Last week the Maryland House of Delegates passed a bill legalizing gay marriage in the state. It's expected to pass through the state senate, and ultimately Governor Martin O'Malley is also expected to sign it into state law.
Since only a handful of states have legalized gay marriage to date, it's still a fairly controversial subject, with the Christian right heavily objecting to the concept. I read over the weekend that despite the bill's expectation to pass, many churches throughout the state are going to petition the bill be struck down.
I'm still very neutral about the idea of gay marriage. I am a Christian and share many conservative values with Christian doctrine, but I don't feel offended or violated at the concept of a gay couple choosing to marry. I also question the suggestion that gay couples choosing to marry is a "disgrace" to the sanctity of marriage when so many heterosexual marriages involve abuse, betrayal, and cheating. Don't those three things do more to destroy marriages and families than gay couples?
However, I firmly believe that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice that people in the gay community make. I know the common response to such an idea is that no one would simply wake up one morning and decide to be gay, especially considering the kind of mockery and ostracizing the gay community has had to face over the years. My feeling is that no person ever makes such a decision overnight. No person decides to buy a car sight unseen either; if I'm in the market to buy a car I'm going to want to test drive a few models to see which one I prefer. I'm certainly not going to make the claim that I was born to like SUVs over sedans or sports cars.
Speaking of being born gay, I find it very troubling when I see shows on television where a gay person says something along the lines of the following: "I was definitely born gay. I probably would be straight if I could be, but I'm not." Such a statement is used to support the theory that people in the gay community are born that way, but I have a major issue with such a statement. First, that statement implies the person feels shame over his/her lifestyle. Why should anyone feel shame over the kind of person he/she is attracted to, unless they at some level regret it?
I've gone on a far different tangent than I had planned on when I first started writing this post. One thing I had promised myself a long time ago was to never go overboard with preaching my beliefs to others because I feel it's very counterproductive. I think such preaching comes off as a "holier than thou" attitude, which understandably turns a lot of people off. But I also know when something is and is not my business, and gay marriage falls into the latter category. Even though John Edwards is utter slime, he did have one strong insight when he was campaigning for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2008. He said that even though he was a Christian, he felt the role of President of the United States superseded his own personal beliefs, and as such something like gay marriage would not contradict his beliefs. That's the right attitude to have. He essentially said that while he may disagree with homosexuality at a personal level, he wouldn't let his personal beliefs get in the way of the country as a whole.
I have several friends who are gay, and I'm sure they're very excited at this bill passing. They have every right to be happy, and I have a hard time believing that God would object to two people who were in love and happy with one another.
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