STRAIGHT BUT NOT NARROW

I get impatient when I hear people bringing up the "sanctity of marriage" whenever gay rights is discussed (discussed is a much more polite term for some of the yelling and screaming which is actually what can occur. isn't it?).

Does a gay couple having the right to be wed somehow affect the 50% divorce rate of regular hetrosexual marriages?

With the great majority of people having sex before and outside of marriage, who is keeping track of how many of them just might be of the same sex? 

I believe in marriage -- and the old-fashioned no-sex outside of marriage, till-death-do-us-part deal -- and I even believe in the one man, one woman bit.

But allowing a homosexual couple to be legally bound, to have the same spousal rights as I have, doesn't threaten my marriage.

If the sanctity of marriage is your beef, then please, before you jump on gays trying to get married, work on troubled marriages - consider spousal abuse - address abused children.  Worry about the couples who get hitched for 48 hours and then get divorced. Talk about people who are married 3, 4, 7 times.

While my definition of sleeping together generally means the cat and two dogs are on my bed, I can accept that with most of American society, that means having sex. And going steady means having sex. Heck, even dating means having sex.

Can anyone consider that THIS is affecting marriage, or what we define as marriage, so much more than gay marriage?

This is more than a little bit babbling, but I hope you are seeing my point.

CHICKENS, KISSING AND CHRISTIAN ACTS OF LOVE

I'm getting a bit tired of the media/Facebook/news shouting about whether gay marriage should be legal.

Not tired of the talking - that's a very basic American right, to disagree - but the shouting part.

And the one with the most strident and deafening shrieks seems to be coming from the side which claims to be Christian.

Scriptures are pushed with great self-righteousness under the nose of the people who are "thumbing their noses at God's commandment", such as Romans 1:27 "the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet."

But then ignoring the following verse of "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things."

And I think there are some other items on our moral agenda that should be addressed first, such as martial infidelity (57%), spousal abuse (25% for women, at least),

One in five women reported that they have been raped during their life

More than five children die every day as the result of abuse - 12 out of every 1,000 children were victims of maltreatment in 2005.

And less than 4% of our population report themselves to be homosexuals.

Focus, people, focus - we got problems a whole lot bigger than two people who are in love and wish to legally share their lives together.

And if you think gay marriage is morally wrong, abhorrent, and against God's commandments, then don't get gay married - no one if forcing you.

But if you believe in loving your neighbor (even if the neighbor is gay, or Muslim, or a liberal), then there are a lot more things more important that could use your attention.

HEY STOP CHILDREN WHAT'S THAT SOUND

My husband forwarded me a column today regarding heterosexuals' violent response against gay rights/marriage/simply acknowledgement.

So this blog is asking, why the hostility?

Homosexuality may be a sin (or may not be, depending on your personal view), they may or may not be entitled to the legal binding of marriage, etc. etc. etc.

But why in the world do we have to get so worked up on it?

An extramarital sexual relationship (i.e. 'affair') is a sin, but when was the last time (okay, forget about John Edwards) people where publicly denounced for it?

Sexually and emotionally abusing a family member is firmly trounced, but why are there no news laws and/or legislation being introduced to stop it?

My grandson's kindergarten teacher may very well be a vegan, a Marxist and/or a lesbian - why should I care?

The profanity, the hurling of insults, the sheer volume of anger that seems to normally accompany any stand, regardless of which side, about homosexuality... how can this be kind of treatment towards another human being in any way be justified?

Christ's teachings can be narrowed down to loving God, loving yourself and loving your neighbor.

How can people defend such fury from either side?

I can understand if I was being forced to participate in activities I find offensive or sinful.

But I expect to be able to live as I chose in the privacy of my own home if I am not intentionally injuring another. And I respectfully must allow that same privilege for others, even if their sexual activities are foreign to me.

Children, can you try to play nicely together?