Gay Marriage!

Everyone's favorite topic! I saw something interesting on the topic and thought it was interesting - so I'm writing about it. I can't remember if it was a priest or pastor, but I saw an interview of this guy discussing gay marriage and Christianity.

My own view is that there is nothing about homosexuality that is incompatible with Christianity. You hear a lot of fundamentalists who say at best that it's a sin and at worst 'God hates fags' but actually there is only one line in the Hebrew scriptures that specifically talks about homosexuality as a sin - which is (if I remember correctly) the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Other passages are pretty vague and I don't believe Jesus said anything on the subject. But even if you look at that one passage it also says something to the effect of: you should give your daughters to guests! But you don't see many Christians advocating that. People like to pick and choose the parts of the scriptures they agree with.

But actually this has nothing really to do with what I wanted to talk about (or rather what the interviewee was talking about). He felt that marriage should be handled by the state and not the church. The state should not be able to tell a church how to handle marriages - and religion should have no say in what constitutes a valid marriage. This would protect both freedom to marry who you want and the beliefs of certain churches. Although I may not agree with them, a religion does have the right to declare whatever they want as a sin.

Japan has a good system actually (although only members of the opposite sex). To get married all you need to do is sign the marriage certificate with a witness present. Simple, and no religion involved.