the wedding in austin was more of a commitment ceremony as gay marriage is illegal in texas, but it was still hands down the best wedding i've ever been to. it was outside on a warm sunny day in a beautiful garden. it had great food, great company, a great band, and a photo booth with costumes that i was more than a little obsessed with (i may or may not have been called a "photo booth whore"). the brides had thought of every single tiny detail & it came off perfectly. these are the things i have told people when they've asked about the wedding. i think i've focused on the commercial aspects to avoid talking about my ambivalence toward the whole gay marriage part, but i'm going to talk about it now. i have know both of the brides pretty much since i moved to georgia 3 years ago and they are some of the kindest, more generous people i have ever met. both of them just exude love for life and everyone around them. i love them and i love them being together. i have rarely seen two people that so perfectly match each other. so. with that background, i have never witnessed a marriage ceremony in which the love between the two parties was so palpable. and their love extended out to their families & their friends, whom they were careful to include in every way. it was exactly how a wedding should be - two people completely delighted and trying to share that delight with everyone around them. it was beautiful and natural and completely right.
and the entire time i was watching this display of love and bliss, i was thinking, "how could this be wrong? how could all this caring, love, & unity be something God frowns upon?" i know what the church teaches and i'm a mildly devout christian, but i really struggle with this issue. if i am talking to a gay rights activist, i'll support the church. if i talk to a mormon, i'll support gay rights. i have no idea what i really believe. i believe gay marriage should be legal as an equal rights issue. i know that. but the moral issues, the questions of eternity, those are much more complicated. i could say that i'm not gay so it doesn't matter what i think & i should just love people for whatever their choose. but if i am 100% okay with gay marriage, am i going against my church? and if so, is it really that big of a deal? (i mean, they've been wrong before & it is definitely not a perfect institution). i don't know. so i'm going to go look at my photo booth pictures instead.
3 comments:
I still hold that the issue is much like the marijuana issue - it can be good, it can be bad, but in the ned it doesn't matter much because there are a billion better things to lose sleep over.
I will disagree with Saule Cogneur and say that this issue does matter. I don't know if it's worth losing sleep over (what is, really?), but it matters. To a lot of people.
That said . . . I think that wherever anybody is on this topic, is okay. What I mean is, everyone doesn't know everything about an issue, so I don't think we are expected to have one right answer. If you've come up with an opinion or belief based on what you know or have experienced, I think God is okay with that. It could be right, and it could be wrong, but if you've come up with an honest, thoughtful belief, I think that's okay.
And thanks for giving me something to think about . . . This was a good post!
i agree with sara. it's not a serious worry, but it has implications for me beyond the issue itself. and that is what concerns me much more.
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