Actually, the Bible condemns sex within the same sex which is different from Homosexuality. Homosexuality is being solely attracted to the same sex.
Fornication and adultery are the real issues. If a church supports marrying people of the same-sex, they essentially endorse adultery.
Good advice. Well thought through.
Our church already has written guidelines for weddings, including the cost for members and non-members, several weeks of marriage counseling with the pastor, and a requirement that the couple may not be living together prior to the wedding.
That requirement may be strengthened in the coming weeks.
I won’t feel the least bit sorry for the first gay couple that gets shot or beheaded for trying to force an Islamic mosque to marry them.
That's the ticket! Deny the Bible to protect your tax exempt status!
Weddings are a union between a man and a woman in holy matrimony. It is a consecrated religious service in our church, we do not do any civil unions.
I disagree with your advice. You are advocating duplicity and lying (if it is arranged to have a young couple not be ready, it becomes a real issue, morally and legally).
My advice is much simpler - announce today that the church will no longer be performing weddings. Weddings are not a New Testament mission of the church. Far better to stop the periphery benefits offered by the church than to be sucked into a dishonest charade, or violate the moral foundations of Christianity.
Lying by omission is still lying.
Lying is sinful.
Do not sink to their level. Be prepared for any persecution we may encounter due to our beliefs. If you sidestep the issue, you are not providing any kind of positive witness for Christ.
No. The other USSC decision last week means that if you are accused of discrimination, you are guilty.
Simple. Stop doing state marriages.
Provide the sacrament of matrimony. Call it that. Start doing it now.
Wouldn't a first question be whether a person is a member in good standing of the church in question?
Forgive my ignorance, but do people just walk up to a random church and ask to be married there? Do the churches comply?
Similarly, I have heard stories of Rabbis who have refused to perform interfaith weddings. Will this be allowed to continue? Will a Catholic church be forced to perform a gay wedding, while synagogues continue denying interfaith weddings?
Shouldn't it be either weddings for all anywhere, or weddings only at the discretion of the establishment based on its long-standing deeply held convictions?
-PJ
Wouldn't that be considered bearing false witness?
Good thoughts.
Our side is not as clever and crafty as we should be. We are by nature sedentary and fixed and unimaginative when it comes to political gamesmanship. The other side is constantly thinking up mischief-making, and we’d do well to borrow some of that personality.
By the way, the church would do well to institute rigorous pre-marital counseling, modeling, testing, and strict review, regardless of whether or not this was intended for same-sex marriage gamesmanship. The church and its pastors SHOULD scrutinize prospective couples and reject some numbers of them based on failures in maturity and preparation and devotion to Christ. People would FLOCK to that church, and any church which makes demands of its sheep.
Marriage has suffered greatly in recent decades, and prior to any of us pondering same-sex marriage. When debating same-sex marriage, we MUST move the discussion to marriage itself, (whether is Godly or civil forms), and demonstrate how important “tradtional” marriage is to humanity, society, and the state, as well as to God.
“Sorry, it appears that you seem to have failed the blood test”.
The Catholic Church demands Pre-Cana conferences!!
1) Insist that every wedding that takes place at your church must first be screened by the elder board or a marriage consultant who is affiliated with the church. Many hetero couples are not ready for marriage and this screening body is already in use at many churches for the means of advising couples if they are not suitable yet to become spouses.
2) Document hetero cases where this consulting board has turned down weddings based on the church's belief that the couple are not ready.
Thus when the gay test case comes to your church, your answer can be: "Our church screens all prospective marriage couples for their suitability and compatibility in marriage and we decline to marry those we believe do not meet our requirements. We have already turned away hetero couples we felt were not a good prospect for marriage. We invite this couple to go through our Bible study and take our counseling classes like any other prospective couple and we will evaluate them for compatibility with the tenets of our church."
These are good ideas. On another thread, another FReeper had also suggested that the church only marry individuals who have been active members of their congregation for at least a year. I know of a couple who were turned down use of a church facility for membership reasons, and it makes sense IMO.
I agree with those who say lying is not the answer. Getting some guy and gal to pretend to want to get married, while purposely acting out negative behaviors just to be rejected, is lying and deception.
I say, make it similar to baptism. No one can just walk into a church and say, “baptize me.” At least in my church, you have to actually attend the church, take the beginner’s class, and have a testimony that you declare at your baptism.
Well, it should be similar for HOLY matrimony. Tell gay couples that they must be members in good standing of the church, that they must take and agree with the beginner’s class, have testimonies, and be baptized before they can marry in the church. Most gays are not going to want to go through all of that. And even if they try, they will be forced to hear the gospel in the beginner’s class!
Set up a screening body that counsels prospective couples before approving their weddings
You can do this until the cows come home...all it’s going to take is one corrupt pastor and two homos from the flock, looking to make social statements, to render it all useless...it then is up to the powers that be within the particular church to take the next step...
Punishment...or acceptance...