Love thy Gay Neighbor?

How fitting it is that the largest controversy of the week leading up to Easter would be one that so frequently quotes the Bible. This past week, homosexuality hit the Supreme Court, where Proposition 8, an attempt to limit same sex marriage was the topic of the debate.

As if it weren’t already a contentious issue, this week saw hundreds of thousands of individuals change their Facebook profile picture to represent their views in favor of marriage equality. It saw biblical quotes thrown back and forth, calling homosexuality a sin, an abomination. It saw both sides grow fangs, fighting harder than ever to defend the right to marriage, and who should be qualified for that right.

Homosexuality is an issue that is far too often oversimplified. From the perspective of individuals who are in favor of granting marriage rights to any and all individuals, it seems to make sense. Shouldn’t everyone have the right to love as they please? But to many people, being gay is an “other” that is incredibly unsettling. Homosexuality is to the Christian right as a woman wearing shorts to conservative Islam. It is something that defies the norm of a culture, and must be dealt with in a way that doesn’t demonize those who are struggling to come to terms with something that makes them uncomfortable. Instead of making those who are uncomfortable out to be the bad guy, it is the obligation of the modernizing world to encourage education and exposure to that which causes the discomfort.

The most difficult part of this debate, though, is when religion is used as a defense for opposing gay marriage. Far too often, it is so easy to say that someone who opposes gay rights is hateful, or heartless. In truth, all humans look for some way to guide us through the moral challenges of life. Many people, myself included, use religion as that moral compass. That being said, it requires an incredible maturity to be able to take the religious views of your particular ideology and change it to reflect your own feelings on a particular subject.

It is wrong to demonize religion, simply because it has a particular view on a certain situation. If someone can eloquently and comfortable depict their views in conjunction with faith, based on what they read in the Bible, it is not anyone’s right to tell them that they are wrong for believing it. That being said, if the bible is the reason to oppose gay marriage, it is their right to do so. But someone who uses those texts as their defense for their viewpoint also better be willing to defend it more clearly than “because I read it in the Good Book.”

There are plenty of places where the bible speaks out against homosexuality. The holiness code, found in Leviticus, and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah are the two most significant examples in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, while the New Testament’s Romans continues the trend.

There are multitudes of ways to combat these passages, but most significant of them is getting to the root of the issue, a fitting one for the Sunday of Easter. Anyone who uses the bible as a Christian defense for opposing gay marriage must get to the fact that Jesus preached one thing above all else: love and compassion. In all of his teachings, Jesus spoke about the importance of keeping love in your heart, about loving your neighbor and your enemy, and about extending compassion to others. The Westboro Baptist Church is defaming the name of their god by being hateful. Any time a picket sign includes the words “God hates,” it is the antithesis of organized Christian religion.

As long as Jesus is the defense for eliminating an individual’s rights, the longer the biblical defense for “the defense of marriage” will become unrepresentative of the situation. Yet those who stand for marriage equality have the obligation to share their own ideologies, as well as to listen, so that all can grow together to create a solution that will both empower the rights of all Americans, while also maintaining the opportunity for religious individuals to feel a connection between their faith and the world in which they live.