Jen Doesn't *Look* Like Bull Connor...

I don't think I can rave enough about Jen Fulwiler's engaing, down-to-earth, self-deprecating style of writing and (apparently) being. Her clarity on respect-for-life issues has been very eye-opening for me. She continues the trend with this post, which has evidently made quite a splash with others as well (251 comments in the meta last time I looked).

I, too, have gay friends (though not as close as I'd like them to be). Since I'm only "orthodox" in theory (or perhaps I should say "in the closet"), it hasn't become an issue for me yet. On the other hand, when I air these ideas to my wife it becomes clear that she, at least, thinks I'm on the path to becoming a retrograde homophobe and misogynist; on the side of Jim Crow in our generation's great civil rights struggle, as it were.

And thus far I must agree with her: It's hard for me to see how two (or more!) consenting adults making a contract to remain monogamous (or however-many-gamous) and share their property is (legally speaking) any of my business anyway, whatever name they call it by. If there are legal or governmental benefits attending such a contract, I'll take the hit as a taxpayer. Or if (as I keep reading in more conservative circles) it's not really about rights and privileges, all the more reason to let gay people take on the responsibilities and burdens of a civil partnership (equal in the eyes of the law to a heterosexual marriage) if they so desire.

I'm not saying homosexual acts aren't correctly forbidden by Scripture and Church teaching and even, if you like, natural law; but I am saying that I'd rather live in a society where the government errs on the side of permissiveness. Everybody's lifestyle is bizarre to somebody, after all.

Moreover, it seems to me that allowing people the scope to sin without interference also allows them to encounter for themselves the hollowness of life without the light of Christ. And when they do so, they will not be able to say it was because that mean ol' Church wouldn't let them be who they wanted to be.