Gay Rights

Another example of 'morality' from a conservative Christian. Why is hate so important to your own selfish salvation?

A Saskatchewan marriage commissioner who refused to marry a same-sex couple has lost his appeal of a human rights ruling. (...)in a 39-page decision dated July 17, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Janet McMurty dismissed Nichols' argument, concluding that the human rights tribunal was "correct in its finding that the commission had established discrimination and that accommodation of Mr. Nichols' religious beliefs was not required."(...)

He told the tribunal that the Bible directs him to believe that "God hates homosexuality."

Nowhere does the bible say 'God hates homosexuality'. There are passages against homosexual sex, but there are also passages against eating pork, or working on Sabbath. I absolutely guarantee that this guy does one or both of those things which 'God hates'.

Again, selective interpretation of scripture to back up beliefs he wants to hold. The Bible can be used to justify anything, so why is it that conservative Christians always seem to use it to hate other people? So Christian of you...

Many Christians are making the argument that homosexual marriage leads to polygamy. News to the faithful: polygamy was brought to us by the Old Testament and Jesus, read it for a change. I've made this point before (here), and this video from ProfMTH sums it up nicely. Homosexual marriage doesn't bring us polygamy. Christianity does.

We all know Glenn Beck has the critical thinking skills of a screwdriver (but isn't nearly as useful), but he goes off the deep end (again) in claiming that gay marriage will naturally lead to polygamy (see video at the bottom of this post). He does not address how exactly this happens except to say that 'changing the formula' will make any number of other marriage arrangements legal (it would not). He also conveniently forgets the numerous examples of traditional marriage's Biblical ties to polygamy.

In the Bible, numerous icons of Christianity were polygamists.

• Genesis 4:19 - "Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah."
• 2 Samuel 12:7-8 - "Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms."
• 1 Kings 11:3 - "He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray."
• Genesis 26:34 - "And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite"
• Genesis 29:21,30 - "Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to lie with her. (...) He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife"
• Judges 8:30 - "And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives."
• Genesis 16:1-4 - "Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai ... gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived."
• 2 Chronicles 24:3 - "Jehoiada took for him two wives..."

There are other examples of God-sanctioned polygamy in the Bible, none of which required the existence of gay marriage to come into being. Abraham, Jacob, and Gideon are some of the most respected figures in the Judeo-Christian canon, and all were allowed by God to be polygamists.

Not once, repeat, not once is gay marriage explicitly mentioned in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 7:1-4 and Ephesians 5:23-33 (and others) spell out marriage as one man and one woman, but by the listed examples above, the accepted, God-sanctioned polygamy of Abraham and others clearly shows the Biblical concept of marriage to be contradictory at best.

Homosexuality is clearly 'immoral' in the Bible (see Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26-27, and others), but never does God say same-sex marriage is disallowed. Homosexuals are already sinners in the eyes of God, there was no reason to doubly damn them over gay marriage. Polygamy, however, is clearly acceptable to God at times, though, as usual, God's stance isn't exactly crystal clear here.

But it is too much to expect a bloviating moron like Beck to know all this. He's doing really well to remember how to get to work each day. His reasoning here, like his reasoning on pretty much everything, follows the time-tested logic of the Underpants Gnome model:

Phase 1: Gay Marriage
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Polygamy!

Colbert doing what he does best, mocking the scare tactics of morons at the National Organization for Marriage: