I'm not saying that all of god's commandments are things I would be willing to publicly campaign on/advocate for if one asked me to do so. I don't feel god expects me to do so. But if they were to come up at the ballot box as refrendums, then I believe god expects me to vote for them out of faith. Sure, god is the eventual final arbiter on whether someone has been truly repentant and deserves forgiveness. But that doesn't mean he expects man to show a nonchalant attitude towards others' sin.
Ok, well let's cut right to the chase here. Would you vote in favor of the following referendums if they were on the ballot in your state?
1. A ban on all non-Christian marriages (i.e. no state recognition of marriages between Jewish or Muslim couples, etc.)?
2. The establishment of Christianity as the official state religion?
3. A ban on the construction of mosques within the state?
4. A flat-out ban on the practice of Islam?
1. Contrary to what you may believe, god does not declare that a marriage between two unbelievers is a sin (However, a christian who knowingly marries an unbeliever is sinning: https://bible.org/seriespage/17-marriage-matters-1-corinthians-76-24). So, it falls to personal opinion, and I would vote No in this case.
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Not sure. While this is something god would likely expect me to support, I'm not sure if I could bring myself to actually support it.
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When and if I knowingly go against a commandment of god when taking a position on an issue, there is always a reason for doing it. Maybe I feel it's unenforceable, too intruding, or ridiculously expensive. I do not want to give into those temptations, but the devil finds ways of convincing me that it's what's best for society as a whole.
But when it comes to SSM, my devoted opposition comes with no hesitation whatsoever. Excluding gay couples from marriage is not something that I feel uneasy about doing at all. Some of the people in this world are asking god to change the union of marriage from what it has been for essentially all of time. They are telling god, not even out of temptation, but out of pure wanting to do it without any provoking from the devil at all, that the unions he created aren't good enough for us even though they were good enough for centuries upon centuries. And they should be ashamed of themselves.
I am ultra-religious. This is the scariest thing I have read on this forum this year. Moderate Christians should not be supporting some crazy theocracy. Bannings mosques?! Holy.... I even supported you embracing civil unions but geez. Don't take this as a personal attack, but that is quite extreme.
Out of curiosity, is this a particular branch of Christianity you are explaining the beliefs of? Catholics are supposed to be devoted to defending religious freedom. I highly doubt that's what you are, but I'm curious. Catholic churches in my area even do the marriages with Jews (though they are a bit more under the table. I don't think they are sending the pastor in for that usually.)
Also, the line has been repeated ad infinitum, but the definition of marriage has changed many, many times since the Bible was released.
