Over the Rainbow: - Wrestling With Angels

California.”… “Here’s what Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family said about the urgency of
the issue, after personally donating $25,000 to the National Organization for Marriage: “It’s not
just marriage that is at stake; it’s absolutely everything”(Santorum, 2009).
In February of 2010 the Coral Ridge Ministries, founded by the late Dr. D. James Kennedy,
appealed to their supporters to write Edmund G. Brown Jr. and Arnold Schwarzeneggar, the
Attorney General and Governor respectively, of California, urging them to reverse course and
throw their support behind the legitimate vote of Proposition 8. The Ministry reports that “A
clear majority of California voters stood by the traditional definition of marriage as the union of
one man and one woman…The trial is taking place in San Francisco, where a huge majority
voted against traditional marriage… The judge in the case has made a number of rulings
which…have the effect of putting the people who voted for traditional marriage ‘on trial’. For
example he ruled that the trial will inspect the personal beliefs of those who sponsored the bill
in question!” (Cassidy, 2010)
CHALLENGE TO THE CHURCHES
Although prostitution and homosexuality were sometimes included in practices of early
religions, the moral commandments of the Hebrew people protected sexual relationships in
support of family values. The formation of the family unit through the love and sexual union of
a man and a woman was seen as the way in which the love of God was shown to individuals in
the present and passed on to the future generations. Scriptures from the Jewish Bible and the
New Testament supported husband/wife unions and condemned homosexual
relationships.(Scriptures from the Revised Standard Version RSV).
Matthew 19:4-5 “He who made them from the beginning made them male and female…For
this reason a man
shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.”
Leviticus 18:22 “You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
Romans 1:27 “and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed
with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their
own persons the due penalty for their error.”
When gay activist groups emerged in the 1960’s, churches were challenged to include
homosexuals and allow them to participate without discrimination in church activities and
events. Fundamental groups held firm to scriptural guidance, while mainline churches,
especially within the leadership of the denominations, moved toward inclusion.
Over the Rainbow: The Gay Battle for Social Reorganization of America. 2010
Dr. M. L. Coppock
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