Yes, you read the title correctly. A Yes Vote on California’s Proposition 8 means you are going to hell.You might be thinking I got Proposition 8 wrong. After all, it is mostly “religious” people who are proponents of Proposition 8 here in California. However, these are mostly Christians lead astray by false leaders who are interested in power, control, and vanity.
These might seem like harsh words, but nothing is more harsh than the oppression of your fellow man, and the Bible makes it very clear that we should not oppress any other human, even ones we don’t understand or agree with.
Exodus 22:21
Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Exodus 23:9
Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Those versus above might look and sound familiar. That is because they come from the long list of commandments from God that are frequently shortened to the top 10 list a la The 10 Commandments.
Exodus is perhaps the most straightforward of any book in the Bible. It makes it very clear what is wrong and what is right.
Oppression is clearly bad. But what is oppression?
The Bible isn’t designed like a dictionary. It doesn’t state what every word means. Wikipedia gives us a great explanation of oppression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppression
However, we can look at the dictionary definition of oppression: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oppression
unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power b: something that oppresses especially in being an unjust or excessive exercise of power
One might argue that by changing the constitution of California to limit who can and cannot be married, it would remove the unjust portion of this definition because justice (by definition) would be that only a man or a woman could be married. However, we are stuck with the cruel exercise of authority or power portion of the definition.
Humans limiting the civil rights of other humans is designed to inflict pain and grief, plain and simple. If you don’t want to let gays have Catholic weddings, that’s one thing. But limiting a civil marriage based upon any criteria other than being human is absurd.
Civil law in America is not religion dependent. Instead, American law is based upon the principle that all men are created equal (save the major slavery screwup written into our constitution).
Now, I’ve had Christian friends tell me that gay marriage must be stopped because the Bible clearly states we must protect our houses of worship. I agree. Your church can (and by any reasonable interpretation of the Bible, should) not allow gay marriage. But you are not worshiping the state of California are you? If you are, you have much bigger problems with God than you do with gay people.
Yes, the Bible states that homosexuality is an abomination and that a man laying with another man as he does with a woman is a sin. There is no surprise there. It is pretty clear that gay people are sinning (as are we all). So…
Will not allowing gay couples to marry rid them of their sin? No
Will not allowing gay couples to have the same civil rights as other couples rid them of their sin? No
Every Christian knows that there is One Way and ONLY One Way to be absolved of our sins. Christians should be focusing on spreading the word of God, not limiting civil rights of our fellow man. Our judgment and condemnation of another human here on Earth means absolutely nothing. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Null.
Christians need to remember that our faith without deeds or vice versa is pointless. Believing that we should “love thy neighbor as thyself” and turning around and saying that our gay neighbor can’t get married is false faith. Go read James 2.
Now, does a Yes vote on Proposition 8 get you into hell? That really depends on what God means by poor. I’m betting poor doesn’t just refer to money. Poverbs 14:31 makes it abundantly clear what it means to oppress the poor. In short, it is blasphemy. Done in the name of God, this is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, to which there is no forgiveness.
Posted in Christianity, church, culture, God, life, Relationships, Religion, thoughts Tagged: 10 Commandments, 2008 election, amendment, American law, Bible, blasphemy, California, California Constitution, California election, Catholic Weddings, Catholics, Christianity, civil law, civil rights, commandments, equality, Exodus, false leaders, gay couples, gay people, gays, God, Hell, Holy Spirit, homosexuality, human rights, Jesus, judgment, laws, lesbians, oppression, Proposition 8, sins, Vote
