Praying for light – gay marriage and the aftermath

Marriage equality?

Well, it’s official.

Marriage equality has arrived in America. It seems appropriate to mark the occasion, seeing as the issue hits so close to home.

Where to start? First, I’ll begin by saying that I am happy beyond words that gays and lesbians throughout the Nation, finally, will have the exact same civil benefits and responsibilities everyone else is afforded. It is proper and right that we should have them.

No government of a nation dedicated to treating its citizens equally under the law should be allowed to discriminate against its own citizens. Moreover, no nation that claims to pride itself on valuing property rights can dare to deny to citizens the basic right to enter into a contract. That being said, this decision, the debate leading up to it and the aftermath that has followed, is not something I feel like dancing and smiling about. You will not find my profile pic draped in a rainbow flag.

A sign of the times?

image courtesy of google images and is owned by http:??chasingamiracle.com

This writer is heartbroken after reading a recent article on the culture war. He’s reminded of a brief conversation with a local evangelist  regarding an upcoming conference on religious liberties.

In his Fox News article Todd Starnes asks whether Christians have lost the culture war. This writer has had dealings with many folks just like that evangelist from New York Families. New York Families Reasearch Foundation (NYFRf) is an organization which purports that it “seeks to display Christian charity towards our fellow New Yorkers and to build a more just and merciful culture”. 

This writer is not sure what their real motives are given his recent interaction with the evangelist.

The question which concerned Christians ought to ask is not whether they’ve lost the culture war but whether those representing Christianity publicly have lost their minds, not to mention their hearts.

Hope v. Horror: no contest

In roughly eleven weeks we as a people will decide the path our nation and our republic will walk over the next four years. In these choices voters decide their private futures for that same four years.

Many of us believe that more than just four years are at stake in our election day decisions. Those who believe this particular election represents decades or centuries rather than a brief cycle of four years approach election day with either hope or horror (or, perhaps, with both).

Last month I learned that a friend who violated the terms of his probation – my ‘brother from a different mother’ – will spend the next four years in a maximum security prison. Hope and horror are in play when I think of what those four years – and the days and years following his release – could be for him.

Which is a more powerful or effective motivator: horror or hope?