Marriage Equality Views of Christian Religions - Research Paper Example

A Comparative Analysis on Marriage Equality Views of Christian Religions Introduction Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transgender- the spotlight effects of the historical and modern times. They are the ones who have unique personalities and heart incongruent to their physical abundance. The longings and yearnings of their hearts are so hard to be complied by the society and community as a whole. They long for acceptance, respect, justice, and freedom to love and marry with their partners whose sexual preferences are the same to their own gender. With this, the present paper would like to compare two different views from the two different counterparts of a Christian Religion (The Seventh-Day Adventist and the Roman Catholic) based on their opinions and insights about marriage equality that the LGBT people take as their major concern. The theological views of the two specific religions of Christianity would be explored. Therefore, the study could find out who among the religious groups have brought changes and decisions for the marriage equality bringing along the reputation of Christianism. Seventh-Day Adventist It has been emphasized in the church manual of the Seventh - day Adventist religion that the couples for marriage should be heterosexual partners (Seventh-Day Adventist, 2005). According to Cook (2012), the Seventh-Day Adventist is opposed to same-sex marriage. This is also relative to their views that majority of the people to lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgenders (LGBT) are mostly perceived as anti-Christ or atheist (Cook, 2012). Therefore, it could be that this kind of perception made the adventist church to totally block the LGBT with their rights to marry their same-sex partners. Moreover, the constricted faith of the Seventh-day Adventist church to their sacred scriptures made them to forbid the modern issue to agree the terms for marriage equality. The Seventh-day Adventists claim that people are the apples in the eye of God, a supernatural being with an omnipresent soul (“Stances of Faiths on LGBT Issues”, 2012). Therefore, every individual is essential to God wherein every person would be bestowed with the fresh and spirit of God that is considered as holy. Human bodys flesh and soul must be filled with the sacredness of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enlivens every being, and it is the duty of a man to take good care of his body and soul for an everlasting life. A man and a woman must make a righteous deed of taking how his body must be holy because the Adventists or any living Christian believe that the body is a temple of God. They also believe that a man and a woman is created in the likeness of God in which they see anything wrong with the LGBT individuals who wanted to change their physical features just to conceal their real assets. Therefore, the Adventists’ church does not find any righteousness with regard to homosexuality because for them it is an immoral sin wherein a person is clearly obvious that he or she is not contented with what God bestowed unto them. The Adventists perceived the LGBT individuals as sinful because they were observed as people who are not contented to themselves. With this, the Adventists are clearly opposed for marriage equality. The Adventist church sees homosexuality and same-sex relationship as sinful and improper. Moreover, the church also view that people who are engaged into same-sex relationship have a disorder (“Stances of Faiths on LGBT Issues”, 2012). This is the statement that the adventist church have shared based on how they ratify their fundamental beliefs on marriage. Therefore, they do not consider the same-sex couples to be literally married with ceremonial rites because they do not see it as sacred as mentioned in the Bible. Therefore, the Adventist church still depends on the Bible and considers it as valid and reliable. Roman Catholic Francis DeBernardo claim referring to the agreement of the Catholic church to same-sex relationship (US bishops, 2011). Accordingly, this could mean that there is an unclear notion of what the Catholic church truly claims for recently Debernardo’s booklet which is titled as “Marriage equality: a positive Catholic approach” has been considered as a fraud since it falsely used the name of the Catholic church in line to marriage equality. Bishops have commented on the assumption of DeBernardo that refers to their inability to accept the belief and modern practices of the community people (US bishops, 2011). Moreover, DeBernado’s claim on how majority of the Catholic people support the LGBT relationships received a referendum of disagreement to the individuals who are behind this marriage practices for same-sex genders. Therefore, the Catholic Church perspective is against with the current issue for marriage equality. The Catholic Church added and clarified that those who claim that the Catholic biblical rules that the church follows have not been repudiated to be refused to accept the modern trends of marriage equality. The manner of clarification has been detailed by Cardinal Wuerl who leads the Committee on Doctrine for the U.S Bishops (US bishops, 2011). Cardinal Wuerl said that the Catholics who claim that their religion has agreed to take the practice of rites for same-sex genders were members of New Ways Ministry that continually pervades from the land of Maryland to different parts of United States such as Washington, Kansas, and Maine. Therefore the