Same-sex marriage, right or wrong?

This is a tough topic for me to speak up on. I don't have the words to convince anyone that it is wrong, but I know in my heart that the Lord is saddened by what has become of marriage in some U.S. states.

Four states in the United States allow same-sex marriages. Massachusetts has allowed same-sex marriage since 2004. Connecticut since Nov. 2008. Iowa and Vermont passed laws this month allowing same-sex marriages.

46 states have laws that ban same-sex marriage. At one time, same-sex marriages were legal in California but the voters of that states approved Proposition 8 which made same-sex marriages in that state illegal.

But what does the Lord say about marriage? Does He have what the current day would call an 'opinion' about the subject. The Bible mentions marriage 49 times. 39 of the verses specifically talk about opposite-sex marriages, either about a father giving up his daughter in marriage. or in some way refer to a man and a woman. The remaining verses are about the marriage laws of the Jewish people (they were not to marry outside of their faith) or about marriage after the resurrection.

Just a few examples of those verses are:

• Laban replied, "It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. Genesis 29:26
• Sheshan gave his daughter in marriage to his servant Jarha, and she bore him Attai. 1 Chronicles 2:35
• Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage,so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Jeremiah 29:6

The Lord provides a pretty good definition of marriage in that last verse... "Find wives for your sons and give your daughters...", "Increase in number...". How can same-sex marriage result in an increase in number? Children are not naturally possible from a marriage of two people of the same sex. Sorry folks but it is simple not possible.

But there is one section of the Bible that, to me, is even more compelling. In Genesis 2, the Lord created Adam and had Adam name all the living creatures on the Earth. It was the Lord's desire to find a helper for Adam.

"But for Adam no suitable helper was found. ²¹ So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. ²² Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

²³ The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman,'
for she was taken out of man."

²⁴ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh."

The Lord Himself presided over that first marriage. It was He that chose to create a woman for Adam. It was and still is His will that marriage be between a man and a woman. How do I know this? His own word, the Holy Bible, tells me so. How can something that contradicts God's actions be right? It can't be.

I don't condemn anyone for their views on this topic. Nor do I hate anyone who is homosexual or involved in a same-sex relation. It is my fervent prayer that the Lord would move within their hearts and bring them close to Him. It is through that relationship with the Lord that things will be made right.