No Gay Rites for Oregon

“..and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” Romans 1: 32

On my commute this morning I listened to our local talk-radio station hosts discussing the State of Oregon’s brilliant plan to normalize homosexual relationships through civil-unions. Generally I agree with two of the host’s sentiments about the issue. One of them was a simple question posed to callers who were against any rights for gays: “ How does someone else’s homosexuality actually affect you?” I concur. At the core of my being I believe homosexuality is the fruit of a disordered soul and a sin. But, at almost 48 years of age, I am at a loss to think of an incident in which someone’s homosexuality has personally hurt me. I have raised two daughters to adulthood and both went to public schools and colleges which did support homosexuality as a legitimate life choice, but neither of them were corrupted by it. They are repulsed by it in the same way I am. The other sentiment was “If we allow this, where will it end?” They leaned towards the idea that gay civil unions IS the end and we as a society won’t go any further. I find this difficult to believe. Today sexual relationships between adults and minors and between people and animals are forbidden by law. But in the world of yesterday, sodomy was also illegal in most states. With that said, I would like to add a final word on the matter. Well, actually two final words on the matter. First of all, I believe the role of government is to punish evil doers in society and to prevent chaos from breaking out in society. As limiting as that sounds, it is actually a fairly broad mandate and it does include passing laws that do make people do the right thing for everybody even if they don’t want to. An example is Oregon’s law that requires helmets on motorcycle riders and seatbelts for all passengers in cars. I know some would say this is coercive and who is hurt if someone wants to risk serious injury on the highway? Well, everyone is hurt. When radical, life-saving measures have to be applied that a family cannot afford and then a person is on disability the rest of their life, who gets to pay for that? I fail to see how gay civil unions will not create chaos. Really, how can we truly know that two men in a civil union really are homosexuals and not just two single men wanting a tax break? By the way, do laws of consanguinity apply in gay marriage? As a heterosexual I can’t marry my first cousin (not that I would even want to!) because we could produce seriously handicapped offspring. Does that apply to homosexuals or do they actually get rights that I don’t get. And while everybody seems to think that AIDS has been cured and is now strictly a heterosexual disease for junkies, it still disproportionately affects gay men. Behavior that causes disease is once again all our problem and who gets to pay for it when they get sick? Secondly, the reason I will never support Gay civil-unions is because God unequivocally calls homosexuality wrong. From Genesis to Revelation, same-sex unions are in no way approved. And any arguments from scripture to the contrary are simply ones that are seriously parsed and nuanced by people that generally have an agenda that goes much further than merely interpreting the Bible. Government, public opinion, sociology, and even medicine may present the idea that being gay is a benign lifestyle choice for an enlightened and sophisticated world. I call it moral rot white-washed under the guise of deepening democracy. It’s wrong not because I don’t like it, not because I don’t want children exposed to it and certainly not because it fouls the tax system. It’s wrong because the Creator has said it is wrong.