Prayin' the gay away

As you likely know, DOMA (defense of marriage act) was shot down by the Supreme Court yesterday.  They decided it is Unconstitutional to say that marriage can only be defined as between a man and a woman.  Whenever something monumental such as this occurs, I always start to wonder why we're having this conversation to begin with.  Getting married to the person you love seems as if it would be a basic human right.  Does or does it not say in the Constitution that everyone is equal and we all have to rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?  Do we seriously want to go back to the days of separate but equal?  I sure hope not.

If you ask most people why they are against gay marriage, they will likely say because it is against the Bible.  Not taking into account that the United States are not, nor have they ever been a Christian nation, but I suppose we can just overlook that little piece of (vital) information for now.  So I began to wonder, what does the Bible actually say about gay marriage, and this is what I found:

"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood upon them." Leviticus 20:13

This seems pretty straight-forward I suppose, though I'm not too sure about the use of the word "mankind."  If I was more inclined, I might look up the original translation, but instead I found the rest of Leviticus chapter 20 to be interesting.  It is all about people you shouldn't sleep with.  Evidently partner-trading was a big problem back then?  Also, five verses later, it says a man can't have sex with his wife when she's on the rag or else they have to be cut off from their people.  What?

Some of these other Bible verses just baffled me also:

"In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;  But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.  Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.  But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."  1 Timothy 2:9-12

Let's first assume "broided" means "braided" in which case I'm at least following this rule as I can't braid my own hair to save my life.  It is the part about women being silent and not teaching that I have a major problem with.  I've said many times that Paul was a sexist pig, but this passage just about proves it.  Here's another:

"Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ" Ephesians 6:5

So, if you're unlucky enough to be born into a life of servitude, you have to treat your master as you would God?  That is just bizarre.

I posted some of these quotes to show you that the Bible was written thousands of years ago.  The individual verses don't have much relevance today, so it is very odd to use one verse from the Old Testament as your only argument against a person's pursuit of happiness.