hts in a civil ceremony. In America, one out of every ten men is gay and one out of every eight women. If they were allowed to marry a large part of society would benefit. The benefits of marriage have been proven. Productivity in the work place goes up, relationships are more stable and better health (just to name a few.) It would be draconian to think these affect only “traditional” marriage. We value individuality in every form except sexually. The biggest cultural hang-up a hundred years ago was slavery, fifty years ago it was women’s rights, in the twenty-first century it is homosexuality and marriage. Ironic how we look back and say how wrong and unconstitutional those issues were. I wonder in a hundred years what people will say about our time and how homosexuals were treated, hopefully things will have changed by then.In the U.S the Judeo—Christian idea of marriage permeates our psyche. Perhaps the biggest argument against same-sex marriage comes from this line of thinking,“According to the bible it is a sin.” Yet you must look at the time it was written. When Paul talks about it in Corinthians it was from a cultural context. Paul was writing against the practice of an older man or woman taking a young child as a partner for sex. In fact the word homosexual is a 16th century word. It is the closest equivalent of the Greek term Paul used. The word was Parakletos, translated means child predation. Yet, today many main-line churches are pushing for equal rights for gays. Even though not all of them agree with it they understand the greater evil of inequality. Methodist, Reformed Presbyterian, Disciple of Christ, Untied Churches of Christ, Lutheran and Free Baptist churches have all issued similar statements as follows. “We recognize the great social injustice of the treatment of homosexual receive in this country and will continue to push for equal rights and reconciliatio...
