2013 A.D.: Gay Marriage
There really isn't any question about whether gay marriage is acceptable from a Biblical or Christian point of view. Homosexuality, let alone legitimized homosexual marriage, is spoken against strongly in the scriptures whether you speak of the Old Testament or the New Testament. Sodomy is a sin, homosexuality is a sin, and other types of perversion are a sin and spoken of as such in the Bible.
From the Old Testament: “‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable." Leviticus 18:22 NIV
From Jesus' own words:
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:20 NIV
And also from Jesus' own mouth, when He spoke to John in the book of Revelation:
12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."
Rev 22: 12-15 NIV
From the Apostolic letters:
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error." Romans 1:21 - 27 NIV
And also, from the Apostolic letters:
9 "Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 6:9 - 11 NIV
So, there seems to be very little wiggle room indeed to question how engaging in a homosexual life full time or part time will affect our chances of salvation. None at all, really. Some people do argue about what this Greek or Latin word meant precisely and exactly, suggesting that homosexuality really isn't off limits for God's people, but that seems a desperately insupportable and highly risky viewpoint to hold where your eternal residence is concerned. Once the gate closes behind you, you're in HELL forever, right? So, if you guess wrong the cost is immeasurably high! And for what? What are you really truly getting in exchange for the loss of your soul if you guess wrong?
But there is another more practical downside to trying to place homosexual marriage on the same footing as heterosexual marriage. They do not make the same contributions to society.
There are no gays who were the genetic offspring of a gay marriage. Gays also cannot have children of their own with the same sex partner that they marry. They have to obtain possession of the offspring of someone else's heterosexual union if they are to have children. Also, if they cannot have children, then they cannot rely on their children to help support them in their old age. In most situations where someone is both poor and old their children will help them some, and the government will help them some. Gays will need support in their old age, but they will not have produced children who take them in and care for them in their old age, or even children who just pay taxes, and it is quite largely tax money that supports low-income people in their old age. They will be using tax supported services in their old age without having produced new taxpayers. In this sense, they will probably require just about as much medicine and just as many hospital tests and procedures, yet their children and grandchildren won't be out there paying taxes to help support the elderly, or perhaps giving them a free place to stay, or at least visiting them at home to allow them to remain independent a few years longer, because the gays largely produce no children. Some may have children through some earlier heterosexual union or some relationship outside of their gay relationship, but not so many.
So, essentially no gay marriages will produce a doctor, policeman, pastor, nurse, radiation tech, anesthesiologist, senator, convenience store clerk, etc., yet gays will rely on those occupations, will rely on the people that do those jobs, all of their life just like everyone else does. Single people who never marry or have children are like this also but are not currently seeking government acknowledgement that they deserve the same benefits as a conventional marriage receives.
The partners in a gay marriage need about as much from society yet contribute far less to society. They themselves will probably employ themselves in very useful jobs, of course. But they will not provide the new humans that will do those jobs in the future. They will be reliant on the children of people who did not engage in gay marriage or gay unions for the existence of that next generation.
So, if gays wish to marry each other, well......they can have a ceremony of some sort and marry. Who would stop them? But, if the idea is that a gay marriage should be eligible for all of the same benefits, discounts, and deductions and acknowledgements of importance as a heterosexual marriage, it's fair to bring up the fact that a gay marriage is a very different thing from a heterosexual marriage. A gay marriage relies on society about as much if not more than a heterosexual marriage but cannot contribute the humans that will staff the next generation of society. So, it seems wrong to ask society to underwrite and subsidize gay marriage in the same way as potentially child producing marriages. Even non-Christian persons can probably see that this is a type of marriage that cannot be a foundation stone of a successful society. It could only be ancillary to a functional society because it does not produce the needed elements of the next generation of society.
A gay marriage is a terrible thing as seen through scripture because homosexuality itself is condemned in scripture, but gays may not care about that, and that is their free-will choice to make. But it's a pretty different idea than a conventional marriage in many other important ways when it comes to a nation having a healthy and functional society. It seems that gay marriage has a lot less to offer society in some areas, and for that reason alone it shouldn't be officially sanctioned as an institution deserving the same benefits and government supports as conventional marriage, which does produce much benefit for society.
And, if the Biblical scriptures are reliable, and I think that nothing has ever proved itself so reliable as the Biblical scriptures, then sanctioning gay marriage is only strengthening a process that will funnel millions upon millions of souls (sexually misdirected souls according to our God's and Creator's express and direct teachings in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and even in the Letters to the Churches and the Book of Revelation) directly into the expressed wrath of God.
We are told that we will all - each one of us individually - face a time of intense and frank scrutiny, a day of evaluation and judgment in front of the throne of God based on the laws and teachings of God. Gay people will by no means be the only type of sinner that will be at great risk of being cast into hell, and I certainly may be one of those souls also because I too am a sinner and not in the sense of jaywalking or breaking the speed limit, but truly bad sins. Yet I think there is no good at all in formalizing a process or institution (I speak of gay marriage) that is in direct defiance of God's expressed will. It is described in the Bible's pages as a cause of men losing their salvation. So, it should be a fearful thing for all of that portion of mankind that hopes to avoid hell and obtain heaven.
And as for gays that have no belief in God or Christianity but merely wish to have the tax benefits afforded by marriage, I think gay marriage simply does not offer the same financially subsidized benefits to society that are provided by heterosexual marriage. So, for that reason I think it doesn't merit the same tax deductions and write offs that traditional marriage receives. So, should it receive the same level of tax subsidized consideration? Should it hold the same moral respectability and standing as traditional marriage? Is that fair? Can it really prove that it bestows the same benefits upon society as heterosexual marriage? By holding them both in the same regard, throwing them both in the same pot of soup so to speak, you force people to accord them the same level of honor. The scriptures are clear that God would not do that. And for those who only care about the practical matters, again it is forcing taxpayers to subsidize a field that bears quite different crops than the one first subsidized.