Its About Love

The words 'hate' and 'chicken sandwich' have seen a lot of press lately.  Understandably so, they are a startling juxtaposition of ideas.  However, I feel that the point has been entirely missed with Mr. Carly's support of traditional marriage and the feelings of those who side with him and his delicious chicken sandwiches.

You see, it's not about hate.  It's about love.

We don't hate homosexuals. By 'we' I mean the majority of those of us who strongly support traditional marriage instead of a new definition that allows same sex couples.  Yes, there are a few true bigots out there – but they are by far the exception and not the rule.

We don't hate homosexuals, nor do we desire to stop them from having meaningful relationships with their peers.  This is not the conflict. We may disagree with the homosexual lifestyle on religious grounds, but that same religion insists that we love all God's children regardless of their burdens in this life.  Hate the sin, love the sinner.  It's not a sound bite, it's the true attitude of most Christians.

It's not about hate, its about love.

I love my wife.  I love my wife and the relationship I have with her framed by the sacred covenant of marriage as instituted by a loving God.  I love the life changing power and joy that comes from the give and take between me, my wife and God as we use this sacred binding to bring children into this world into a loving family.

I love the overwhelming glimpse of eternity that comes from the bond between generations knit together by solemn vow and fervent promise to hold and to cherish each other and to give everything, including our very lives if we have to, for the children we are given.  Just like our parents did for us and each other.

My marriage is not a mere piece of paper with an authorized signature and a government letter head.  It is not a tax filing status.  It is not authorized or created by any sovereign power on Earth.  It is merely recognized by them.  God made my marriage real and binding. The marriage certificate only made it public record.

When a same sex couple wants to apply the name 'marriage' to any government sanctioned contract between them, they change the meaning of the word itself.  This new definition of marriage is devoid of sacredness and does not in anyway reflect the covenants made between a Man and a Woman and their God to create new life and build a family.

They take something special and irreplaceable from my marriage to my wife.  The idea of our marriage is cheapened and tarnished.  It becomes less than it formally was.

The problem comes from homosexual individuals trying to walk one path to a entirely different destination.  Every path taken leads somewhere.  The more different the path, the more different the final destination.

When an individual chooses to walk the path of the homosexual lifestyle, they chose to walk towards its final destination.  If one chooses to walk a path of heterosexual marriage and take the covenants that it entails, they choose it's final destination also.

You can not travel the homosexual path and arrive at the heterosexual destination.  No matter what words you twist and violate to describe the achieved goal, it will never be true marriage, the path will not allow it.

Like it or not, marriage is by definition a religious covenant. I can say with complete confidence that no one supporting same sex marriage would think that a Muslim should be able to perform their daily prayers in a Jewish synagogue or that a Catholic should be able to serve communion in a Baptist church when ever they wanted to. It would be correctly seen as an assault on the religious liberties of the other believer. No one would say that the Muslim was being oppressed because he couldn't pray in the synagogue.

Marriage is a sacred rite and covenant to every Judeo-Christian sect known to man. Almost all of those sects agree that homosexuality is incompatible with the marriage covenant. It is not oppressive to say that homosexuals do not have the right to force themselves into that rite of worship, completely dismissing all the dearly held traditions of the very people who first practiced the sacrament of marriage.

It's not about hate.  It's about love.  The love I have for my wife and my marriage is too important to allow it to be transmuted into an empty and hollow facade of a once sacred institution.  I'm not fighting to stop the relationship between others who feel differently than me. I'm fighting to save the most important thing in my life, my marriage.