Prop 8

It's been a week now since California passed Prop 8 - one whole week for me to think about it.

Proposition 8:

"... is a California State ballot proposition that would amend the state Constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman. It would overturn a recent California Supreme Court decision that had recognized same-sex marriage in California as a fundamental right. The official ballot title language for Proposition 8 is "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry." The entirety of the text to be added to the constitution is: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

Although I don't know very many gay people/couples, I feel they are being unfairly judged by many Christian organizations.

This reminds me of the ban on interracial marriages in the United States prior to the Supreme Court's 1967 ruling in Loving v. Virginia. Before 1967 it was illegal for mixed couples to get married.

Now the US is doing the same thing to gay couples.

Am I wrong for thinking this is discrimination against gay couples? What do you think? On another website, this is the answer I got to this question:

"It's discrimination to an extent - but a good extent, I believe.

Morally, we, as Christians, believe the bible to be God's true and divine word. In it, God calls homosexuality as sin. So, we, as Christians, also call it a sin and therefore do not support it.

So, is this discrimination wrong? I don't think so - we do it all the time. We discriminate against thieves, adulterers, liars - other sins - all the time. The bible declares these things wrong, and so do we.

The bible declares homosexuality wrong and so do we.

Marriage is firmly established in the bible as the union between a man and a woman. That's the example we choose to follow, and, we, as christians, therefore vote against things like Proposition 8 that seek to alter God's word and his will.

As children of God we acknowledge Him as King, Lord, Sovereign and Perfect. He is the ruler, the measure, by which we measure all things.

We do not get to change things based on how we feel or how we think things ought to be. We lay our issue up against the word of God, and see how it measures up. This way, crooked never becomes straight, and straight never becomes zig-zagged."

And my reply was:
I was raised as a Christian and still read the Bible, but who am I to say this is the one and only religion. And when did Christians gain the right to tell others how to live?

Prop 8 is for the legal system and in this country there is a separation of church and state. It's fine to preach in the church that homosexuality is wrong; it is illegal to preach it in a court of law.

As I've said before, the United States was founded on the simple principal of religious freedom. We all have the right to our beliefs, but we don't have the right to force our beliefs on others - no matter how right we think we are.

For more info, go to What Is Prop 8?