From Jay Sanders’ Pastoral Ramblings:
This is a good time for people who call themselves Christians to question their faith. I don’t mean that in the sense of questioning the legitimacy of Christianity. I mean it in the sense of questioning the legitimacy of their own devotion to Christ.
Gay marriage has been the one issue grabbing all of the headlines over the past week or so. This may be something that Christians have wanted to ignore for a while in hopes that it goes away. It’s not. It has crashed on the church’s lawn and is banging on the front door wanting to come in and stay a while.
Bob Hyatt articulates a position of “the last chance” for both sides of the gay-marriage 
debate to get something they want…by giving up something they want:
On one side, the Church is going to have to realize that gay men and women, in wanting what everyone else has, are asking for something reasonable. Rights of inheritance and property, custody and visitation- all of the rights granted currently by the state in marriage are good things, things we can affirm, even in relationships that we wouldn’t necessarily endorse. After all, even if we hold a more conservative view on divorce, I don’t see many churches advocating for divorced couples to lose the right to have custody over their step-children should something happen to their spouse. We may not endorse the relationship, but we can certainly try to understand the desire of those in it to have the same legal rights as other couples. And more than understand it- I think we can advocate for it, and practically demonstrate that we do in fact “love everyone.”
Todd Littleton, while thinking of Hyatt, wonders why Christ followers partner with the state in marriage issues anyway:
We have long had a difficult time parsing Church and State issues. For instance we do not want the State inserting itself in religious matters but do not think twice about signing a marriage license issued by the State. We not only sign the license but we note where our credentials to do so are recorded “Book and Page.”
Trevin Wax’s How I Wish the Homosexuality Debate Would Go has now been “Liked” almost 11k times on Facebook:
Just once, I’d like to see a TV interview go more like this:
Host: You are a Christian pastor, and you say you believe the Bible, which means you are supposed to love all people.
Pastor: That’s right.
Host: But it appears to me that you and your church take a rather unloving position when it comes to gay people. Are homosexuals welcome to come to your church?
Pastor: Of course. We believe that the gospel is a message relevant for every person on the planet, and we want everyone to hear the gospel and find salvation in Jesus Christ. So at our church, our arms are outstretched to people from every background, every race, every ethnicity and culture. We’re a place for all kinds of sinners and people with all kinds of problems.
