Today's Debate

This post is prompted by a debate and, most likely, a vote being held today in the Minnesota Legislature to change the marriage law.  Here is a part of what is being voted on... the original was found at this link -> HF1054 at 11:40 this morning. Of course, it may be changed before the vote occurs.  NOTE - here is a link to what the House of Representatives actually passed on Thursday - Version 2 ("2nd Engrossment").*

The Minnesota House Bill that is being voted on today tries to get around objections in many ways.  I've heard that the word "civil" is being proposed to be prefixed to "marriage" every time "marriage" is referred to in Minnesota law.  There are also many provisions that try to make exceptions for religious groups, trying to make sure that there will be no penalties for pastors who refuse to marry people of the same sex.  

But it's interesting that (1) the law would prohibit marriage between siblings (as it always has between brothers & sisters) and (2) the law states that it is a contract between two people.  Why?  Well, the reason is that marriage has always been about the potential children that a male-female sexual union produces.*

Children always come from the union of one man and one woman.  Even "artificial insemination" and "in vitro" fertilization involve the sperm and egg of one man and one woman.  There is something unique and irreplaceable about this sacred union: children.  And it is to protect those children that marriage exists.

The following was written last fall by Autumn Leva - you can find the original by clicking here.

... Marriage is a special relationship defined as the union of one man and one woman because it provides a stable environment in which men and women commit not only to each other, but also to any potential children born from their union. Marriage is the only institution we have that connects children to the people who brought them into the world. For anyone who may have missed "the talk" growing up, the male-female bodily union is the only type of union that can create new life for the propagation of our species.

Thus, the relationship between a man and a woman is unique. When men and women agree to commit to themselves and any children they bear, this provides a stable family unit in our society that ensures the care and upbringing of the kids involved. ...

Autumn Leva wrote that in regard to the "Marriage Amendment" debate last fall. Click here for what I wrote at that time.

There is nothing as important, when it comes to marriage, as the well being of the children and the generations to come.  Can you imagine anything that would change this?

Please pray today for our legislators.  The debate in the Minnesota House is scheduled to begin now.

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* Notes added Saturday morning May 11 - 

(1) The MN House of Representatives did pass HR 1054 (click here for the bill in its final form). 

(2) I have yet to read or hear anything written from the "pro-GLBT" perspective that is willing to admit and deal with the aspects of this issue that I address above.  I welcome a conversation about this, especially with any Christians who are in favor of gay marriage.

(3) Related to the above, can someone explain why the law should give special status to permanent or monogamous unions of any kind when the begetting/bearing of children isn't central to the law? I really want to know!  See this link "Why Get Married When You Can Be Happy?" and the recording of that event from last year's Sydney Writer's Festival (mp3 here) for what Jeanette Winterson, Dennis Altman, Benjamin Law and Masha Gesse had to say.

(4) Yesterday I happened to have a school bus trip to the Minnesota History Center. Bus parking for the History Center is right in front of the Minnesota State Capitol building.  So, yesterday, I went up to the capitol and wrote a brief letter to Governor Dayton--they provide paper, pens and a place in the governor's outer office for writing--and put my letter in the "in box" on the receptionist's desk. I also left a note at the office of our state senator.  The state senate will take up this bill on Monday and when Governor Dayton signs it non-heterosexual marriages will be recognized in Minnesota beginning August 1.

(5) The following is from something I wrote in November of last year entitled "When the Road Is Long." :

Those of us who do not suffer same-sex attractions cannot understand or appreciate the depths of what those brothers and sisters go through. Even so, every Christian can, to some extent, understand what it means to wrestle with faithfulness to God and the Word of God, while at the same time suffering unfulfilled desires or dreams and frustrations. Sometimes this wrestling is accompanied by loneliness--an inability to explain fully to others what it is you are going through. So, as Wesley Hill's book makes us a bit more compassionate toward those with homosexual desires, others benefit too...   (See the end of this blog post for a quote from his book's introduction.)

Christians end up doing two things in this life in regard to the pain and frustrations we face. First, we do not give up praying and seeking for healing and complete release from whatever we (or others) are suffering.  Second, and at the same time, we expect God to be at work in and through us (and others) while we (and they) are still suffering -- while we all, to some extent, are "washed and waiting."

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