Born into a Christian family, I was raised a church-going 'angel'. Every Sunday, my mother dressed me up and packed my snacks in her purse, and with both of my parents and both of my siblings, the five of us loaded into the Suburban and made our way to Holy Cross Lutheran Church. Every time, without fail, we made straight for the balcony, where we perched up beside grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, third cousins, and every other imaginable family member. I learned the Lord's Prayer, sang what I knew of the hymns, and attended Sunday School after every service (my mother was my teacher- I had no choice), and before long, I was casted as Mary in the annual Christmas musical. Although standing in front of the congregation all dressed up in over-used costumes and singing with a creepy, fake, baby doll Jesus in my arms was super thrilling, I moved on to bigger and better things, like my first communion and then my confirmation. As I learned more about the church and its beliefs and started paying more attention to the words being preached at me, I began questioning my faith and looking further into my own beliefs. They didn't alway line up with what my parents believed or with what Pastor Tim was elaborating on in his sermons. Realizing this lack of agreement, so many things became unclear to me. My biggest question of all: does God really not love everybody? It didn't add up. We're supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves, but not the homosexual ones? Just because Adam and Eve liked each other, every other relationship has to be the same way- between man and woman? Why, when the Minnesota elections were focused on the passing of same-sex marriage, did Pastor preach more about Genesis 1:27, Genesis 2:18-25, and Romans 1:27 than usual? The questions that I considered, and still consider, extend to several other areas than just homosexuality and same-sex marriage, and at times, they become overwhelming. I don't attend church nearly as often as I used to because of it. I still read my bible every now and then, though I can now pick out its flaws and I refrain from reading it literally. I still say my prayers and I trust that God isn't only looking out for me and other Christians. He is looking out for everybody. Though I have changed since the good ol' days of packing snacks and playing the role of Mary in plays, yes, I still consider myself a Christian. I am a Christian who treats others with respect, puts others before myself, and tries to live life as the best me I can be, because those are some of the most important things that the Christian Church has taught me.
My Religious Background:
Lindsay
Kolquist
My Opinion on Same-Sex Marriage:
As stated in 'My Religious Background', I am a Christian. No, that doesn't mean that I am a close-minded, non-accepting human like stereotypes may suggest. I am very open to ways of life other than my own, and in most cases, I encourage it. This includes same-sex marriage. My biggest reasons to do so are because 1. nobody tells me who I can or can't love, so I don't feel the need, nor do I want, to tell others who they can or can't love, and 2. people who are homosexual don't affect my life in any negative ways, and really, in many ways at all. I think it is absolute nonsense to treat them differently, make laws restricting their freedoms, and value them less than heterosexual people. Who decided that heterosexual people had the upper hand anyway? There are so many additional arguments that go along with my beliefs. Some disagree with homosexuality because the Bible says marriage should be between one man and one woman, but the bible also says that eating fish is a sin, men shouldn't have beards, and women should't speak in the presence of men. How many times do we enforce those bits of the text? As for the legal side of things, church and state are supposed to be separate, so making laws banding same-sex marriage is unfair and unjust. Also, taking away the freedom to marry is discrimination against a minority group of people. This seems to me like America before the Civil Rights Movement, not how America should be today. In my own opinion, we, as a country, are in the middle of a big social shift, and as United States citizens have been becoming more and more accepting of people of color over the past few decades, we will now start to be more and more accepting of homosexuality, as well. I hope so, at least. Sometimes, I wish that people would look at the situation from this point of view: what if being heterosexual was the minority, there were laws against male-female marriages, and in some religions that heterosexuals followed, their sexual preferences were considered a taboo? It's so important to appraise other points of view, especially with subjects such as this. Maybe it's easy for me to walk in others' shoes because I was raised in the liberal state of Minnesota and have been surrounded by people who are accepting of me all of my life, or because I know people who are considered minorites and who suffer from daily discrimination, but I think everybody has the potential to look beyond their own scenarios to understand others'. I will always support same-sex marriage, and I hope more people in our world begin to, too.