Results 41 to 50 of 193
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11-05-2009, 12:29 AM #41

dude, tax exemption doesn't make me a government employee. I can marry whoever I want. I would turn people down due to a few different reasons. I am not a justice of the peace. No one can tell me what I have to do except for the church who employs me.
that is like saying any non-profit organization must then do whatever the government tells them to and give money to whoever they are told to.
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11-05-2009, 12:36 AM #42
i wasn't talking about you specifically, but...
if your church asked you to start marrying gay people, would you do it?
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11-05-2009, 12:52 AM #43

i know you weren't talking about me. just figured since I was the only minister here I would respond. And, the way our denomination works, I am basically self employed and they have me work for them. Who I marry is something that stays completely in my choice.
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11-05-2009, 12:54 AM #44
so essentially...you would never marry a gay couple, ever
even if it was eventually legalized?
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11-05-2009, 01:15 AM #45

I don't like to use never but as of my current belief, no. I am a minister in a christian church and the christian believe is pretty clear. Before anyone starts throwing around words like homophobic, bigot, etc. I have numerous gay friends and 2 family members. They accept and understand where I am coming from and vice versa.
like I said, there are numerous reasons I wouldn't marry people. so it isn't a blanket "gay" issue.
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11-05-2009, 01:18 AM #46
could you give me a different reason why you wouldn't marry people?
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11-05-2009, 01:38 AM #47BANNED

A true man of God would not care wether is was a man and woman or 2 women or men.
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11-05-2009, 01:51 AM #48

I'll give my reason first. One of my ministry professors talked about how when he first got into ministry, he viewed performing marraiges as a service he provided and nothing more. Therefore, he pretty much married anyone who asked. But, after a few years, he would run into people he married and find out they had been divorced. As this happened more and more he became more selective. Said it hurt him too bad to know he had married people who were divorced within a few years. That stuck with me. So, to answer your question, I won't marry anyone who won't agree to pre-marital counseling. I won't marry anyone who I think is too young (not a number, depends on the person), won't marry people who are living together unless they are willing to find other arrangements until they are married (as high as divorce numbers are, the numbers for those who live together first are almost twice as high). There might be others, those are just the ones that came to me.
I know I am much more strict than most ministers so don't think this is the norm. I know that performing a wedding is a service I can provide, but so can a justice of the peace. I feel like if am going to stand before a room of people and say that I bless this union before man and God, that I want to feel like they are committed.
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11-05-2009, 01:53 AM #49

really? because the bible I read says it does matter. I don't suppose to call your relationship to God into question so I would appreciate the same courtesy.
Please do me the honor of not taking one post in one thread and assuming you know whether I am a man of God or not.
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11-05-2009, 02:01 AM #50BANNED

Leviticus 18:22 - "V’et zachar lo tishkav mishk’vey eeshah toeyvah hee."
The actual, literal translation is "With a male thou shall not lie in the bed of a wife [ = married woman], it is detestable"
It's an admonition against adultery, not against homosexual sex, or homosexuality, in itself.
The same portion of the Leviticus also tells you never to eat livestock that doesn't ruminate not to eat sea life that aren't fish and not to grow different crops in the same field or wear clothes of more than one type of material.
If you're going to use such a line to criticise homosexuality then you'd best only eat kosher food, seperate your vegetable garden into seperate fields and never wear polyester/cotton shirts.
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