Also, "Why do people have to "be with" the person that they "love"?" This was possibly the most arrogant and pessimistic statement I have ever read and will not dignify it with a drawn out critique. I believe that most sensible people will be able to point out the many things wrong with that question.

I am not sure who you mean when you say "our current society" and "this generation" so please reference me to the statistics you are drawing from that prove for which people do not know what love is. Not that statistics can be accurately used when talking about something so subjective anyway, especially something like "love". Of course, you certainly know what love is (you not being a part of the society and all) and I'm sure and your version of it has absolutely nothing to do with sexual intercourse. I suppose "make love" is a terrible misnomer for sex between people who "love" each other as well. If you have been raised to believe that sex is wrong, disgusting and simply mutual masturbation then I urge you to think deeper about its emotional and spiritual effects. If you have no such experience with sex then please do not force baseless opinions onto others and claim that an entire generation is as clueless as you are.

Secondly, I do not understand your biblical quotation. If you believe that "loved" in that sense is the same "love" shared between a married couple then you are letting yourself be constrained by the English language itself. I would like to refer you to a language like Greek that has more specific words for the many types of love to clarify whatever argument you are attempting to make. The love between family members, friends, and lovers are all different and cannot be thrown under the one umbrella of "love". As you have proved, it makes things very confusing and leads to a terrible argument.

The other major discrepancy in your response is that you seem to believe that legalizing marriage and marriage itself has something to do with love and sex at all. You are most mistaken if you believe that marriage is currently required for two people to have sex legally. You are also mistaken if you believe that most couples would go through the entire marriage process simply to engage in sexual intercourse.

If you are unaware, legalizing marriage is not and should not be made into a subjective dilemma. It has nothing to do with personal opinions or love or sex. Marriage is a legal procedure that is currently not restricted by a person's religion or racial borders. As of this day there are thousands of Muslims, Jews, atheists and inter-racial couples who are all equally "married" by the legal definition of the term. Whether or not they fit into your or the Christian definition is irrelevant and a damn poor reason to deny gay or lesbian adults the same rights.

If you oppose gay marriage because of your religion or versions of love, sex or right and wrong then please also try to undo everyones marriage up until this point that does not fit into your standards. Hopefully you begin to realize that marriage is already unrestricted by who is or is not Christian and follows the rules set by that particular "holy" book and that a persons rights are not subjective.

"But I cannot support the actions of any one engaged in sexual activities that go contrary to God’s will. It is wrong. Dead wrong. We need to get back to the basics. Right can never be wrong and wrong can never be right. Will we next have a group advocating for marriage to ten year olds?"

Do you know the problem with always going back to the basics? It hinders our ability to move on to more advanced thinking. I do not know if you realize this or not, but when Jesus was supposedly alive he said many controversial things that the people of that time did not agree with. Most hated him for it and he was killed for it (since I have it on good authority that you do not know the story of Jesus Christ). You clearly think that you define right and wrong and so I hope you take this moment to realize that you are just a man and that you do not cause this planet to revolve around the Sun.

“I listened to Aaron Green, a gay and lesbian activist and I was utterly impressed with her level of intelligence.”

I am not surprised. Perhaps you should have ascertained a bit more from listening to her but I suppose you can only teach someone so much in a day.

“This may be true but someone once said that if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”

This line also made me laugh. More than the last in fact. Someone also once said, “The world is flat and anyone who doesn't agree is stupid,” and I hope you don't write another article based on that as well.

Lastly you write, “Or are we going to get back on track and enforce the values and moral systems that we as Bahamians know to be Godly and Christian-like?”

You are most certainly right on this, we need to get back on track. Because that's been going so well so far. Our crime, theft, murder, and HIV rates are envied world wide. Our national average is higher than just about everywhere else and clearly, from just looking around Nassau, we are a clean, tolerant people with high moral and social standards. Our biggest problem now are these damn gay people who are trying to ruin all the good things about our country.

Signed,
Clearly Thinking

“Inscribed on all United States paper notes and coins are the words “In God We Trust”. But yet laws are being passed in the US that go contrary to the meaning of those words.”

