How does same-sex marriage affect my marriage? The same way my marriage affects same-sex marriage. Indirectly. I don’t want my earned money going into a government pool that gives back to same-sex couples, because I do not want to fund what I do not believe in.

Adam, when was the last time you heard about someone contracting HIV from praying? Never. Very poor example. Seriously. Tax payers have to come up with the money to take care of our sick and disabled, which includes those who are HIV positive and dying.

Matt Foreman, outgoing Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, says “Folks, with 70 percent of the people in this country living with HIV being gay or bi, we cannot deny that HIV is a gay disease.”

Lorri Jean, CEO of the Los Angeles-based Gay and Lesbian Center, says “HIV is a Gay Disease. Own it. End it.”

Finney: “… full present obedience is a condition of justification. But again, to the question, can man be justified while sin remains in him? Surely he cannot, either upon legal or gospel principles, unless the law be repealed … But can he be pardoned and accepted, and justified, in the gospel sense, while sin, any degree of sin, remains in him? Certainly not” (p. 57).

When I got married back in the dark ages, the term “homosexual marriage” was decades away…even among the most strident homosexuals. Though I think the author of the original article has some very goofy statements e.g., “See, the State and the lawyers know that when you marry with a marriage license, you are not just marrying your spouse, you are marrying the State! You are like a polygamist!,” I do think there is something to be said for not involving the state, as Manfred suggests. The civil participation in marriage is irrelevant. I am not sure it is evil, and I am much less sure it makes you a polygamist, but the marriage covenant pre-exists the state, and is in no way beholding or subservient to the state.

Perhaps it is time Christians withdrew from the civil marriage system, given the capitulation of that system to the homosexual radicals. It is worth some consideration.

I call myself “Reformed” (with the captial “R”) because I am Presbyterian and stand in the tradition of the Protestant Reformation. It is a label, as has been already said here, but the simple reason why I use this particular label is because this is a way to quickly–if not fully, completely, and totally–identify my own distinctions from other Christians, particularly in this generation of enervated “Christianity”. I understand the problem with “labels” (in some part due to their ability to contribute towards some version of some “cult of personality” (a term one of my pastors uses)), but I find that identification of one’s self as well as one’s understanding of others is often immensely helped by labels, such as “Army brat” (which I also wear)…. They help people to understand a little bit about one another without having to start at square one with each person every time…

And maybe that all isn’t a good reason, but that’s why I call myself Reformed, even though many liars also use the same label.

(Also, the term itself lends itself well to reminding me that reformation is persistent, individual, and daily before it ever sweeps a family, a church, a community, or a nation….)

Linda dear (now X-spouse Linda) YOU tell the kids and grandkids we have been polygamists, or not married, or whatever status Pastor Matt assigns us State-hiney-kissing-probably-not-really- Christians-anyaway dupes..aint no way I’m going to!

Look, I am thinking “aint no way Jose” ….but I’ll get back to you on this….after I figure out a way to tell the other half she has always been single, living in state-sanctioned-sin…. and then assign myself to the spare bedroom, followed by a confession at church on Sunday making public the dark sinfulness of my lack of cultural hipness back in the early 70′s….

There’s room for all God’s creatures – right next to the mashed potatoes!