Here is well-known Atheist Hemant Mehta’s 28 questions for Christians who still oppose gay marriage, coupled with my answers:
1) “Why insist that we take the Bible literally on the subject of homosexuality, but pretty much ignore what it says regarding all the other sins?” A: Although some dishonest and ignorant people cherry-pick the Bible in the manner you say, my emphasis on tackling all other sins is well documented.
2) “Why should our nation’s laws follow your interpretation of your holy book?” A: Because my interpretation is consistent with the interpretation of the earliest churchmen, who were godly de facto.
3) “What is a bigger problem in your opinion: a gay couple getting married, or a straight couple getting divorced?” A: A straight couple getting divorced, since it is a breakup of a God-ordained relationship, while in God’s eyes the gay couple made no change whatever in their status.
4) “If gay marriage and straight divorce are both sins, why do you spend so much energy fighting gay marriage?” A: This question does not apply to me since I spend my time and energy fighting other things. Now why do you spend so much energy promoting gay marriage?
5) “Why are you so obsessed with what other couples do in the bedroom?” A: I’m not. Ask someone who is.
6) “Do you think children are better off with two loving gay parents, or two straight parents who fight all the time?” A: To answer your either/or fallacy, two straight parents who fight all the time, on condition that they only fight with each other and do not abuse their children.
7) “Would you rather a child live with a single Christian parent or a loving mother and father who are hardcore Atheists?” A: Another either/or fallacy. Okay, the loving Atheist couple, on condition that they do not indoctrinate the child with Atheism.
8) “Why don’t you just tell me your hierarchy of ideal parents and tell me where loving gay parents rank on that list?” A: Instead of giving a hierarchy, here is my ideal: A loving father and mother who are non-hypocritical practitioners of conservative Christianity, and financially stable, intelligent, and wise.
9) “How many close gay friends do you have? If any, how many do you think consider you a close friend? Because they don’t, trust me.” A: I don’t see any friends; I’m a loner. But I used to have two close gay friends who knew I opposed same-sex marriage. It is your arrogant presumption to say they didn’t consider me a close friend.
10) “How has your life changed since gay marriage became legal everywhere?” A: It has not. And neither has it changed on account of numerous bad things that happen to others and not to me.
11) “Why oppose gay marriage because you supposedly cannot explain that to your kids? I’ll do it for you: two people love each other, so they got married.” A: What people cannot explain to their children are the questions that arise about how they have sex, not the wedding itself.
12) “How long do you think it will take before evangelical Christian churches finally embrace gay marriage? Because I give it a decade or less.” A: It doesn’t matter how long it will take since majority opinion never creates or equals truth.
13) “Why do you think you failed so miserably when it comes to convincing everyone else to uphold traditional marriage?” A: Because most people have no love for the truth and are hellbent on following their own selfish desires.
14) “Do you blame the message or the messenger?” A: I blame today’s messengers, because they distort the original message.
15) “Either way, why keep using the same arguments? And promoting the same leaders? It’s not working!” A: I agree. That is why I advocate using different arguments and promoting different leaders: those who uphold Third Position politics.
16) “How come the worst stories of discrimination I ever hear coming from Christianity involve a bakery owner being paid to make a cake they didn’t want to make, while like every LGBT person I’ve ever met has a personal discrimination story that is so much worse?” A: First, you ignore the fact that in other parts of the world Christians have been tortured and killed for their faith. Second, many gay people probably lie about having suffered terrible persecution when they did not.
17) “If the Supreme Court made the wrong decision, and it is unfair for some judges to overturn tradition, then why was it wrong when they overturned segregated schools?” A: They were also wrong to overturn segregated schools. They should have been kept segregated.
18) “If you say that marriage equality should have been left to individual states and voters, would you really have been okay if every state finally voted in favor of gay marriage?” A: I never say that *any* moral decision should be entrusted to *any* sector of our corrupt government.
19) “What if congress voted to make marriage equality legal?” [they did] A: They are still dead wrong. How about overthrowing our rotten government and installing a righteous government in its place?
20) “Why do you think God is really angry about gay marriage, but not nearly as upset about other really awful things? A: I don’t, since I’m not a hypocrite.
21) “What arguments against gay marriage don’t involve citing Bible verses?” A: My primary argument is that the great majority of the time, homosexuality is the direct result of the man/woman relationship being broken from things like feminism, “no-fault” divorce, the welfare state, etc.
22) “Since all churches allow couples to marry if they are unable to have kids, why use this ridiculous argument that marriages only count if kids can be produced?” A: This is not actually an argument that people use. Rather, it’s a straw man version of it. Their argument is that since natural human reproduction is always heterosexual, never homosexual, and God created Nature, this indicates God’s will on how people should couple.
23) “What do you think the government will force your church to do since gay marriage is legal? Because the correct answer is nothing.” A: Likely nothing. But in other countries preachers have been arrested and some thrown in jail simply because they spoke out against homosexuality.
24) “What will you do with all the Christians who support gay marriage and how do you feel about them?” A: I will teach alleged Christians what the original Church believed on marriage and homosexuality. I don’t feel anything about them.
25) “If you oppose gay marriage, and you oppose divorce, how do you feel about gay couples that get divorced? Is that really upsetting, or do two wrongs make a right?” A: Neither, as it doesn’t matter whether or not I stay married to a jar of dill pickles or get divorced from it. “Gay marriage” is a self-contradiction.
26) “Do you want gay couples to get divorced now that a lot of them are married?” A: Like I said, they are not married.
27) “Will you erect a sign in stone somewhere in your building that says: ‘We proudly oppose marriage equality’ (so as to be permanent). Because I think it won’t be long before a lot of churches come around on this issue. They will have to, to not lose all their members.” A: I don’t erect signs in stone since I’m not a caveman, do you? And I cannot erect a sign in the church building because it is not mine. If I ever have the opportunity of running my own church group, I will erect a printed sign in a frame declaring my position on homosexuality, divorce/ remarriage, and other issues.
28) “What has your church done in memory of all the LGBT kids who committed suicide because of the bullying and suffering they experienced, largely at the hands of other Christians?” A: Sadly, nothing. But I myself have publicly complained about injustices toward gay and trans people. Secondly, you have no right to label everyone who mistreated an LGBTQ person as Christian, since you have nothing to back that up. Thirdly, what have *you* done in memory of the millions of straight people around the world who have suffered horrible abuses for various reasons? Answer: NOTHING.