Just so you know, the United States have separated God and State and time and time again refused to pass laws that endorse a specific religion because they respect the multitude of people and religions that live within the country. Perhaps you should not take all your information from what is printed on pieces of paper because you may begin to misconstrue their meaning. I would bet that you have never even read the American Constitution and that you have no idea what actually governs what laws can and can't be passed. All you know is what you've seen on the dollar and think that it supports your personal views. But I don't blame you for that really. As an ignorant fool, who can really expect more of you? I doubt anyone would expect you to actually do research before writing anything.

“Sinners are rampant in the church, but yet they are allowed to sit on church boards, testify to unsaved members and sing in the choir. It baffles me how the church is using the name of the Lord to sanction gay and lesbian marriages when God has clearly stated that marriage is between a man and a woman and that we as humans should procreate.”

This one actually made me laugh. Please go tell the churches to remove all the sinners from their churches and choirs so that only you may be left in the entire building. I am not a supporter of Christianity and even those like me know that by your holy book we are all sinners. I have already suggested that you actually read that so this particular quote does not receive a tirade. As you have also mentioned, procreation is very important. However, as I have mentioned, you do not think very much. Do you really think that increasing the population of the Earth is an extreme concern at this point in time? At that our actions in reference to marriage and sexual relations should be prioritized in terms of creating more people? If you do, then please also google the current population of the planet and the rate at which it is increasing. If those numbers do not make sense to you, please have your pastor pray for you.

“We are also now through very careful public campaigns and by way of television programmes being desensitized about the immorality of the gay and lesbian agenda and advocates worldwide and indeed in the Bahamas are pushing their agenda in the hopes that lawmakers will pass laws to accommodate the alternate lifestyles that they have chosen.”

You are definitely correct sir. Shame on those news stations for realizing that gay marriage is a controversial issue and not immediately ignoring that and forcing their own beliefs onto the public. Shame, shame I say. And shame on those Blacks who believe they can marry Whites. How dare they try to make the church accommodate such an abomination. If they are going to choose to go against God's teaching we should not pat them on the back as if it is a good thing.

“Last year, he called for MSM (Men having sex with men) to come forward so that they could be prayed for. While this is admirable and the right thing to do, the good reverend must also realize that in his capacity, he should just as strongly be condemning fornication on all levels and praying for all that fornicate. The message should be clear and balanced. After all, are we not a Christian nation?”

Yes, let's pray for these tainted souls to be cleansed so that they will no longer attempt to be with the person they love. Why don't we pray for everyone who does anything we don't agree with to be changed so that they can be just as good and perfect as we are. However “balanced” a message that is, let's examine the Bible again and see whether or not balance was a big value for God. If you do exactly as he says, you can have everlasting life, giant mansions, walk on streets paved with gold and feel nothing but happiness and sunshine for eternity. Yet, if you find the idea that a magical Jewish man went around performing magic tricks, came back from the dead, walked on water and is the son of the creator of the universe you will be tortured for eternity. Very balanced I would say. God forbid you were born in another country where a different religion is in the majority cause then you're screwed. God forbid you don't ask for forgiveness for each of your sins even when do nothing is a sin in and of itself. God forbid you be Jewish like Jesus himself was. Cause then you'll have to learn a lesson by being tortured forever which I guess makes everything okay. I like that you asked whether or not Bahamas is a Christian nation again because truly, you don't even know what that means. You like to believe it means people should be whatever you say and that we should stop progressing because the Bible hasn't changed and we shouldn't either. So once again, you prove your eternal ignorance.

Why don't I take this moment to ask you if you plan to do any work on Sunday. Because if you are, you should probably be killed based on the teachings of the Bible. Any woman who wears men's clothing as well. I assume you also agree that women who are raped should marry their rapist as well. Of course you agree with slaves and women being completely subservient to their masters for life so it would be silly to ask. Or, if you disagree with any of these statements, you can actually pick up that book you claim to have read and actually find the verses that relate to these atrocities and see for yourself. Please also look for references of ten headed beasts, witches, giants and unicorns for they also make appearances in the Bible. Since you will most certainly be too lazy or simply unable due to the mere magnitude of your stupidity to sit down and read anything sensible, I suggest that you search for these quotes on google. It should be much easier on your brain.

