I blogged earlier today about the value of being “out” in terms of help to change people’s hearts and minds about same-sex marriage. Well, from USA Today comes a comment by a self-styled “conservative Christian. This sums up beautifully what I was trying to say. Knowing someone or a couple who are “out” makes it easier for people to not only tolerate but also to accept homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
I am a conservative Christian. I’ve done a lot of soul searching on this issue, read a lot in the Bible and asked God for guidance because my heart was heavy that our country was going to hell in the hands of the homosexuals. Our media and schools are filled with messages that were against my belief system. I literally cried at times… I had thoughts of such frustration that it made me want to throttle some of the people in forums like this where I had read messages supporting homosexuals and their lifestyle. I had no idea what to do about it and I felt that I should do SOMETHING to help save our country and our children.
About nine months ago, I met a homosexual couple at a National Park in South Dakota while me and my wife were on vacation. They saved our dog from running into the street and getting hit by a car, and were very nice to us, even though I barely wanted to speak to them at all. We ended up getting into a conversation and talking about how beautiful the National Park was. It was clear to me after a very long while that these two men—though I couldn’t understand it, nor could I agree with it, nor could I deal with it—were in love with each other. They had been together 11 years, and had more love in their eyes for each other than my wife and I did after about the same amount of time. At first it made me upset—and then I realized that God had made that and it was simply none of my concern. God makes Love happen, and I can’t get in the way of that. These were not degenerates, they weren’t trying to shove their ‘lifestyle’ on us, they didn’t even mention that they were a couple or say anything of the sort, it was just obvious. They weren’t trying to corrupt anyone—in fact I think just being around them made me feel better, more loving towards my own wife—it made me want to be a better person in the eyes of God, and I finally realized that all this time *I* was the one who had been filled with hatred, mistrust and all of the evil, not them. I’ve changed my mind about this issue now, if anybody should be able to get married, it should be those two men who love each other so much. Good Luck, Ted and Andy.
Now I don’t believe that every conservative religious person would walk down this particular Damascene Road. Scales will not be falling from millions of eyes. And yet, one out (and not even that out) couple has made a real difference in one person’s thoughts about homosexuality andsame-sex marriage.
Just one couple.
Could the next hate-filled conservative who loses the scales from his or her eye do so because of YOU?
Endnote: The conservative says that “…I think just being around them made me feel better, more loving towards my own wife—it made me want to be a better person in the eyes of God…” Now is that an example of how same-sex marriage destroys heterosexual marriage?