God is Not Turning His Back on America Because of Homosexuality

I fully agree with J. C. Hagan and the article Gays Are Taking Us to Hell? Oh, really? Are they? I imagine that is news to God. For the purpose of this article, I will assume that the people who make such statements actually view their religion as a spiritual path, and not just as a means to control people and eliminate behavior that they do not like. That would be a whole separate topic.

As Hagan points out, God issued the Ten Commandments through Moses. These Commandments, inscribed in stone from a direct conversation with God, with which Moses returned to educate his fellow men of God's wishes, do not mention homosexuality at all. This is the first and biggest problem with the suggestion that God would turn away from a society tolerant of homosexuality. He did not even include that behavior in His Commandments.

So, what does the fact that homosexuality did not make the Ten Commandments actually tell us? Does it mean that God accepts that sort of behavior? No, it does not. However, (and here we go assuming again), giving the benefit of the doubt that the Commandments were, as they have been presented to be, the word of God handed down to Moses to share so that man would behave as God wanted, we must accept that God would have put the offenses that most concerned him on the list. Therefore, by logic alone, homosexuality as a practice, by those who engage in the act, was not as upsetting, not as much of a concern to God, and not as imperative to stop, as, for example, adultery.

The implications of that are amazing. Hagan listed the Commandments, and made mention of the frequency with which they are broken, so I will not be redundant. If God felt more compelled to forbid your extramarital affair with your secretary than to forbid your single neighbor's fling with an individual of the same sex, gays cannot really be the ones making God turn his back on America. Also, without getting too far into "cafeteria" Christianity, if God puts more weight on the offenses listed in His Commandments, who are we to judge differently? Where do we get the authority to put more weight on something that He considered a lesser offense, to speak and act more forcefully and consistently against behavior that bothers Him less than we do against behavior that He considers more important?

Besides the fact that homosexuality is apparently not God's top "deal breaker", and the clear logic that, if our society's blatant disregard for His Commandments does not turn Him away, ignoring lesser complaints would not be likely to do so, we must consider whether America has given God any reason not to turn away. At this point I am referring to Christians as much or more than non-Christians. Do we really believe that God is more concerned by the behavior of the various non-Christians, those who have yet to learn of Him and have yet to accept Him into their hearts and have yet to learn His teachings, and what is right in His eyes? Or, is it more probable that He would be upset by the actions of those who claim to believe in Him and to believe that His word is law, yet who do not follow His word or let it govern their behavior?

Calling homosexuality the reason that God is turning his back on America is purely use of a scapegoat. "It is not our fault. We, His children, who deny His word and refuse to follow His teachings when they are not convenient to us, are helpless. He has turned away because of others." You are kidding, right? Each of us, because we are Americans and there are homosexuals in America, are automatically denied, no matter how good we are, no matter how strictly we follow God's word? God has turned His back on the whole lot of us? Who decided that the groups are by country? Who is going to be especially inclined to go out of their way to live as He requires, knowing that it is hopeless anyway, as their entire country does not abide by His rules?

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are all in trouble. Not one person on this planet lives in a country where God's word is heralded as law and where His teachings are followed by everyone. Therefore, if He has not yet turned His back on your entire country as He is supposed to have done with America, prepare quickly. He has just as much reason to turn away from every other country, as all countries contain gay people. Pray, oops, that will not work with his back turned, hope, then, that the apocalypse will not soon be upon us.

Oh, by the way, for those of you who are not harassed every time you reach, publicly, for the hand of the one you love; for those of you who are not forbidden, by man-made law, to marry the person to whom you wish to devote your life; you may not realize that our society can hardly be called "tolerant". Yes, we have thus far resorted to neither mass genocide nor mass exile. America remains more patient and more tolerant than Mr. Adolph Hitler's Nazi-ruled Germany. While this is appreciable, of course, particularly by those who do not wish to die, murder did make God's "top ten" list of "no-nos", so he is probably not too peeved with America for not exterminating the homosexual residents.

Also, at the beginning of the article, Hagan made a very good off-topic point. We are a free-speech society, and that means all speech. While some may be comforted that the speakers are only making themselves look foolish, if you are still bothered by what they are saying, get your message out there, too. We each have as much right to free speech as the next person, and the sharing of a wide variety of opinions is a beautiful thing. There is no need to pout or complain if your opinion is under-represented in the public forum. Get out there and share it.