If you have a chance, watch this video from Keith Olbermann a couple nights ago. It’s a commentary on last week’s passage of Proposition 8 in California, which rescinded the controversial right of same-sex couples to get married. I don’t live in California, so I didn’t have to vote on the issue and there wasn’t much discussion of it around here. [H/T: Greg Garrett]
Obviously, religious voters were the overwhelming force behind its passage (including the higher-than-usual percentage of African-American voters who came to the voting booth to vote for Obama).
I’m interested in your comments/opinion about what Keith says, particularly in viewing it from the perspective of followers of Jesus Christ — which, I’m guessing, a lot of my readers are. From Levitical law to Paul’s teachings, Christian tradition says that same-sex relations are “an abomination.” But Jesus didn’t ever mention the topic. Jesus said the greatest commandment was loving God and “loving your neighbor as yourself.”
Olbermann lays aside his usual vitriole — he’s dead serious about this, and not-at-all snarky, and seems to even get emotional a couple times — and asks a really provocative question: Do you do what your religion teaches you to do? Or do you do what the founder of your religion teaches you to do?
If you’ve got 6 minutes, watch the video with an open mind, then give me your feedback. Agree or disagree? How far do we, as followers of Christ, extend the Golden Rule? How much can we (or should we) differentiate between the teachings of Christ and the teachings of Christianity?