I recently saw an article about an Oregon Bakery, Sweet Cakes by Melissa, who refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple, citing Christian beliefs as the reason.And here is where I really have to take issue with anyone with an anti-gay agenda calling themselves "Christians," because to be a Christian is to follow the teachings of Christ, and as I've actually read and studied the Bible from the time I was 5 and all the way through college, I have some jarring news for those people:
Christ was not a bigot. In fact, Christ wasn't anti-gay at all.
As someone who was dutifully schooled in Catholicism, including attending the oldest Catholic university in the country, I really take issue with any church (and this wholeheartedly includes the Catholic church) picking and choosing a couple outdated passages, usually from the Old Testament, to try to support an anti-gay agenda that isn't part of Jesus' teaching, while ignoring more repeated warnings against, say, adulterers and divorcees and shellfish.
Picking and choosing the teachings and passages you like is called Cafeteria Christianity, people, and I'm not impressed.
Those of us who have actually read the Bible have also learned that there were 10 Commandments. This the absolute most important rule set issue forth in the Bible, straight from God to Moses, and "Thou shalt not be gay" is simply not in there. Other translations of the Bible (including many of the Jewish ones, which should probably be taken a bit more seriously than a later Anglo version mandated by a British King, particularly given that the King James version did away with any mention of a female apostle - gasp! - yes, earlier translations actually mention Junia the woman) entirely disagree on the meaning of the passages that the Cafeteria Christians use to make themselves feel righteous about being bigoted and afraid.
Now, these anti-gay "Christian" folks might add a little weight to their love of Leviticus if they actually lived their lives by all of its mandates, as opposed to the few they feel self-righteous about. This of course means that any anti-gay Christian who claims to be following the Bible's word needs to immediately (1) avoid shellfish and (2) execute adulterers, which means that they have to (3) execute divorcees who remarry.
Leviticus 20:10: "'If a man commits adultery with another man's wife--with the wife of his neighbor--both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death."
Luke 16:18: "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."
Mark 10:11-12: "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."
And, if one is going to live by every word of the good book, it turns out that you also have to stop playing football, among other things, so for those of you who want to be anti-gay on behalf of the Bible and not be a hypocrite, here is an excellent list of 11 things that the Bible bans, but you do anyway.
So, stop doing those things. Amen.
Now, since Sweet Cakes by Melissa has refused service to the gays, I certainly expect to see this bakery refusing service to adulterers, divorcees, football players, bowl-haircutted people, the tattooed, shellfish lovers, and eunuchs.
And I do hope that these self-righteous anti-gay Leviticus-loving Christians will start a funding ballot initiatives toward outlawing divorce and instituting the death penalty for the adulterers and divorcees out there, in the name of God and all. (Yes, this means you, Focus on the Family.)
Otherwise, these people are bastardizing the Bible to support an agenda of bigotry and hate.
Jesus wept.
