A Christian Ought to Vote Against Prop 8

The basic outline of my argument is as follows: A Christian ought to emulate Jesus Christ. Christ wouldn’t have supported Proposition 8 (etc). Therefore, a Christian ought to vote against Prop 8. My opponent’s first claim is that we ought to emulate Christ and I agree. Then my opponent goes on to describe a classic What Would Jesus Do scenario. He makes several points in this scenario so I will divide them up. Firstly, let’s set the stage for the criteria that my case is based on: saving souls. Thus, we can conclude, that it is imperative to witness to others in any way possible, without sacrificing our doctrine. For instance, if the only way to convert a certain person is to kill, then that person wouldn’t be saved (at least at that time) – no Christian should violate God’s laws in order to win a convert to Christianity. In a practical sense, by voting against Prop 8, Christians open the door for more converts and saved souls. I underlined the portion of my opponent’s argument where he agrees that we should not sacrifice doctrine to witness to others. I simply wanted to point this out because he makes his actual argument later. In our current society, Christians ostracize gays from the church community. I will address this statement in my contention 1. Candace Chellew-Hodge, a Lesbian Christian, notes what she feels is a common sentiment from the LGBT community. Chellew-Hidge believes that Barna missed an important aspect of LGBT faith when taking the survey. She says: What Barna misses here is the reason why gay adults are 50 percent more likely to be unchurched than straight adults – there are simply fewer churches where we can go and be accepted. Well this is an interesting point that homosexuals are less likely to attend church. This doesn’t surprise me either because of Isaiah 59:2 (It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. ) . http://www.biblegateway.com... Sin causes separation from God, so the fact that homosexuals are less likely to attend church only provides evidence that it is a sin. I will offer verses in my contention to show that it is a sin, but the primary reason that homosexuals don’t attend church is because their sin has separated them from the spirit of God and the only way back is repentance. LGBT people often feel ostracized because of the attitude Christians have towards them, but more importantly, how Christians vote. I hope my opponent understands that in America we have what is called an Australian ballet, or a secret ballet. No one knows how you vote in any given situation unless you tell them. So really there is no way of knowing how Christians vote in reality unless one were to violate the right of a secret ballet. A potential objection that is likely to be raised as your are reading is "But that's sacrificing Christian morals! We can't support a sin! " Normally, you'd be correct. Recall what I said earlier, "if the only way to convert a certain person is to kill, then that person wouldn’t be saved (at least at that time) – no Christian should violate God’s laws in order to win a convert to Christianity. " Well actual there a verses from the new and old testament that show what the Biblical standpoint on homosexuality in general is. I will present these verses in my contention 1. The statements my opponent has made are very fallacious. For example, sociopaths are going to continue to be sociopaths, so in hope to convert more people we should legalize murder. You could place any sin in the place of the underlined word and it you would end up with the same outcome. Because of this, my opponent’s analogy is faulty. homosexuals will be homosexuals whether they are allowed to marry or not. If gay marriage was legal there would be little effect on Christianity and negligible effect on the number of gays. Someone is gay whether they are allowed to marry or not. Well this might be true, however if we make it available to homosexuals to do things which are not supported by the Christian morality, they will be unwilling to relinquish those practices to be converted. This will only make it harder for a homosexual to become a Christian if they are already in sin. Now on to my case. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I will only have one contention in my case. Contention 1: Love the sinner, hate the sin. My opponent’s main argument for Christians to vote against prop 8 was that Christians have ostracized gays so to win them back we must vote in their favor. Well there is a lack of something in today’s Christian circles today. That thing that is lacking is love. Of course Jesus said that the two greatest commandments were to love your God with everything you have, and then to love your neighbor as yourself. Today, Christians have shown hostility towards homosexuality and have been hateful towards anyone who bears this sin. However, Christians should realize that we are on equal ground. Is homosexuality a sin? Yes. Lev. 18:22 , "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. " Lev. 20:13, "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them. " 1 Cor. 6:9-10, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,110nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. " Rom. 1:26-28, "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.28And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper. " However all have fallen short of the glory of God! (Romans 3:23). So Christians in no way should show hate towards brothers and sisters who have to struggle with this sin. We’re all in need of Christ, whether it be the man who struggles with homosexuality or the man who struggles with pornography. Homosexuality is a sin, so we should no way endorse its practices in any way, including SSM. However a better way to encourage people to the faith would to be to come from a place of humility and say, “Hey I’m a sinner, you’re a sinner, and we both need Christ just as much as anyone else here. I will love you as my brother/sister in Christ and we will encourage each other through our sins, so that we may grow closer to our creator! ” That should be the Christian response, not to endorse a sin, but to embrace the sinner. So in conclusion, it is my position that Jesus would not endorse gay marriage, he would rather love the sinner. There is no biblical evidence to as why Christ would support it. My opponent has agreed that in order to witness to other we should not sacrifice our values. So let us not sacrifice our doctrine by supporting this sin. Sources: . http://carm.org... . http://www.biblegateway.com... I look forward to my opponent’s response.