not a choice. I can no more choose to be gay than someone who is gay can choose to be straight; it is a matter of one's very being. A homosexual can choose to abstain from sexual relations, but they will still be a homosexual. The number of people from programs that claim to convert homosexuals to heterosexuals that say they either "reverted" or simply claimed to be "cured" in an attempt to believe it later on down the line, is staggering.
The most loving thing Christians can do is to provide every person with as much access to the fullness of life as possible. If some are right, and homosexuality can be "cured by God", then nothing will stop God's conviction in those lives. But if some are wrong, and homosexuality is a life-long orientation that one does not choose, then a grave disservice has been done to our homosexual brothers and sisters in denying them the same opportunities in life that the rest of us have.
In closing, I have essentially failed in the prime request that was asked of me: to provide scriptural basis for my belief. I will say this, that it my very reading of scripture that informs my belief. The passages of love, grace, and justice speak volumes over the traditional seven passages that are used to exclude our homosexual brothers and sisters to the fullness of life through love and acceptance. I wish I could list for you in neat detail every passage that would prove my position to you, but I cannot. I began to, but it came across as proof-texting, a practice I have learned to despise as it can be used to make scripture say whatever we want it to say. I can only say that the time may come when I will know whether I was right or I was wrong, and my only explanation can only be that I erred on the side of grace.
