Prop. 8. Really?

In November we will all go to the polls to vote for a new President, Mayor (in Fresno) and on most people's minds, Proposition 8. For those that don't know Prop. 8 is an item on our ballot that will help define what marriage is according to our state. It is attempting to reverse the effects of the recent law passed by the California supreme court allowing same-sex couples to marry.

I consider myself a true conservative, by "true conservative" i don't mean keeping things they way they are now, (like most conservative people) but instead allowing things to be what they were originally intended for, such as the true meaning of scripture, where it came from, what it is meant for, how it was written and most importantly, how we interpret it. In politics, I prefer to stay true to the constitution, and most importantly, realizing that the Constitution is not scripture, as most conservatives tend to think.

There is a fear among all Conservative type people that prop. 8 will pass and soon all people that are homosexual will rule the world. (I know that sounds far fetched but if you hear any of our local pastors or republican leaders talk about it you would think that's what we were really voting on) I would argue the contrary. I have known a few people that are part of the homosexual community in my short lifetime and I would tell you immediately that they are more about freedom than anything else. They would like the freedom to marry who they want and freedom for heterosexual people to marry who they want, is this constitutional? That is for you to decide.

Back to my original point...why do most conservatives think that so many negative things will happen if prop. 8 fails? Why do they think that churches will be forced to hire people from the homosexual community even if the church believes that God created marriage to be between 1 man and 1 woman? (for this to happen a civil rights act allowing all faith-based non-profits to hire within their core beliefs would have to be overturned) Why do they think that we will be called bigots and discriminators if we still choose to stand for our convictions? Why do they think churches (and all other non-profits) will have to start paying taxes if we don't hire people that are homosexual? If you have been a part of the conservative community for a while as I have you would know that this is what they do. Conservatives like control over everything, if they don't have control they feel absolutely out of control of our world. So in this case their worries are about people doing exactly what they do without the same values. In some ways it has been rather humorous to watch.

Of course you have to decide how you will vote, and I would urge you, as everything else you vote on, to weigh the facts and vote your convictions. There are many other factors to take into account with this proposition but I would urge you that the fear of the homosexual community taking over the world and forcing everybody to hire gay, support gay and be gay is not one of them.

One of the question we as christians must be asking ourselves is: what is God up to? After we discern this, we join him. This is a much better question to ask than "how do I vote?"

May you choose to move within the Rhythm of God. May you choose to see others as he sees them. May you choose to see the world as he sees it. May you join him in the restoration of our world, whatever that may be.