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Why I, Unlike Senator Rubio, Would Not Attend a Gay Wedding, Even For a Friend
National Review ^ | 04/17/2015 | Maggie Gallagher

Posted on 04/17/2015 7:34:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Senator Marco Rubio, one of our most attractive and charismatic leaders in the rising generation, just announced he’s running for president. So naturally he’s being peppered with the one question uppermost in the minds of American voters: What do you think of gay marriage?

Rubio is getting this hit, in part, because he’s trying to negotiate a Third Way: He’s for traditional marriage but will “respect” the rights of states to disagree. He thinks states should have the right to decide the definition of marriage, but (unlike Ted Cruz) he refused to sign onto an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to leave the definition of marriage to the states, and he says he will “respect” whatever the Supreme Court decides.

Sensing weakness, the mainstream media like nothing more than to swarm around his third-wayness. So now Fusion asks Rubio that question that is always so urgent for a president of the United States: Would you attend a gay wedding?

I kind of wish he had pulled a Senator Rand Paul on this reporter. Do you really think people shouldn’t have the right to keep their jobs if they oppose gay marriage? Do you believe in live and let live, or do you believe in using gay marriage as a club to hurt ordinary Americans who happen to disagree?

But he chose to answer the question with great dignity and kindness.

“If there’s somebody that I love that’s in my life, I don’t necessarily have to agree with their decisions or the decisions they’ve made to continue to love them and participate in important events,” he told the interviewer, Jorge Ramos. “Ultimately, if someone that you care for and is part of your family has decided to move in one direction or another or feels that way because of who they love, you respect that because you love them,” Sen. Rubio said.

Rubio compared it to attending “second marriages” after divorce, which the Catholic Church teaches are attempts to consecrate adultery. “If someone gets divorced, I’m not going to stop loving them or having them a part of our lives,” he said.

Senator Rubio is not the only one who feels that way. Other Catholics I respect, from Ross Douthat to Eve Tushnet, have spoken about accompanying friends on their gay-wedding journeys, even if they disagree. I think most Christians and other traditional believers are going to end up in a similar place, because to do anything else is so hard. Not to celebrate with our friends, neighbors, and family members — to do that is not so much to exclude them but to exclude ourselves from their lives. Love, caretaking, commitment: These are all good things, right?

Yes, they are. Christians are going to be increasingly asked to explain what sounds inexplicable, irrational, bigoted, and hateful to the powerful, creative, vibrant secular community that surrounds us.

So I would sit down with my friend and tell them this:

"Here’s what I think. We are born male and female, and marriage is the union of husband to wife that celebrates the necessity of the two genders’ coming together to make the future happen. I know you don’t think that. I know the law no longer thinks that. But I have staked my life on this truth.

The problem for me in celebrating your gay wedding, as much as I love you, is that I would be witnessing and celebrating your attempt not only to commit yourself to a relationship that keeps you from God’s plan but, worse, I would be witnessing and celebrating your attempt to hold the man you love to a vow that he will avoid God’s plan. To vow oneself to sin is one thing, to try to hold someone you love to it — that’s not something I can celebrate.

And I would be party to the idea that two men can make a marriage, which I do not believe.

On your happy day you should be surrounded by people who can honor your vow and help you keep it. I can’t do that.

“Porneia” is a word in the Bible that has been much mistranslated. But I think it means a sexual relationship that cannot by its nature become a marriage. That’s why Christ said that marriage is forever, unless it is porneia.

I understand that you might well want to rupture our friendship over this, my honest view. I choose to love you both and keep you in my life.

But let us somehow against all odds find a way love each other as we are, and not how each of us would wish the other to be."

— Maggie Gallagher is a senior fellow at the American Principles Project.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: gallagher; gaywedding; homosexualagenda; homosexuality; maggiegallagher; marcorubio; samesexmarriage
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1 posted on 04/17/2015 7:34:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s astounding to me that even people who have well-established church doctrine to use as cover, if they’re too fearful to use their own Biblical principles for their reason, still cave to the sodomite agenda out of fear. The Catholic Church does not sanction sodomite “marriage”, you would think that Rubio, as a Catholic in presumed good standing, would at least use centuries-old church doctrine as a cover if he’s too afraid to just stand on Biblical principle on his own.


2 posted on 04/17/2015 7:41:31 AM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: SeekAndFind

...I’d have to talk it over with the wife.

Sure we’re opposed to that ‘openly’, in your face, sinful relationship and detest to homosexual oppression targeted against Christians.

But rhetorically speaking wouldn’t we have to be a close friend/relative to be invited to a gay wedding?

That changes everything.

imo the fact that this BS becomes a campaign issue is the EPIC FAIL of our current state of affairs.


3 posted on 04/17/2015 7:43:42 AM PDT by exPBRrat
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m waiting for one candidate who has the guts to answer this simply as:

“There would be no ‘marriage’ to attend. There is no such thing as homosexual ‘marriage.’ “

I won’t hold my breath, but that would be the best answer to hear.


4 posted on 04/17/2015 7:45:45 AM PDT by NewJerseyJoe (Rat mantra: "Facts are meaningless! You can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!")
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To: exPBRrat

Very true. You would have to be close family or friends to be invited to a homosexual wedding in the first place.


