Thank you for your heartfelt words and while I can’t donate money ( I literally have 2 dollars in my bank account), I have been talking to my grandma in Florida, and my family in California about these amendments. Thankfully my Grandma is already in opposition to the amendment, but my Uncle is taking a little longer.

ex: “in abstentia”…correct: “in absentia”

;)

As a Christian, even though you don’t live in one of these states, you may feel called to act in ways you find acceptable with the teachings of Christ and the acts of the apostles.

For some Christians, salvation is achieved through good works and faith, although some Christians have differing opinions on the topic of salvation and don’t necessarily equate good works with it. That’s a legitimate discourse, however – good works seems to me to be a good default regardless of belief or theology.

I think also by studying with an open mind and thirst for knowledge the origins of the Church, the authentic gospel of Jesus, the historical Jesus, the history of Judea in the first century under Roman rule, Jewish and Roman cultural norms during the era of Christ, and the evolution and translation of the modern bible (Hebrew bible and New Covenant), you gain a deeper and more authoritative knowledge than your typical “bible-thumper” who quotes scripture out of context in order to further a prejudice that they base in the bible.

For example, anti-gay Christians who seek to cite New Testament (aka “New Covenant”) scripture to show homosexuality as especially sinful use passages in Romans and 1&2 Timothy. Both of these references are highly disputed, especially Romans.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibc.htm

Also, many anti-gay Christians either overlook or are unaware the passage in Matthew 8 regarding Jesus healing the Centurion’s “servant”, which the Centurion was distraught over. Anyone who has studied Roman history would immediately find this extremely odd – that a Roman citizen would feel anything at all for a slave, since slaves were viewed as lower than animals and Roman citizens were quite use to slaves being slaughtered for entertainment.

In fact, the original Greek calls this person in Matthew a “pais”, which the Greeks would know as the younger lover of an older man.

Jesus, upon witnessing the Centurion’s grief over his lover and the extraordinary faith of, not a Jew like Jesus and his disciples, but a Gentile (!) to follow Christ rewards him and heals the youth. There is no condemning. No reservations. Jesus rewards those who have faith, blesses them, and – even more radically – rewards the loved ones of the faithful “in abstentia”.

BTW as a Texan I can’t vote on any of these amendments, sometimes I feel like the hearts and minds phase of the Texas race for equality is 10 marathons strung together.