New Ways Ministry had practices and beliefs that are almost the same to the Catholic rites; however, they only differ in the way the New Ways Ministry possessed a more positive view to the LGBT’s sexual orientation and rights for love. With this, one could imply that the New Ways Ministry could be considered as a kind of a Catholic Group. Hence, it is a matter of simply saying that not all Catholics agree to same-sex marriage; however, there are some Catholics like the New Ways Ministry who values consideration and great understanding to the equality and rights of the LGBT to love without judgment and prejudice from other people. This could also mean that it is not just the different kinds of religions have opposing or similar conceptual views in a particular issue, people who have the same religion could also differ in the perspectives that they have. There is a difference in every specified group who belong in a general group like the Catholics. Therefore, there is a dynamic time that could change every perspective and amendments of a certain country that depends on the major decisions of the people for marriage equality (MacPherson, 2012). Thence, the political amendments of the United States of America tends to compromise to the decisions of the majority. This could mean that the historic political and religious agenda of America has also changed based on how they considered that LGBT relationships were unsafe and immoral (Cahill, 2004). However, the shoutout of the people for change could somehow make them secure enough as the prejudice and judgments around would be lessened. Comparative and Reflective Views to Seventh-Day Adventists and Roman Catholics The views of the two subsectional branches of Christian religion (Seventh-Day Adventist and Roman Catholic) yield almost the same perspective based on their disagreement for same-sex marriage. However, both religions differed in the consistency of their beliefs and standard rules for marriage. This is due to the fact that the Catholic religion is denser with greater population compared to the Seventh-Day Adventist as forms of Christianity. Catholic religion may lack a strong verdict that should be imposed to its population to stick to the biblical rules. However, the Adventists and any other Christian as forms of religion like the Roman Catholic initiate the act of not loving and not giving equal opportunities of everybodys right to love. Both religions follow the ethical bible rules which influence their way of living and treatment to other people like the LGBT individuals and lovers (Dowley, 2002). Both religions are the same in terms of depending too much into their inability to understand and to become flexible in adjusting with the LGBT couples, and even with regard to their identity. Therefore, Christianism now becomes ill with the rampant issue of marriage equality. Notwithstanding on the scriptural guides that Christianism depends on as their guide to believe on proper ethical behavior, they could serve the best way of not suing the personalities, identities, and relationships of the LGBT individuals. Conclusion The present paper succeeds in comparing the Adventist and Catholic’s view on marriage equality. Both views are the same in terms of opposing marriage equality. The purpose could tend to sustain the traditional values of how a family unit must be composed like a mother-father figure that would be completed by heterosexual partners. Therefore, this is relative to the Adam and Eve figure of the Christian scriptures of the Adventist and Catholic religion. The religion may have a big impact and is considered as influential as the Adventist and the Catholics differ in their manner of conforming to consider or not to consider marriage equality. Statistically, the Catholics are mostly found as the most numbered of people who consider marriage equality because they are the most outnumbered religion in this world, which makes it hard for the Catholic church to monitor its constituents on the rules of the Bible. Therefore, the Adventist could be found as more fundamentalist and rigid with their beliefs compared to the Catholics who do not constantly follow what the Christian scriptures command. Nevertheless, marriage equality matters have been encouraged by the LGBT people regardless of their religious backgrounds who do not deny their need for a solace acceptance of the society. References Cahill, S. (2004). Same-sex marriage in the United States: Focus on the Facts. Lanham, MA: Lexington Books. Cook, J. (2012, November 4). Voting for same-sex Marriage: An adventist perspective. Retrieved from http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2012/11/04/voting-same-sex-marriage-adventist-perspective Dowley, T. (2002). Introduction to the history of Christianity: First century to the present day-A worldwide story, people and movements, 400 pictures, maps, and diagrams. Minneapolis, MN: Lion Publishing. MacPherson, R. (2012). Gay cheer as US voters say “I do” to marriage equality. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5icCOvkfrQHsDwgcQdjIpcVHUsHEA?docId=CNG.bc12cd2859a9b80182d14e69692ca4c5.711 Seventh-Day Adventist: Church Manual. 2005. Hagerstown, MA: The Lockman Foundation. “Stances of faiths on LGBT issues.” (2012). Retrieved from http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-seventh-day-adventist-church US bishops emphasize booklet on ‘marriage equality’ is not Catholic. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/ us-bishops-emphasize-booklet-on-marriage-equality-is-not-catholic/ Read More