This morning, when Roser and I dropped XX5 off at pre-school, a mom approached me, asking me to sign a petition. It was a petition to ban same sex marriage. I looked over to Roser with panic in my eyes. He was no help at all. He gave me as small sympathetic smile and looked away. XX5 goes to a Lutheran pre-school, so it is not entirely unexpected that I would be approached by something like this, but still, I was surprised. I smiled politely at the mom and said, “I’m sorry, I can’t sign this.” She said “Okay,” and turned quickly away from me.
It is not that I am strongly in favor of gay marriage; it is that I am not strongly against it. In my religious beliefs, marriage is a sacrament, a covenant between a man and a woman and God. My own marriage is a promise to God that I will stay married to my husband until death separates us. In my opinion, the ease with which divorce is obtained is much more of a threat to marriage than gay marriage. There is no social stigma attached to divorce at all. Not that we should go back to the days when women stayed in horrible marriages with abusers and philanderers, but now, there is no reason to stay in a marriage if you don’t want to. This is a threat to what I see as the sanctity of marriage.
I have always believed that if everybody put their time and money into the one or two things they believe in, things would get done. That being said, I am shocked that this is an important cause to some people. Women are still being killed by their husbands and boyfriends. Children who are sexually molested by a parent may still have to have visitation from that parent. Little girls in Africa and the Middle East are still have their clitoris’s ripped from their bodies with no anesthesia, and their vaginal openings sewn closed. Babies are still being chopped up and sucked from what should be the safety of their mother’s wombs. The most important thing to this mother though, is that two people of the same sex should not share the same benefits as two people of the opposite sex.
My religious beliefs are my own. My relationship with my Creator is the cornerstone of my life, without which, nothing else matters. My children’s sharing my faith is the paramount issue to me as I raise them. I want to spend eternity with them. I will gladly tell everyone about my Savior. I will not expect anyone else to live by the parameters of my faith. I will not support legislation that does. I will not fight to ban a movie that presents my Lord or my religion in an unflattering light. I will not fight to hinder the right of someone to say their most abhorrent thoughts. I will thank God that I live in a country in which I can walk according to my own convictions openly and unafraid. I will fight for those around me to walk according to their own convictions, as long as those convictions do not impede my rights. I do not see how gay marriage impedes my rights. I will not sign a petition to ban it.