Gay marriage has been passed through parliament in the U.K.!
Praise God!
Thank you for all your prayers!
Gay Christian International
PRAYERS FOR THE U.K. PLEASE!
There is going to be a free vote tomorrow on whether civil partnerships will be upgraded to marriage for LGBT couples in the U.K.
While weddings in churches (aside from Unitarian and Quaker) will be off the cards for a while this is a big step forward to full equality!
Prayers for wisdom, for thought and for open mindedness for those voting in Parliament tomorrow! And prayer for those of us here to accept the outcome, whatever it may be.
260 Clergy in Illinois Call for Gay Marriage →
I can’t explain how much I hope my state of Illinois passes Gay Marriage. This is a good sign. We are ready, now let’s get it done.
(Merry Christmas Eve everyone :) )
-Andrew
- Conservative:I love you so I'm going to vote 'no' on gay marriage.
- Gay Christian:Oh thank you! I was worried I might end up in a happily committed and Christ-centred relationship with my would-be spouse of the same sex! God bless you for selflessly treating His children, including myself, differently based on what you personally approve of regardless of whether or not your beliefs are even remotely founded on Scripture!
I spoke with my former pastor at Point Loma Presbyterian Church yesterday
And I am sorry to say that he is anti-equality.
As some of you know, my ultimate hope is that GCI grows to rival the size of GCN as an organization and become a physically present body and not just a blog. So I have undertaken the responsibility of contacting pastors within my region and seeing what I can give to the next editor in the form of advice and organization influence and maybe even finances. So far I have only spoken to my Church (SDFC) on Nazarenes for Equality and the Presbyterian church I mentioned before. But as you can imagine the going is slow, but not unworkable.
But back to my discussion regarding the Presbyterian pastor.
He does come from a very conservative generation and when I spoke to him, he didn’t seem to have ever truly encountered an opposing argument (he has met Mel White and knows of More Light Presbyterians, however) that was well formed. When I spoke with him, did not seem to be able to retort to most of my points. Instead, he occasionally resorted to conjecture or simply did not have a counter-argument.
Considering that he attended Seminary in the 70’s, it is not suprising this is the case.
But he was very loving and civilized no less, and I do pray that I helped plant the seeds of understanding with him from our discussion!
-Ian
View Larger Neil Armstrong, a straight space pioneer, and Sally Ride, a gay pioneer, had the same occupation and made leaps and both bounds for science. And yet… Neil Armstrong’s widow gets more benefits and does not have to deal with extra headaches because they are married. Sally Ride’s widow gets no benefits and has unnecessary problems to deal with because their “marriage” was limited.
Funny, how religion wasn’t brought up once. Government recognized religion is NOT the same as religious marriage.
Stats:
Rate of straight couples divorcing: high.
Rate of gay couples divorcing: rock bottom.
Rate of gay marriages performed in America: insufficiently low.
Celebrity divorce: high.
Gay celebrity divorce: have you even seen Ellen & Portia, and David & Neil though? They’re in for the long haul clearly.
Just sayin’….
The above video is an ad for the Romney-Ryan US presidential campaign.
If whoever may be reading this isn’t an American don’t leave just yet, I’d like to talk about gay marriage and not US politics. This is targeted more towards, people who disagree with me than agree with me. I mentioned in another unrelated post that I’m pro gay marriage. So this is going to be a bit more sensitive to the opposition, a gentle criticism if you will.
Before I go on though, I don’t like the wording in the ad. Obama is “forcing” gay marriage on people? What does that even mean? Normal marriage isn’t going anywhere, it’s just that homosexuals can get married too.
Marriage is often associated with it’s religious origins. Christianity, the monopoly on religion, of course prohibits this. Here’s a quote from Leviticus 20:13:
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.But can marriage be considered a religious thing? I say no, or at least, not anymore. First of all, let’s get this straight, Christianity doesn’t own marriage, marriage has been around since before Christianity, and all other religions have their own take on it. That being said, it’s only fair to look at marriage outside of any particular religion’s bias.
So are there any other reasons gay marriage should be prohibited? I head “it’s not natural” a bit, but I’m not even sure what that means. I guess you can’t reproduce if you’re gay and natural selection would take you out under normal circumstances. But we’re talking about marriage, at the very least homosexuality is observed in other species, who else but us get’s married? So I’m going to avoid this argument as a whole because of my lack of understanding, or its lack of meaning.
One question that comes up. What about civil unions? Won’t those suffice? Possibly, but not in the current state of civil unions. You see, in the US, civil unions are on a state level and marriage is on a federal level. Meaning, in order to even have a civil union you need to live in a state that permits them. The benefits of a civil union is entirely up to the states and not the federal government. So everything that is done on the federal level (taxes, public benefits, 1,000+ protections otherwise given to married couples) cannot be affected by civil unions. Unless civil unions move up to the federal level, they are not a viable alternative to marriage.
I think the nay-sayers are really against gay weddings and not the marriage itself. Going back to religion, I can kind of see how a Christian wedding for a gay couple is kind of a middle finger to your god. I’m not a Christian myself, but I guess I can support that particular opposition, this has no bearing on my views on the actual marriage however.
A church has the right to deny a couple to hold a wedding whether I or you like it or not. But that’s just a wedding, I’ll hold no opinion one way or the other on denying that to someone.
As for the actual marriage, there are a large number of long lasting benefits for the couple. I have nothing against people who happen to be gay, I don’t want to deny this to them.
This has to be the cheesiest political video I have ever seen…..
Your Arguments Are Invalid: Gay Marriage (by vlogbrothers)
-Chase
See how easy it is debunk anti-LGBT marriage sentiments. He didn’t even NEED to explain Biblical technicalities. If your country is based on secular ideals you cannot use religion as a reason for banning gay marriage. Now what is weird that for me in the U.K. We DON’T have a separation of Church and State and yet we have civil partnerships which while isn’t a civil marriage gives us all the rights that a marriage religious or otherwise would give us and in the USA where your law is based on secular notions gay marriage is a massive issue. Why does everything have to be so complicated?
Alicia
Julia Gasper of the UKIP party (a party I’ve never known anyone to vote for… Ever.) She’s the candidate for Oxford. Her badge says, “One man, one woman, as God intended.” I often forget that intolerance like this is also bubbling in the UK, as the USA are beating our bigots at hatred.
The bigotry in the UK is quite a bit more subtle than the USA. It’s like when the right wing get the chance to complain it’s like they come out of being recluses then when it’s all over they go back into hiding again. What makes me really angry is that people like this (Including Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP the British equivalent of the KKK except they have a minor political standing) profess to be Christian.
Alicia
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-19305232
This is the latest on the civil union to gay marriage debate in the U.K.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien as far as I am aware was the first to speak out against the suggestion that the U.K’s civil partnerships be upgraded to Civil marriages. It was the first of a wave of anti-gay religious propaganda. The most notable of them was the Evangelical Alliance’s “Coalition for Marriage”. I have walked into several churches to see their “One Man, One Woman” posters. I had to walk past one in my local evangelical church when I went up for communion. Even my father who is a vicar received one in the most. I watched as he ripped it up and threw it in the bin. If only the Church knew how much it hurt me and other LGBTQ Christians when they petition against the right for our relationships to be seen as equal in the law, that by doing that they do not see our love as equal to theirs. Is it any surprise the majority of my LGBTQ friends thought I was mad when I told them I was on a Theology course and feel called to be a priest? I love the Church and I love my God. I know my God loves me but sometimes I’m not so sure that the Church does.
