Some very good points, Larry.

My viewpoint is closer to the center and not bound to be popular
with anyone. There is a story about Thich Nhat Hahn (tick-na-haan),
a Vietnamese Zen master and poet who came to France during the
war to attend the peace talks. He is well known in Vietnam ... most
of all as a poet. He was a silent witness for peace. When it was time
for him to return to Vietnam, he was not allowed to return. They
wanted to know if he was from North or South Vietnam. He refused
to take sides, saying that he was from the center. He still lives in
France today, in exile.

On the one hand, it is obvious that marriage is an extension of a
biological union that requires a male and a female. Whether you
believe that God established and sanctifies marriage (which I do),
it is difficult to get away from the biological realities that have always
been one of the main reasons for the existance of marriage. In the
rest of Nature, there appears to be very little confusion about which
two should come together.

But I do agree that there is a minority of people that have never
been drawn toward heterosexual union. And in many cultures
they have not been treated well. I wish I could say that the Christian
Church has always loved them as God calls us, but it is also true
that the Christian Church, like the rest of the world, is made up of
broken people. We are people that are learning how to love God
and each other. And we fail, just as children learning to walk fall
down. We bring with us, all of our attitudes, including those of our
parents and parents parents and parents parents parents and so on.
And we spend all of our lives here, learning, but never perfecting.
And so we have also treated homosexuals as pariahs. Not because
God asked us to, but because that is how we responded.
So I do feel called to love all people, even as I fail miserably all the
time.

So where does that bring us with marriage? There is this tug-of-war
going on from both sides, with each side demonizing the other side.
What I would like to see is a culture where homosexuals are allowed
to be who they are and valued as human beings who contribute to the
common good, without homosexuals feeling they most don the symbols
of heterosexual union in order to feel OK. I don't think that will happen.
There is a war going on, and everyone is called on to take one side or
the other.

Tom Hula
Victor S. Barnes Company

Larry Barnes wrote:
| http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,103459,00.html
|
| A reason homosexual marriages will only add to the social problems.
|
|| From the article above,
| "...According to 2000 census data, the rate of married households in
| the United States declined by nearly 30 percent since 1950. Married
| couples now make up an estimated 50 percent of households.
| Meanwhile, the number of unmarried partners living together has risen
| from 523,000 in 1970 to approximately 4.9 million in 2000.
| Nearly one-third of all children today are born outside of marriage,
| and more than half of U.S. children will spend all or part of their
| childhood in a broken family, according to statistics.
| The percentage of children living with mothers who have never married
| increased to 36 percent in 1996 from 7 percent in 1970, said Mary
| Parke, a researcher at the Center for Law and Social Policy.
| Rector added that a child raised by a mother who has never married is
| seven times more likely to live in poverty than a child raised by his
| biological parents in an intact marriage. ..."
|
| Since a homosexual couple can not have biological parents what does
| this say about children raised in such an environment?  The kids
| don't have much of a chance.  The same goes for children raised by a
| single parent.
|
| * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
| * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *