God before family, seguing into gay marriage pt 3

I think that many cultural Christians might be shocked at the concept of God before family. The church of N. America is largely a church of pudding cups and hamburger helper. (This is the milk for baby Christians vs. meat for adult Christians metaphor). Confronting the hard stuff is just something that most Christians don't do. Life has been structured for the past couple hundred years here so that it's easy to be a Christian. That is starting to change.

Because I grew up in a fundamentalist ish church, we were taught straight up that God was the first priority, followed by spouse, then kids, then other stuff. As I recall, the pastor wasn't emphasizing the difference between God vs. spouse, but more that spouse and kids came before work and friends and likewise. In most circumstances, following God involves following your husband and caring for your children.

For two hundred years, the church in North America has been blessed - or cursed - to live without persecution. "Christian" and "nice" used to be used as similes, and still are in some ways. Folks who are nice folks and vaguely believe in God consider themselves Christians. They might have no relationship at all with Christ and know virtually nothing about what He stood for, but they consider themselves Christian.

Right now, today, we are starting to move towards the North American society becoming a society where you have to make the choice of where you stand, and maybe make some sacrifices along the way. That's part of the gay marriage foo-foo-rah. I *really* don't expect gay marriage to become illegal. I'll vote for a constitutional amendment against it - but I can see the writing on the wall.

You were saying, "oh it doesn't matter, it doesn't affect Christians" but it does. The doctors who delivered my children are in a court battle that's gone up all the way to the Cali supreme court. You see, they wouldn't artificially inseminate a woman because she wasn't married. It went against their religious beliefs. They a) treated her infertility b) told her how to do the insemination at home c) gave her the name of a doctor who would do it d) offered to pay the difference in costs, as her insurance didn't pay for that doctor... but that wasn't enough for her. And she's suing, because she feels that she's been discriminated against for her sexuality. (Discriminating for sexuality is against the law, discriminating for marital status is not). So - when she and her partner are legally married (assuming they are going to be, I wouldn't know.. though they have three children now) in June... how would the doctor choose not to do something against their conscience?

What's going to happen is that Christian doctors are going to leave the OB business in droves. And city clerks - who warned *them* that their line of work might contain a crisis of conscience? You don't go into that line of work expecting it... but what if they're not allowed to pass the duty of marrying gay/lesbian couples on to a clerk that doesn't mind?

I hear pastors in Canada have been arrested for just *reading* Romans 2 from the pulpit - no commentary - just reading. That *will* come here, sooner or later.

Do I not feel sorry for people who are attracted to the opposite sex? Of course - what a heavy burden to bear! But you *don't* have to choose to make your attraction your identification. Sexual choices are CHOICES. You are born black or white - you choose whom you kiss. Would it be a terrifically hard life, to choose to be celibate because you had no desire for the opposite sex? Yes. Would it likely be impossible, outside the strength of the Holy Spirit - also yes.

But even saying that - that it's a choice - makes me a very unpopular person. But that's what *God* says. *He's* the one who says that none is tempted beyond that which they can bear. And *He's* the one who says that any sexual contact outside of marriage is sin.

And that's kind of the deal... see, the big deal (outside of the points already made) for *me* is that someday *real soon* I'm going to be guilty of discriminatory speech, maybe even hate speech, for saying that homosexuality is sinful. For speaking the truth.

Which brings us back to the start... two hundred years of ease. It's rotted half the church, and when it comes time for persecution - folks are going to have to make that choice. Will I keep my job? Will I make waves in my family? Will I choose to follow Christ? What's more important to me - truth or comfort?

I don't think our war is going to be a war like the one your ancestors waged, where they drag the Christians out and shoot them. I think it's going to be a war of words, where if you won't bow down to the dominant value system, you'll be pushed to the side. Eventually we're promised the extreme of that, when the Antichrist won't allow you to buy or sell without his mark. It has to start somewhere.... and the choice is beginning to manifest itself.

I hope this was vaguely clear, my head has been stuffed with cotton for days.