"I'm Against It"

That's what Mark Twain said when somebody asked him what he thought about sin. I think the reason this is funny is that the person who asked the question was hoping Twain would launch into an elaborate discussion about the subject, and he didn't want to do that at the moment, so he just said, "I'm against it." and went on to talk about something else. While I don't mind launching into an elaborate discussion about anything, when it comes to sin, I think Twain's statement pretty well sums up my position too.

The reason I launched into that Bible study last night was that you asked me what the folks at Elsdon thought about sex. I don't remember them talking about it much, but I got the impression that they were against it. I, on the other hand, was very interested in exploring that subject in depth, so I looked it up in the Bible, which is what the folks at Elsdon told me I was supposed to do when I had questions about moral issues. Quite frankly, I was looking for a loophole, but it turned out that I didn't really need one because, while the Bible prohibits certain kinds of sex, I was unable to find where it said that sex, in general, is a bad thing.

I seem to remember that the part about Mary and Joseph came up at least once in a Sunday School class, and that's where I got the idea that they weren't completely married at the time Mary became pregnant with Jesus. Our instructor explained that marriage and divorce did not mean exactly the same things in Biblical times as they do today. This accounts for Joseph resolving to divorce Mary when he found out she was pregnant. If they had been truly married, Joseph wouldn't have been so concerned because he would have had every reason to believe the child was his.

Now you have asked me what the folks at Elsdon thought about sin. Well, I'm pretty sure they were against that too but, if you want to understand the difference between the Catholic and Protestant views on sin, I will have to go beyond the hallowed halls of Elsdon to give you a complete answer. The short answer is that Catholics confess their sins to a priest, while Protestants skip the middle man and talk directly to God about their sins. Will that answer suffice, or do you want me to elaborate?

I suppose you're right that I should try to be more logical about that gay marriage thing, so I'll try. As I understand it, one reason gays wanted to get married in the first place was so they would be eligible for certain tax and insurance benefits. I believe those benefits were designed to encourage people to get married and make it easier for families to stay together. Somebody must have decided that traditional family life was good for the country, and that it was the government's job to encourage it. By giving the same benefits to gays, the government is saying that gay marriage is just as good for the country as traditional marriage, and I disagree with that assertion.

Another reason was so that gays could adopt each other's children. I have never believed that gays should be allowed to adopt children, or be given custody of children produced by a marriage they were in before they discovered that they were gay. I guess studies have been done that indicate children growing up in a gay household are no more likely to turn out gay themselves than kids growing up in a straight household. While that may be true, they are surely more likely to approve of the gay lifestyles of others, and I'm against that too.