Obama
- the "first gay president" |
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Judges 6: 28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. 29 So they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And when they had inquired and asked, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” At the deepest time of darkness, the time for
change is often around the corner. Even when gay marriage was already
banned in North Carolina, they wanted to engrave into all eternity by
amending the very constitution which supposed to protect the basic
rights of the US Citizen. The very next day after the passing of the
anti-gay amendment when we seemingly were heading back to days of
hostility against gays, a new glimmer of hope rose from the east in
Washington DC when Obama finally announced that he supports Gay marriage
after a decade of ambiguity.
Some criticised the Obama administration from
diverting the attention from Job creation which is strange since they
have been using Gays as a battle cry for support with anti-gay article a
common feature in each daily publication of Christian Post. What is
conservative in America is now no longer defined in the belief that Jesus
is
the way, the truth and the life, rather what two men does in private.
Jesus is no longer important for even Romney, who claims to be Christian
yet who worships the angel Moroni lifted high above Salt Lake City is
considered righteous and holy just because he was anti-gay and
pro-family whatever that means. Some Christians have been fighting a seemingly
losing war with the increasing losses in California and New York, and
needed to stem the tide of defeat where even the ex-gay conferences by
Exodus have had to be cancelled due to poor attendance. They have used
rhetoric, theology inconsistent with the religious/cultural history, and
even portrayed trans-genders (such as Sy Rogers) as gay men in order to
extract the maximum repulsion and confusion. Alas with the coming out of
gay men and women, their rhetoric could no longer hold.
On 08 May 12, the North Carolina voted 61% to 39%
to amend the constitution to state "marriage between one man and one
woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized
in this State". The confusing language of the Amendment One vote meant
that few realised that it would not only have banned Gay marriage but
also civil unions. It was meant to deceive, to make a strong political
statement when gay marriage was already effectively banned. Being a very conservative state, the results were
never in doubt, an attempt at a symbolic victory to gain the “moral
victory” of claiming overwhelming public support when the percentage of
overall support for gay marriage for the entire US nation has gained
majority support for the first time in history.
North Carolina was also an
attempt to use gays as a wedge issue to undermine Obama’s support by
Blacks as the anti-gay fervour was driven in part by the black churches
there. However, with Obama’s support for gay marriages, the Black
churches are now compelled to re-evaluate their religious stance to
remember that hitherto they too had suffered discrimination. The victory parade of Amendment One against gays
was thus over shadowed by the announcement that Obama has reached
enlightenment. Using his faith based experiences of Jesus’ love
commandments, he became the first sitting President to support gay
marriage. It was a calculated risk for surely the black community will
continue to support Obama, the hard liners will be against Obama anyway,
but it would gain the increasing support of the younger generation for
which the future holds. Obama’s opponent Romney is in a bind, eager to
confirmed his conservative credentials by ramping up an anti-gay
rethoric, but mindful of losing support by the younger voters or of
distracting from a sure win platform of the poor economy. By entering
into a debate on gay marriage, it will make it an election issue
energizing the gay and younger voters to affirm again a real tangible
change they can believe in. The GOP will find it hard to claim a moral
high ground when their conservative candidate calls himself a Christian
but worships the angel Moroni. It also turns the attention to Obama when
the focus had been Mitt Romney gaining the GOP nomination. Obama is facing a tough re-election. The gay
marriage proclamation gives him a rare chance for victory to gain back a
moral high ground when much hope has been lost. It is a victory for
Liberal theology which has been facing increasing sharp falls in
attendance of mainline churches supporting this theological approach.
Obama talks about his faith, his family and the critical Christian
reflection to come to a position on Gay marriage. Surely if we were
pro-family, we will support Gay marriage for gay families matter too. We have reached the cross roads in history where
there is no turning back in giving gays equality. Obama has given a
Presidential stamp that “it gets better” for the hundreds of thousands
of gay youths. At the end, it is a question raised by the Gallop Poll
about “nature or nurture”. In 1977, it was said that 13% believed that
Gays were born as such, with 56% believed that it is due to
upbringing/nurturing. In 2012, this changed totally to 40% believing
that gays are innate, and 35% due to upbringing. We go back to the
biblical question of the Jewish Rabbi who called gays as the natural
Eunuch (not man made Eunuchs) and as Jesus said born as such from their
mother’s womb without attraction to the opposite sex in relation to the
question on heterosexual adultery.
We have made traditional marriage an idol which we worship by day but violate by night. If "traditional marriage" is deemed to be undermined by gays, let it defend herself. Let Baal defend her self. It doesn't change straight people going for abortions, and being involved in adultery. It doesn't change the divorce rates which has been rampant with the religious faith communities. Gays being 1/20 of the population a'int never going to impact the institution of marriage which have been made dysfunctional by people of faith when they go after gays instead of looking themselves in the mirror. The idol is down, the idol is down, never again shall we come under her oppression. There is a spiritual power, an evil behind the opression of the outcasts, the weak and the defenceless. Just as a bull offering to God replaced the worship of Baal, the worship of carnal man, may God show kindness and grace to Obama, the unlikely mighty man of valour who could have played it safe. The Newsweek wanted to annoint Obama as the first "Gay President", for surely Obama has come out of his closet. He has led the way that we too may come out of our closets and begin to live again. God is a good God. Jesus is good. He didn't leave the Gay community alone but He came back for His lost sheep. We will not be alone again - for He gave us our partners to share our lives with.
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