A Christian's Reason Against Prop 8

I think it's finally time that I wrote down on a public blog on reasons for Christians to be against Proposition 8.

For those of you who do not live in California and know what Proposition 8 is, it is a proposition on the current ballot that is about to eliminate gay marriage in the state of California.

Now many may think this is going to be an article about how the Bible is ok with gay marriage, well my official stand is "it is subject to debate." But there is a much bigger reason to reject such a proposition and any other propositions to legislate Biblical or any other standards of morality, from a Biblical perspective, at least the way I read it.

First though before I go onto the theology, I want to also establish that in the role of the American government it is fundamentally wrong to legislate any morality laws outside of the scope of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But that is a very wide blanket statement and is another debate altogether. But from a Biblical point of view, my thoughts follow. Also at the end of the post, you'll find my thoughts on the liberal/conservative conflict. It's a good one.

*** LEGISLATING GOD ***

God has legislated his laws and will judge himself, he does not need man to legislate on his behalf.

I want to again make it clear here I am not suggesting that gay marriage is or isn't against God's laws. That is not the point of this post. I am taking the hypothetical possibility that even if it is against God's laws, it against God's way to legislate it.

From the Bible, the whole concept of government has been frowned upon right from the beginning. Government control and government legislation were never his way of dealing with human behaviors. When the people of Israel wanted a government, God was not pleased. He wanted to be direct in his governing of the people, but the people wanted to take legislating laws and resolving matters into their own hands.

Galatians 3: 23-25 "Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law."

Christianity as Christ established and Paul preached was that of faith and faith based. We are no longer under the supervision of the law, but rather under that of faith. It is our faith in Christ and in his salvation that should guide us, and it is in his love and the love of God that we are to work with others. It is not in the establishment of laws by a governing state to fulfill our faith.

Our individual understanding of the laws of God is irrelevant in legal legislation. The laws of morality is in the hearts of the individual. It is through our faith that we each gain our own understanding of the laws of morality. Thus we each have a varying degree of this understanding despite that truth in the universe should ultimately be solid and unchanging. Yet even in the most micro and macro of levels of science we see how apparent contradictions can co-exist.

*** THE REAL FIGHT ***

Religion is at war with each other on one way or another. All religions are, and every human beings are a part of this conflict. Religion is an inseparable part of existence as the by-product of self-awareness is religion. One cannot be self-aware without being religious. However what we believe is to be true to govern our own behavior is determined by our own religious understanding. We may believe in a God, many gods or no god, but all of which are believes. No one knows whether God exist or not. It is theoretically impossible to prove or disprove unless if humanity has a way to reach outside of this universe. Even with science, we have no way of measuring something that theoretically exist outside of this universe since we have no idea if science even applies beyond this universe.

We choose to either believe or not believe in the existence of a power that is beyond this world, and that in turns dictate how we live our lives. Some may call following a possible God to be unreasonable, but it can easily be reversed and say not following a possible God is also unreasonable since we cannot even be certain if reason as we understand it exist beyond this universe. It is not reason that tells us whether there is or isn't a God, so it is unreasonable to believe and it is also unreasonable not to believe in the existence of God. Reason only applies to this universe.

The nature of blind faith is then just faith. We have faith in our current understanding as sufficient. We have faith that what we do is what is best for us right now given what we have. Science gives us a good base to judge the immediate events and take appropriate actions. That is adequate to live on a day to day basis. But when we examine all of existence as a whole, is a system that can only disprove theories the best way to understand life and all of the universe? Can we fully grasp everything with something that is based on the best available facts? Perhaps, but it certainly requires a good amount of faith in this system. The truth remains is that faith is an inevitable part of all conscious life no matter which way we look at it.

*** LIBERAL CONSERVATIVE CYCLE ***

On the other hand, I am absolutely against the pushing of liberal agendas down on the other side of the spectrum. I am against the usage of our educational system to further one's own personal believes and agendas. Public education must respect the diversity of cultures and religions in the world. We all have the right to choose for ourselves what we want to live our lives as. One may not be able to choose their sexual orientation, but one can certainly choose whom if any at all they want to be married to. One may not be able to choose their race and ethnicity, but one can certainly choose what religion they wish to follow.

It is in the liberal agenda to force our children to accept their ideals and believe as it is in their nature. It is in their nature just as it is in the nature of the conservatives who have once forced our children to accept their ideals. The strength of philosophy is that it tells us this is the right thing to live by. As such we want to share it with others. But when others reject our outlook, oftentimes we forget that our job is to share the good news, not cram it down the throats of other people.

It's a ruthless cycle where both sides are simply being fed even more hatred for the other without realizing that they too are at fault. Perhaps the liberals would not be so dead set against pushing their agenda by force if the conservatives didn't squeeze so hard. But also perhaps the conservatives would not squeeze so hard if the liberals didn't try to force their values into the daily lives of those who rejected it. This is the situation we are in, and the only way we can truly get out is that we honestly examine ourselves and level with everyone else around us.

*** NOW WHAT ***

I do still have much more thoughts to continue on, and I will continue to write it all in here as time moves on. I have had many nights of conversations with many friends and I just need to start gradually jot it all down. It is far from complete, but I will keep on going. Let me know what you think. But please be respectful as I am respectful of your opinions also.