Gay marriage is sinful.

I wanted to give the voters a couple things to think about before casting their votes. Both my opponent and I are going to be offering many Bible verses (sometimes maybe the same ones). And both of us will be suggesting ways to interpret these verses. The key, I believe, is which interpretations coincide with what the early Christians believed.... I NEVER SAID YOU STOLE MONEY To better illustrate this, I am going to share something I heard Catholic apologist, Patrick Madrid say once: Let's say you are at a garage sale and you come across a 100 year old book. It looks interesting, so you buy it. You take it home and begin to read it, but find it difficult to understand. Now let's say that the author has passed away, but you still have access to his son, who was in the room when the book was written? All things being equal, wouldn't you trust him over someone born 80 years later who didn't know anyone even remotely connected to the author? Especially when trying to interpret the following phrase: I never said you stole money. Now, at first glance, this may seem easy to understand, but there may be more than one way to I interpret it. What if the person who wrote that meant I never said you stole money... He said it. Or... I never SAID you stole money... But I sure thought it. Or... I never said YOU stole money... I said she stole it. Or... I never said you STOLE money... I said you borrowed it. Or... I never said you stole MONEY. You stole a car. Now take that verse, multiply it by 10,000, and you have the Bible. You have dozens of different books, written by different authors, for different audiences, for different reasons, in different languages, at different times. So you tell me whose interpretations you can count on to be most authentic? Those who knew the authors personally, or someone doing their best, 2,000 years later? Development of doctrine. Now of course, over time, we can understand better some of the implications of a particular teaching. This is something all Christians recognize. The doctrine of the Trinity didn't become crystallized until some 300 years after the death of Christ. The key to determining the difference between development versus departure is this... Is the teaching in line with what the original Christians believed? No one expects an elderly man to look like his baby picture. He's much taller and has gray or white hair. You expect to see this. What you don't expect is to see a third eye, or a foot growing from his hip. Development versus departure. BIBLICAL SUPPORT Both my opponent and I agreed in round one that anything that goes against God's will is sinful, and the Bible is God's word. So, if I am able to show from the Bible that God didn't intend for same sex couples to be married, I have won the debate. Let's begin. Genesis 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. So, here we see from God's word that God, from the beginning of human history, intended for men and women to be married. And we can see from the last verse of the passage that God's will was for men and women to have sex. Anything opposite of that would be against His will, and by definition, sinful. Now some people may claim that this teaching is from the Old Testament, and we don't follow everything from the Old Testament now. We don't keep, for example, the strict dietary laws of the Old Testament. This is true, but some teachings were carried over from the Old to the New Testament. This is one of them. Specifically, Jesus said: Matthew 19:4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? So here we see from the New Testament teaching of Jesus that it's always God's will for men and women to be together in marriage, and not same sex couples. HISTORICAL CHRISTIANITY Now, in order to make sure we are interpreting the passages properly and not departing from the original faith passed on to the Apostles, let's see what the early Church fathers have to say. Did they believe that marriages needed to be in line with God's will? The answer is yes: "If, therefore, second marriage finds the source of its allowance in that "will of God" which is called indulgence, we shall deny that that which has indulgence for its cause is volition pure;..." Tertullian, "Exhortation on Chastity" 204-212 A.D. [1] Although the context concerns second marriages, we clearly see the importance of a marriage to in line with God's will in the writings of the early Christians. Sources: 1.http://www.earlychristianwritings.com...