5 posted on 04/17/2015 7:52:41 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: SeekAndFind

As the article correctly states, any “marriage” that takes place after a divorce is not a marriage in the true and traditional sense, anymore that a union between two people of the same gender/sex. Unfortunately for our society divorce and subsequent “remarriage,” pushed by the onslaught of No-Fault Divorce, paved the way for the eventual and further desecration of marriage. I realize that sometimes the marital relationship may seem untenable, but those who do get a divorce and then go on to get “married” to someone else (regardless of their gender) need to take a look in the mirror and realize that they too are part of the problem.


6 posted on 04/17/2015 8:01:17 AM PDT by Burkean (.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The correct terminology should be “homosexual fake marriage”.

It’s not gay. It isn’t real. And it certainly has nothing to do with the union of one man and one woman.


7 posted on 04/17/2015 8:31:30 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m still curious if Cruz would attend.

A lot of supporters said he answered that question, maybe they can tell us.


8 posted on 04/17/2015 8:37:41 AM PDT by Balding_Eagle (The Gruber Revelations are proof that God is still smiling on America.)
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To: SeekAndFind

A couple I know dealt with this issue a couple of years back when her step sister was getting “married” to another lesbo. This couple is moderately liberal, so it was interesting to watch their deliberations: 1) No way they were taking their children around the perverts, 2) They felt bad that nobody from their family would be attending, 3) Felt some obligation to go, since they felt some happiness that the step sister’s life had become more settled, 4) Ultimately ended up not going because they didn’t want to participate in a pretend “wedding” between two women, 5) Sent a gift.


9 posted on 04/17/2015 8:47:02 AM PDT by cdcdawg
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To: NewJerseyJoe
“There would be no ‘marriage’ to attend. There is no such thing as homosexual ‘marriage.’ “

That is what I say, and wonder why more intelligent people have not stated so. A man and a woman united is seen as marriage and I expect that crosses most all 'religions' and 'cultures'.

10 posted on 04/17/2015 9:13:53 AM PDT by cotton (one way, one truth, the life.)
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To: cdcdawg

‘Ultimately ended up not going because they didn’t want to participate in a pretend “wedding” between two women,’

Interesting that moderately liberal people would take that option while so many alleged so-called “conservatives” seem to be doing the opposite.


11 posted on 04/21/2015 7:22:24 PM PDT by ReformationFan
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To: exPBRrat

Yeah, you’d have to be close to the individual(s) who were homosexual to be invited. the less closely related or friend, less likely the invitation will be given.


12 posted on 04/21/2015 7:31:50 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: cdcdawg

Probably a good way to handle it. RSVP I presume.


13 posted on 04/21/2015 7:33:04 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: Dilbert San Diego

“you would have to be close family or friends to be invited to a homosexual wedding in the first place.”

Not necessarily. It could be someone from the office who’s inviting everyone from work to come to his/her gay “wedding.” Or neighbors who are inviting the whole neighborhood. Maybe someone you went to school with who you didn’t know then was gay. Maybe the ex-husband or ex-wife of a straight couple you were friends with.


14 posted on 04/21/2015 7:34:26 PM PDT by EDINVA
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To: Morpheus2009
On my late mother's side of the family, there is homosexuality everywhere, and each generation has handled it differently.

If I were invited to the gay wedding of a cousin, I'd go, but I'd probably sit with the cousin's elderly parents and commiserate over drinks.

15 posted on 04/21/2015 7:36:59 PM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)
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To: EDINVA

IT really depends. I live quite a ways away from anyone I knew in HS or College, and it would be a legitimate excuse to not attend in person if I have to travel thousands of miles to get there, combined with not being very close to them.


16 posted on 04/22/2015 7:10:53 AM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: SeekAndFind

“Sorry, I can’t go. That sort of thing is damned by the God I serve, and if I go, I’ll be damned by God also.”


17 posted on 04/22/2015 4:41:04 PM PDT by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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To: EDINVA

‘Not necessarily. It could be someone from the office who’s inviting everyone from work to come to his/her gay “wedding.”’

That scenario really bothers me. One’s co-workers are just that, i.e., co-workers. Of course, friendships can develop in the work place but I find some folks just have no boundaries and tend to presume about others who are just there for a paycheck and nothing more.


18 posted on 04/22/2015 5:43:56 PM PDT by ReformationFan
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To: SeekAndFind
He thinks states should have the right to decide the definition of marriage

How absurd.

Does anyone who opposes homosexual "marriages" seriously believe that, if a state says it's OK, that two men or two women can actually marry each other?

Can a state define that water is no longer wet? Is it up to states whether or not fire burns, or whether or not water freezes at 32F?

19 posted on 04/22/2015 5:50:20 PM PDT by Jim Noble (If you can't discriminate, you are not free)
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To: Morpheus2009

I don’t know how I’d handle an invitation to a ‘gay wedding.’ Pretty sure I’d figure out a way to decline. I can only imagine someone related inviting us, and I don’t know anyone in either of our families who’s gay; our friendship circles don’t include any openly gay folks.

We didn’t have any of h.s. or college friends at our wedding. Just the way it worked out. We were LONG out of school, the wedding was on a holiday (New Year’s Eve), and we just didn’t send invitations to anyone who’d have to travel.

Our daughter and her friends travel across the country and halfway around the globe to attend friends’ weddings. It’s a totally different world. And, you can bet these millennials wouldn’t hesitate for one second to attend a ‘gay wedding.’


20 posted on 04/22/2015 6:03:48 PM PDT by EDINVA
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