Amendment One - Not the only issue

I try to keep my opinions of politics and the state of the United States off of my blog. If I started blogging about those things, then I would probably want to share my opinions too much.  This one will be far more controversial than most things that I write about. This is not directly about Amendment One. And I don't want to debate politics, but I do want to explore some serious issues.

 With the issue of Amendment One taking over my facebook newsfeed and on the forefront of the minds of North Carolinians everywhere, it has made me think hard about many issues.

First of all, I am proud of Christians who take a stand for what they believe in without bullying others. Christians who vocalize their beliefs and stick to them without abusing others. I believe a lot of things are a sin - but I still hope that I can show love and hope and God's redemption to the sinner. 

I do believe homosexuality is a sin. Homosexual relationships, partnerships, marriage...I believe it is a sin. God created male and female for a reason - and I love the way that the characteristics and personality traits of men and women normally fit so well together. We are partners. We complement each other. We were made to. I think, even if you are not a Christian, it is obvious just by the way we are all made that men and women are meant to be together. The world wouldn't continue unless men and women were together. So I will never vote in favor of something that I don't believe in. 

Honestly? I don't think the issue of homosexual relationships has singlehandedly ruined the sanctity of marriage. I think that the sanctity of marriage was in trouble far before Ellen DeGeneres became so popular. I think the beauty and strength and purpose of marriage became watered down when Britney Spears got an annulment after only 55 hours of marriage. I think the fact that I'm more surprised when a Hollywood couple stays married longer than a handful of years than when they don't has done much to ruin the beauty of marriage. I think that the number of children who never knew their father, who experienced abandonment by their mother, the people all around us who have been married time and time again, the couples going in to marriage with no idea of what it even means, the couples living together before getting married, the wives that tear down their husbands and husbands that would rather stay at work than go home.... I think all of that did just as much - if not more - to destroy the sanctity of marriage. God's plan was in the beauty of one woman and one man being partners and best friends and lovers for life.

I will repeat that I think homosexuality is a sexual sin. Period. But I think there are other sexual sins that need to garner just as much attention and passion from us. There are twelve year old girls being pressured to do things that I didn't even know existed until I was in college (some things I probably still don't know about). There are fifteen year old boys making checklists of the girls they've been with and things they've done. There are young women on the streets selling themselves because they don't know any other way. There are men who find refuge from their families at strip clubs. And the threat of sexual predators on the internet is hard to miss - whether it's a 30-year-old man winning over a 16-year-old girl or the half naked women that pop up on the side of every webpage beckoning guys to click on them. Innocence is being stolen away rapidly on every corner in every classroom and office and bedroom...and it's scary. 

Other than voting for or against an amendment - what are we doing about it?

I think we need to start being passionate about people. We need to start showing love to people. Sharing Jesus with people. Praying for people. Caring for people. Showing them that there is a Savior who has overcome sin!

I'm not suggesting that Amendment One is not an issue. I'm just suggesting that it's not the only one.