Politics, The Bible, and Your Partner.

I do not think it is any secret that I am a liberal - or that I, along with at least ONE of my Auntie's wishes that Hillary Clinton were president.

But it may be less obvious that I go to church on Sunday and LOVE that this year I am not teaching so that I might participate in our Adult Forum.  I went a few times last year when it was not my "turn" to teach our Sunday School Class and fell in love.

My church is not what you might expect.  I belong to an Evangelical Lutheran Church of America congregation with pastors who were raised up here (North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota and  Wisconsin in my opinion are different from the rest of Middle America) and really are like most people I know in real life.  Family men, love the Twins, tolerate the Vikings, and have sensible open minds.  The older pastor recants tales from the farm and growing up there - the younger one quotes popular culture, ex: using "Talladega Nights, the Tale of Ricky Bobby." to relate how following the ADULT Jesus is harder than "Baby Jesus".

They both like to push you to think.

The last Sunday of September they decided to discuss a hot topic in Minnesota; "The Marriage Amendment" that looms come election day.

Well, not exactly.  The pastor, the younger, with a twinkle in his eye said the topic for the day was the types of marriage from the bible.  I found a blog that outlines them too, Unreasonable Faith, so you can read something pretty similar to the handout our pastor gave us.  Well, he didn't have the comment at the end like the blog, but I like that comment ;)

Something he DID say that made me really want to write this post and hopefully change someone's vote November 6th.

What did he say?  He said that during Biblical Times marriage was more "politically and monetarily driven".  Women had NO rights whatsoever when it came to marriage - heck if your brother-in-law would not marry you under Levirate Marriage if your husband died and left you with no son - You became an outcast & a beggar with no rights and no family support.

So why are we making marriage political or biblical?

Our congregation pointed out the word of God said, "Go forth and multiply." But, what about the couples who today cannot, or don't want to, have children?  Are you going to stand up and tell them they can't be married in the church?  They are not worthy of a "biblical" marriage?  And what exactly does "multiply" look like these days?  Isn't adoption a way of multiplying your family too?

I guess what I am hoping to say to you is this; God never said that marriage was between one man and one woman - and there were no other types of marriage.  MEN decided to write the laws of marriage and pretty much made women slaves.  So why NOW when we have given women rights in marriage, and we have set records for divorce in our country, are we saying that no one else can have the right to marry who they love?  Why NOW when we are trying to teach our children to not be bullies are we allowing a few people using the BIBLE for their POLITICAL agenda bully us?

Please think long and hard about who you know in your life and if you want them to be happy, just like you are, before you vote my dear fellow Minnesotans.

Source: theheirtoblair.com via mommylisa on Pinterest