i am christian.
As an active Christian in today’s society, I feel pressure
to keep my mouth shut when it comes to my beliefs in marriage. If I say that I
believe marriage should only be between a man and a woman, then somehow this
means I am a bigot, and I hate homosexuals? I know that not everyone thinks
this way, but I’ve seen the reaction and felt the pressure in conversations. I
want to start out by saying that I love all people, no matter what they believe
or how they choose to live their lives. I have friends of all sorts of sexual
orientation and ways of living, and I do not judge them – I love them. My values
and beliefs are personal, as well how I choose to live my life, I do not wish
to be told how to live my life, as much as homosexuals don’t like to be told
that they shouldn’t be together.
I say ‘personal,’ except now the government has taken a
stance in my beliefs… and now my personal views have become something of public
opinion. This is why I write this post and stand up for marriage. I started out
by researching heterosexual pride flags as I started out finding out how to
make my stance, but realized that I wasn’t trying to support heterosexual
relationships, but instead the union of marriage.
Also, while researching, I came across an inquiry and
fallacy that were posed when it comes to heterosexual pride. Before I address
them, I’d like to clarify a misnomer that tends to be one root of some
arguments made.
*Defending marriage is not the same as defending racial
freedoms.
While marriage is a deeply religious union for me, in today’s society marriage is like a license, much like a driver’s license. Everyone can have one, but in order to own one there are requirements that have to be met and there are reasons for those rules to protect everyone on the road. Marriage is the same way, except its ‘rules’ or definition has survived thousands of years.
I have a brother who is legally blind and can’t own a driver’s license and if he decided he wanted one to fit into society, he still can’t. It’s really hard for him. I can hear your brains reeling at the idea of comparing a choice to be gay to being physically impaired. The thing is, just like my brother is blind, two gays are still two males – you can’t change it by saying otherwise.
On another hand the 14th Amendment was created for racial rights, a law that said the pigment of someone’s skin shouldn’t make them different. (Comparing the pigment of skin to sexual organs is like comparing the flavor of fruits to the seeds of fruits. The fruit all taste delicious, but no matter what – if you plant an apple seed, you’re going to get an apple tree.) I’ll be talking more about this in my next post!
here is the inquiry and fallacy i found.
“May I ask what
struggles straight people have overcome that they are proud of?”
“Gay Pride was not
born of a need to celebrate being gay, but our right to exist without
persecution. So instead of wondering why there isn’t a Straight Pride movement,
be thankful you don’t need one.”
Perhaps both of these questions may have been valid years
ago, but today in our society heterosexuals who stand up for marriage against
homosexuals are being bullied for their beliefs. Perhaps we don’t need a
heterosexual movement since men and women will continue to have sex and will
continue to have relations with each other – and that is normal. What has been
under attack (or that thing we have been or need to overcome) is the idea of
what marriage should be. We don’t need a heterosexual pride flag, what we need
is a marriage banner.
But I couldn’t find one. There were heterosexual flags, but
none seemed to stand for what I wanted to say.
what’s wrong with the heterosexual flags?
I looked around to see what the heterosexual flags were, but
I didn’t like any of them. Homosexuals have the rainbow and what - we get black
and white? There were a couple of flags that included the pink and blue, the
stereotypical colors that society places on boys and girls, but I also didn’t
like this (me being a woman with a life long disdain of the color pink). I can
like blue and still retain my womanhood.
*drumroll please*
Introducing the Marriage Pride flag!
It seems pretty basic, right? I know, I know – I was
complaining about no color, but read on to see why I chose black and white!
coloring in your flag:
Doesn’t the white space make you want
to color it in? That’s the point! I left it for YOU to fill in. Are you a pink
man? Does the mom go out to bring home the bacon and prefer watching sports on
TV? It’s made blank so that each person can decide for himself or herself what
it means to be a man or a woman. Society shouldn’t decide what color we are.
what does black represent?
In August Russell M. Nelson (now President and Prophet of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) in his commencement address to
students at BYU, testifies that marriage was ordained and created by God, “Marriage
was not created by human judges or legislators. It was not created by think tanks
or by popular vote or by oft-quoted bloggers or by pundits. It was not created
by lobbyists. Marriage was created by God!” He quotes 2 Timothy 3:12, “Yea, and
all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” We live in
a time where it will not be easy to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. We must
stand up for the truth regarding the sacred nature of marriage between a man
and a woman. He continues: “The day is gone when you can be a quiet and
comfortable Christian.”
So I raise my marriage flag. The man and woman are necessary
& essential.
works cited:
“Disciples of Jesus Christ–Defenders of Marriage”, Russell
M. Nelson, 14 Aug. 2014, https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/russell-m-nelson_disciples-jesus-christ-defenders-of-marriage/
Where I got my inspiration to write this post:
"Cathy Ruse remarks, World Congress of Families
IX", Cathy Ruse, Oct. 28, 2015, https://youtu.be/xVTHhQhFb8M
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