A Conservative Christian That Supports Gay Marriage

As a Republican Gay Baptist pointed out, we are not a country that likes complexity.  We like simple solutions to complex problems.  Failing schools?  Test the snot out of them.  Crime problem?  Throw them in jail and let them rot.

Whether you're right wing, left wing, or you hang under the dark underbelly of the plane, like me, the debate over gay marriage is a hotbed of stoutly held opinions.  Lobbyists and other political players benefit from fanning  the flames of outrage on both sides of the issue, complicating things considerably.  In this instance, a simple problem has been made very complex, and the solution is in actuality very simple.

In my opinion, gay marriage shouldn't even be an issue.  It should be legal.  Government should not have its nose in the bedroom unless one partner doesn't consent.  Most of those who oppose gay marriage do it for religious reasons.  Religious intrusion into law and politics usually causes more harm than good.

To understand how religion and politics can be harmful, one needs to understand emics and etics.  Emics view behavior from within a system or a culture, and etics view behavior from outside a system or culture.  Mental refers to what a subject is thinking, and behavioral refers to what one can observe them doing.

Traditional Religious Conservative View of Gay Marriage	Mental	Behavioral
Emic	Preserving the sanctity of marriage.	Advocating politically to ensure the country stays on a moral path.
Etic	Afraid of change, and of losing both religious and political clout.	Fanning a debate with inflammatory language to keep from losing power.

By dissecting the motivations behind the opposition to gay marriage, I find that it's more about self-righteousness and power than about protecting Christianity.  I believe Christians should not be seeking power in any way.**  Like an anonymous young man points out, the brain can be a lot like Lindsey Lohan's defense lawyer, because "it may be the best advocate out there, but at bottom, it's still defending every kind of immaturity and poor decision-making there is."  The degree to which we can delude ourselves that we are doing the right thing instead of acting like power-hungry control freaks is astounding. 

I was raised to live and let live, to study the Word and live one's life accordingly.  The two men that had a major effect on my moral development were extremely homophobic, but one would never know by the way they treated homosexuals.  They shook hands and spoke with respect, kindness, and good humor, which I think is a closer reflection to what loving one's neighbors should look like.**

I know that other conservatives will strongly disagree, citing that law is a reflection of morality, and for the majority of Americans, that morality is strongly based in Judeo-Christian ideals.  But, religion and politics never mix without an explosive reaction.

Atheists often point out that religion has lead the clarion call for violence and war, and they have a point.  Think of the Inquisition, the Reformation, the Crusades...the list goes on and on.  Those wars had emics and etics, too.  The emic mental reason for those wars were religious, but etically, the violence was about power, either maintaining it during a time of tremendous change or grabbing it from another country.

Though I'm a religious person, the law should be as religiously neutral as possible because religious viewpoints behind the laws are often biased, which has been demonstrated time and time again throughout history.  I have no problem with legalizing gay marriage.

**I have verses that I could cite to support my beliefs, but I have found that citing verses usually leads to citation wars that are more about winning and less about actual dialogue.