The main reason is not what Obama put forth: that Jesus said we should treat others as we would like to be treated, although that is a nice sentiment. And it's not the fact that, as surprising as this is to some, Jesus is not quoted anywhere in the Bible as having ever said anything about the issue of homosexuality (you'd think that if God cared that much about it, he'd have his son say a word or two).
No, the main reason someone can be a Christian supporter of marriage equality is that no good Christian, even a conservative Christian, does what many claim to do: believe and follow every word of the Bible. Passages we find immoral in the Bible, we can happily and proudly ignore. We can therefore call the homophobic passages in the Bible for what they are -- antiquated B.S.
"You cannot cherry-pick what you like and don't like from the Bible," people calling themselves conservative Christians will say. But let's put this to rest once and for all. Here are some Bible versus that you cannot believe in and call yourself good at the same time:
"Deuteronomy 13:6If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; 7Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; 8Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: 9But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
Deuteronomy 13: 13Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; 14Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you; 15Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword." (source: www.guidetosalvation.com)
In these passages, God is not saying that He shall punish nonbelievers for these crimes. He is explicitly commanding Christians to murder people and whole cities. Good Christians have found ways to ignore those passages. It follows that if their conscience tells them gays and lesbians should be treated fairly that the anti-gay passages in the Bible should not trump the morality they feel in their gut.
Let's put this another way: People who DO believe in and follow every word of the Bible are not called "conservative Christians," they are called "terrorists" and "murderers." So unless you are such an extreme Christian fundamentalist that you feel fine about bombing cities of non-Christians just because they are non-Christians, ignoring immoral homophobic passages in the Bible shouldn't be that difficult for you.
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