Christianity’s favourite rejoinder to gay marriages is usually based on the book of Leviticus, which regulates how believers should lead their lives.
In particular the passage that says ”you shall not lie with a male as with a woman; such a thing is an abomination”.
It seems conclusive enough.
The problem is that the same book gives believers other orders as to how to conduct their lives, from the permissibility of a tattoo to how they should cut their beard, to circumstances under which they can sleep with or sell slaves. All this Christianity has found easier to dismiss as an attitude of its own times, but contextualising homosexuality has proven harder to swallow.
Nobody should therefore be surprised that the Civil Unions Bill, which aims to legalise gay marriages, has attracted such holy indignation.
In fairness to Christianity, Moses’s teachings are not the only compass dictating the way for believers. Jesus Christ himself was adamant that in marriage ”a man was to leave his family and be one with his wife”. He didn’t speak of a man joining together his ”partner”.
Gay people should accept that the church, under current thinking, will never bless their unions.
The Catholic Church’s cathecism says homosexuals ”do not choose their homosexual condition and must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”
It does not go far enough, but that’s what it is.
Meanwhile, the Constitution is not as confusing as the Catholic Church’s position. In plain language, it says everyone has a right to equality and nobody should be unfairly discriminated upon on grounds of their sexual orientation. Gay people have the same right to marry as heterosexuals do. Churches are thereby enjoined to accept that the lawÂÂmakers swore to uphold the Constitution, not the Bible.
The churches’ opposition to the union of gay people being called a marriage is not exclusive to homosexuals. It does not accept a lobola transaction as a marriage. In other words, one can lobola as many wives as you choose but can only marry one of them in a mainstream Christian church ceremony.
The state and the churches are talking about different concepts. The one is a legalistic tool while the other is an act of worship.
Maybe Christianity could take another of Christ’s teaching to heart and ”give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”.