Another of your quotes:
“However, their cause is only adding to a long laundry list of other harmful behavior that is decaying our society and indeed the world.”

I hope that this long list includes religion, pastors, and people like yourself who would like to infringe on the rights of people who have done nothing to you. Should we outlaw everything you disagree with or just the things we can actually prove are “decaying our society”. Can you really not see that you are the white supremacists who did not want to end slavery and segregation and when history is written you will be the malicious, arrogant evil that was trying to keep with fellow human beings down. But please, let me know exactly how gay people have personally decayed your life and all the terrible murders and rapes they are committing in our society because we really need to do something about it. I am so incredibly behind in my knowledge because the last time I checked over 90% of theft, rape and murder in the Bahamas is committed by heterosexual males. Yet, I'm sure there's nothing wrong with that because “at least they're not gay” and so we shouldn't do anything. How about we look at the good homes these people create because statistics will probably show that all bad people everywhere either had gay parents or grew up in a single parent home, right? No one respectable has ever come from non-typical situations. Lance Armstrong, Shaquille O Neal and Bill Clinton certainly don't even exist.

Next,
“Men sleeping with men and women sleeping with women in my view are acts that are immoral and should be condemned whether in private or in public in the highest order. Married men and married women who cheat on their spouses should be condemned. Heterosexuals who engage in sexual activity before marriage should be condemned. Single parent homes with mothers or fathers should not be encouraged. Aren’t all these acts contrary to God’s teachings?”

Thank you for including the phrase “in my view” because it is exactly that and we have already concluded that society does not change and things are not right or wrong based on “your views” and so whatever they may be have absolutely no place in an article about whether or not gay marriage should be legalized. Now, I have a question for you. Have you ever even read the Bible? Because the last time I checked Jesus spent most of his time professing the value of forgiveness and not condemnation. Your listing of just how many types people you believe should be condemned, Bahamians especially, merely shows how little you actually know about Christianity and how greatly you despise your own people. At this point in your article, you have effectively attacked or offended all gays, lesbians, Bahamians and Christians with your ignorance so once again I have no idea who could possibly be paying attention to you at this point but nevertheless, you carry on. I love your question “Aren't all these acts contrary to God's teachings?” because while you probably believe it to be rhetorical, the fact is that you do not truly know and another fact is that it's not. There is never any mention of gay marriage in the bible and especially nothing about lesbianism so I weep for the even more ignorant who allow themselves to be swept up by anything that sounds convincing enough from anyone without bothering to check the facts for themselves. Apparently, much like yourself.

Firstly, let me congratulate you for writing this article all by yourself. It must have taken a really long time. I think you had a few minor lapses in logic but they can be easily addressed and corrected. I will quote a few of them:

"But how can we give equality to an agenda that is flawed and in my view wrong?"

I have absolutely no idea how you can believe that anyone wanting equality is "flawed" especially when you've already referenced injustices that never should have existed because they disrespected people's humanity. Perhaps you only referenced these decisions because in "your view" it was correct.

Please understand that firstly, no one gives a damn about your views, and secondly, your views have nothing to do with what is correct and what constitutes as equality or not. Segregation and slavery were wrong in their own right, not because you disagreed with them.

Next,
"Their struggle has nothing to do with race and as a result we now have blacks and whites fighting in unison to further their cause. They believe that their “struggles” can be compared to the aforementioned events listed above and that the equality that they seek is a basic human right."

Firstly, contrary to your extremely intelligent beliefs, even struggles that have nothing to do with race can be meaningful. Perhaps your own beliefs about what constitutes as a struggle or not should not be based on the color of a persons skin like slavery was. Secondly, I doubt that slaves would believe segregation was a big deal compared to what they had to endure and yet segregation was still wrong, was it not?

I just wanted to take a second (in fact I created this account for this sole purpose) to comment on just how well written this article was. Whoever the writer is, excellent work!

Edit.