The Log Cabin Republicans adopted their name in honor of Abraham Lincoln who was born in a log cabin and ushered in a ‘new birth of freedom.’ They exist to encourage their party to choose fairness over discrimination, equality over bigotry, hope over fear, and freedom over oppression.

Today I declare myself to be a Log Cabin Christian.  I make this declaration not to endorse  any political party or movement, but to say that I choose fairness, equality, hope and freedom. I am now a Log Cabin Christian because I choose to support people who love each other in gaining the right to join in marriage; I choose to support people being committed; I choose to support people saying I want no one but you. I am for people wanting to love someone until death do they part. I am for consensual sex within marriage. I am of the opinion that commitment to one another and specifically commitment through marriage makes our society stronger.  I do this knowing that I still have inner conflict with some difficult verses in the Bible. I also do this knowing that if I am not 100% sure of difficult verses, I will err on the side of loving someone like I love myself. Not too long ago, I was really sure of what I believed about a lot of things, but lately I have been doing some tobogganing (see previous posts) with people who have made me rethink some of my traditions that I thought were truth. I know this for sure, Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save it and that he expects me to love everyone. Yes, even that person (whoever you just thought of). Novitas recently teamed up with a church called RISE out of Virginia for their AND campaign. One of the pages in the slide show says, “God loves gay people and straight people. We do too.” Doesn’t that say it all? Everyone gets to play regardless of their orientation, gender, social status, nationality or skin color.

The 9th Circuit handed down a decision today that overturns Proposition 8 which would have changed California’s constitution to say that marriage in the state is between one man and one woman. In their decision the court stated, “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.”

There are more of us than you think. One prominent ‘Log Cabin Christian’ I admire is Justin from GayChristian.net who says, “Essentially, I’m arguing that a Christ-centered marriage is a good thing, regardless of the gender of the people involved.” He is far more eloquent on the issues than I am at this point so I will refer you to his essay on whether or not God blesses gay relationships. What I also love about Justin is that he also presents Ron’s argument that God expects gay Christians to remain celibate. I encourage you to go and check out his site. It is amazing.

I know this makes some of you uncomfortable. If it helps, the reason I am writing, the reasons for the posts on homosexuality and women in leadership (among other things) is that these are people; people made in the image of God, people who are being left out of the conversation; people who are forgotten, ignored, or worse, damaged by other well meaning Christians. I believe my declaration furthers the gospel by letting these lovelies know that God isn’t just for the people they think, he is for them. Don’t forget, he hung out with people who made the religious leaders of the day uncomfortable.

Let’s not fight. I love you all. I would ask you to read this transcript of a talk given by Tony and Peggy Campolo, who disagree on whether or not God blesses gay relationships but love each other just the same. You can also listen to similar talks given by the Campolos here.

The Log Cabin Republicans have a saying, “inclusion wins.” Rob Bell has a saying, “love wins.” I would like to humbly suggest that “inclusive (according to Webster: covering or intended to cover all items or costs) love wins.”