Sacrament vs Civil

Sacrement vs Civil
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
September 10, 2012

I am compelled by my conscience to write this. I cannot remain in good conscience if I do not do this.

The gay marriage debate right is a religious argument against it and should not have anything to do with what is legal.

As a sinner myself, (which according to Christ, all of us are) while I am legally married to my husband of 28 years, we are only half according to our two churches. My husband is a Catholic and I am Greek Orthodox. I received an annulment from my first marriage, my husband did not from his. Legally we were divorced from our other spouses, but neither church was forced to acknowledge that. They have their own rules and we are free to worship in these churches or not.

As much as I would like the Catholic church to acknowledge my marriage, we did not follow their rules, so they do not have to do it.

That is what keeps getting missed in this whole debate. No one is forcing any church to acknowledge any of these marriages.

One of my dearest friends was a lesbian. She was also a Vietnam veteran. I remember when she trusted me enough to tell me that the friend she was living with was actually her partner. She asked me what I thought about gay people. I thought about it for less than a second. "They are all sinners but so is everyone else having sex with someone they are not married to, or committing any other sin that may be fine with the law and people but not right with God." Then we had a long discussion about what other people had to say in Bible vs what Christ said.

Even on simple things regarding how we treat other people, care for the poor, the sick, homeless and the "least among us" are things not all Christian churches agree on. That is why there are so many Christian denominations. What is legal and lawful is not always in agreement with "the church" and this is obvious if you allow yourself to think about it.

Gay people will have to answer to God the way everyone will and defend what they do upon this earth. I will not judge them anymore than I judged my friend.

Some churches allow women clergy as Pastors and Reverends, others only allow them to only be Nuns. Some churches take care of the poor and needy while some Christians believe they were chosen by God to be wealthy and deserve all they have along with the poor being chosen to be poor because they deserve it. They have the right to believe what they want and no one wants the government to tell them they can no longer believe what they want.

So how is it these same people expect the same government to tell others what these churches believe is how everyone else must live?

We are supposed to be based on religious freedom aren't we?

Keep government out of my faith and keep your faith out of my government is the attitude we all need or we all lose.

Proverbs 6:16-19
New International Version (NIV)
16 There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Romans 3
No One Is Righteous
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.
10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”[b]
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”[c]
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”[d]
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”[e]
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”[f]
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[g]
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Righteousness Through Faith
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
22 This righteousness is given through faith in[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished
26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.