Why this conservative Christian loves gay people

In a sentence: Because they're fallible sinners, just like me. Because God commands it. That's my view in the aggregate.

As for my individual gay friends, because they're wonderful -- each in his own (very different way). I treasure our friendships. I am thankful for them, even though they don't share my faith (for the most part). I don't want to think about what my life would be like without them.

In other words, it's the same as the way I feel about my straight friends, with only individual differences that have nothing to do with who they bunk with.

I have struggled mightily with the issue of homosexuality -- both within my life, years ago, and with the issue in general, since before that. Much has changed in the past 30 years or so, and much of that is good. Gay people aren't ridiculed, assaulted, or imprisoned for who they are to the degree they once were. And we've all learned a lot about gay people because so many of us have gay friends, gay family members, gay colleagues, gay leaders, or all the above.

But I was opposed to gay marriage ... until very recently. I believed that marriage was a foundational institution in our nation and culture, that tampering with it would open a Pandora's box of more difficult moral questions that could easily be answered to the horror of many of us.

I no longer believe that.

Gay marriage, I believe, would be a net positive for our society because it would bring greater stability on the whole. That's the broad view. Gay marriage, individually, would mean great joy (at least initially!) for millions of Americans.

(As a really solid piece on NPR this morning made clear, it's time for the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy to go, too. Gay marriage would mean that military spouses would at least be notified when their loved ones die while serving their country, and entitle them to the benefits they should, by all rights, have coming.)

Of course, I'd love to see the government get out of marriage completely. If two (or more) consenting adults want to bond together in loving union and call that marriage, that's their business, not mine.

I would strongly support a mandatory age minimum of 18 for marriage, regardless, unless a pregnancy is involved.

So, what does the Bible teach about homosexuality? Banned for the fledgling Jewish nation of Israel; seemingly condemned in Rom. 1, although "unnatural acts" is never defined (though presumably, given Paul's Judaism, including all the Levitical laws regarding sexuality). This is a difficult, thorny issue, to be sure for any honest Christian who holds the Bible in authoritative regard. I don't know how to reconcile my Libertarian views on marriage and my Biblical views of personal morality.

But I do understand what I believe (at long last) and why I believe it. I realize that this will not sit well with some (perhaps many) of my Christian friends, and I am sorry for giving offense. I do not intend to offend anyone, even though that is unavoidable.