A big mistake made by bible-only literalists is treating the collection of books as carrying equal weight. But there’s peaks and valleys, important things and stuff that’s just historical. How to map it is mostly in the text itself, and a few verses for Christians are key, simplifying an awful lot of it. (the love stuff).
Miss the point about love and you miss the point of the whole thing.
[or twisting love into a legal maze, or an “end justifies the means” love like “tough love” – “I only hurt you because I love you” crap].
I’ve known folks who got married through the years that weren’t traditional.
When gay marriage wasn’t a civil option, there were a lot of Christian and non-Christian religions to choose from.
Various Earth religions of course. Then there’s Unitarian Universalist, which is and isn’t Christian depending on the congregation, then you have the MCC which I think was one of the first, the Quakers, the Episcopals in the USA… Congregationalists (UCC – which was one of the first churches in the USA)…
I don’t know what there is in Islam or Judaism for gay marriage but I imagine there’s something.
Not sure why I know this stuff. I think I found it interesting long ago as I _thought_ the church I grew up in was going to go for gay marriage in the early 90s… but the African Methodist, which is more traditional had a strong showing if I remember right. I’m surprised Methodists still don’t do it, but I imagine it’s the African Methodist and some American South that might be holding it back.
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