So the opposition to homosexuality is ACTUALY coming from joe and jane six-pack, some of whom hapen to use the Bible to argue their point?
Dunno; it may be a cultural inertia sort of thing - and that culture may be fostered by doctrine, but in my experience (and vastly oversimplifying), it’s almost like “ewwwww! gays! that’s so wrong, and God agrees with me”
The bigotry precedes the spurious “Biblical” justifications, if that’s what you mean. And anyone who thinks the Bible has any relevance or authority at all when it comes to legislation needs to reread their constitution.
So then the movement to ban gay marraige is actually coming form regular folks who think gay sex is gross. Those that back up that belief with the Bible are then a subset of the greater group. That logic then leads one to believe that it is not the Christians who are against homosexuality, just regular folk, some of whom are Christians.
See my point?
75% of Americans are Christians. That means that the average moron who thinks that gay marriage is any of his affair also happens to be a Christian and there’s a better than average chance that these morons will ignorantly believe not only that their Bible clearly condemns homosexuality at all (it doesn’t), but even more egregiously, that their Bible has any relevance whatsoever to any conversation about legislation.
Perhaps; after all, it probably isn’t unusual for people to find the idea of alien sexual practices unsettling, but perhaps not; it may be that the reason people find homosexuality gross is the prevailing culture, which may in turn have been influenced by Christian doctrines or biases; this isn’t at all the same thing as it would be if the religious folk were acting out of pure altruistic concern that moral guidelines were being broken.
Rishathra? 
By the way, the people who are most involved politically in anti-gay legislation tend to be openly religious. The fact that they’ve managed to be so succesful in implementing such an overtly religious agenda shows just how prevalent this kind of mentality is is the populace.
I’m with Stoid. Only I think the insecurity manifests itself in wanting to find (and fight) issues that define you as a good person and as a good group. The issues themselves, no matter how much bible-waving accompanies them, are picked totally randomly. If the issues were all in the bible, how come some fights are “in” at a given moment in time, whe other fights are “out”?
For instance, in the Netherlands the Christian Party believes it is a fundamental fight, one that identifies them as Christians, to prevent Sunday Shopping.
That’s right, in the Netherlands all stores are closed on Sunday, (barring fewer then a dozen Shopping Sundays a year in the bigger cities). The Christian parties want to keep it that way, on the grounds, quite rightly in their line of reasoning, that one of the Ten Commandments orders us to “Honour The Sabbath.”
This in sharp contrast with the USA, where Sunday is THE day for shopping. (I think the explanation for this is that Sunday shopping is vital to the USA economic system; when you have people working at all hours, they have to be able to shop at all hours (or the other way around, I’m not sure 
).
But still, it has always struck me as odd that Christian fundies in the USA don’t even think twice about breaking one of the ten Commandments (there are several versions) (I wonder if they enge realise it at all) but go berserk when it comes to inconclusively condemned things like homosexuality.
The same thing goes for eating blood, for instance bloodsausage; absolutely positively condemned in several Bible-texts. Do Christians heed it? No sirree! (Although this site this site has found, unsurprisingly in that Book of Contradictions) some coutnerargumetns in the bible)The fight about blood-sausage-eaters is “out” and fighting gay marriage is “in”, at least in the USA.
So, all a matter of getting an clear-cut, ready-to-wear-identity.
IMHO, the fear of finding your own ethics is both a fear of being “bad” and being outside the group. (Which, again, has far more severe, economic consequences in the USA, then it wold in the Netherlands, because in the USA Church groups have taken the place that in the Neherlands is taken by Social Security)
Christians are not alone in this; The Left-Wing Church has much the same characteristics. A true leftie fundie monitored everyones choice of food, politics, and transport. Everybody had to boycot South African oranges, embrace Cuban sugar; think of hungry Africa; stop eating meat; stop flying, stop driving, etc. I’m not saying that those issues are not laudable in themselves; just that many people, IMHO, used them to get an “identity”.
Very interesting story, Maastricht.
The speed with which the issues (and stances) change can make your head spin:
My first paid gig as a musician was disrupted when the department store whose Christmas party we played at had its manager arrested because he had dared to stay open on Sundays during the heavy-shopping season. (A local preacher accompanied the arresting officers).
This was in 1977 in West Virginia. Today, the stores are definitely open in WV on Sunday (although FWIW, you can’t buy hard liquor in my hometown).
Clarification: you still can’t buy hard liquor on a Sunday in my WV hometown.
No one cares? Here’s a(n honest) question: what do you teach your gay students about sex? Wait until marriage?
Whoops…
Re: Stoid and the fear theory —
There is a theological thread in the weave of Christian thinking that runs something like this:
“There is a right, correct, God-ordained way for us to live as people. We don’t always live in accordance with the ideals, but the forces of good — the Church in particular — manages to maintain the devotion to the ideals themselves, and it’s a good thing because if that were ever lost, there would be no getting it back, there would come chaos and the decay of all that is ever good or could ever be good. There is no urge towards social order or the embracing of good things in people because people are flawed. Social order must be imposed, and the notions of same protected against heresies, impurities, and corruption; and that which is good has been codified and the codification must reign over any fallible sentiments about what seems good lest we lose the definition thereof and blunder about, each person having their own ridiculous ideas as to what is good and what is not, and no guide or shepherd to keep them on the correct path.”
It’s a damn silly and weak and fearful idea, but it does indeed permeate our culture’s long-term thinking about morality, social order, and the ability of people to perceive things independent of what has been handed down to them!
I’d like to second this question. When do you tell gay people it’s ok to have sex?
I’d also like to know if you provide kids with information about birth control, safe sex, emergency contraception and abortion or does your advice stop at “don’t do it?”
One more thing…you say “wait until marriage,” to teenagers, but what would you say to grown ups? If a couple is in their forties would you tell them they had to be married?
Then if Christianity is so powerful and at the same time, so misguided, why isn’t this land the theocracy that many on this board seem to fear? Could it be… just maybe that the self proclaimed Christians aren’t quite the homogenous group and power that everyone likes to speak about? Could it be that there are pro choice, civil right loving Christians out there? If so, what does that say about the OP’s argument that the “Christian Right” is out to get everything evil in the world abolished to the dark pits of hell.
Bottom line, way too many generalizations in this and most other threads when it comes to what Christians do and believe. Not unlike the “Are Republicans just Dumb” thread from a while back. Gross generalizations get us nowhere.
As i assume you are fully aware, the march is on towards that very thing. Hence our distress.
Because of the 1st Amendment. Thank God.
Not that it stops a lot of people frying trying to legislate theocratically.
I’ll ask again. What march?
Now you know how Muslims in the West feel nowadays.
Not really. Only some on this board and similar haunts try to tie all 75% of US citizens with Rick Santorum and Fred Phelps.