“The court’s logic is persuasive.” So began The New York Times editorial in support of the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision that applies the rights and responsibilities of marriage to same-sex couples. Said the Times: “The ban [against gay marriage] is simply about prejudice, the court concluded, much like state laws barring interracial marriage, which lasted until 1967, when the Supreme Court struck them down in Loving v. Virginia.”
A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll finds that 35 percent of Americans oppose gay marriage, 32 percent approve and 32 percent say it doesn’t matter to them.
Andrew Sullivan says that, on marriage for gay people, “a number of more moderate and libertarian types … are not having the conniptions of the fundamentalist right.” He names some of these more moderate voices at www.AndrewSullivan.com. “It is simply untrue,” he says, “that non-lefties and non-liberals all oppose this reform.” He adds: “The president and vice-president have equally not engaged in the demonization of gay people that is becoming the core principle of far right groups like the Family Research Council.”
The Religious Right continues to mobilize for what one leader calls “the biggest issue” of the coming election: gay marriage. Says Sandy Rios of Concerned Women for America: “Americans cannot defend politicians who will not defend marriage.” Attacking the commitment of marriage for gay people, Focus on the Family’s Glenn Stanton asserts: “Marriage is a non-negotiable thing for human civilization.”
The Right is divided over strategy. A proposed Constitutional Amendment is too weakly-worded according to Don Wildmon of American Family Association. But according to Matt Daniels of the Alliance for Marriage, “There is no way [a more strongly worded amendment] could be ratified, ever. It is politically dead, a failure.”
Paul Cameron, another Right-wing antigay activist, says that federal judges “would make lamb stew of a marriage amendment in no time.”
In “Marriage and the Church” by Jin S. Kim, president of the conservative Presbyterians For Renewal, he writes: “The truth is, less than 2% [sic] of American households includes a person of homosexual orientation [he uses the “o” word], while some 50% of American households are affected by divorce.” Kim continues: “It is an indictment on the church that there appears to be no discernible distinction in the divorce rate between Christians and non-Christians. As a pastor, I have had the grace responsibility of counseling divorce when the marriage seemed too abusive. Yet the greater problem is the way that divorce has come to be normalized in the church, rather than being seen as the tragedy it is. In Mark 10:1-16 Jesus teaches in no uncertain terms that divorce violates God’s creative order, even as the Pharisees sought loopholes.” This Korean-American pastor makes his comments in PFR’s reNews, December 2003.
The Canadian Christian Reformed Church endorses the government’s recognition of same-sex partnerships to ensure equal legal protection to all citizens while it affirms marriage as a unique, God-ordained relationship between a man and a woman. This position of the theologically conservative denomination is outlined in Same-sex Unions: A Case for a Just Pluralism, a brief of the CRC’s Committee for Contact with the Government.
The Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa is taking another look at the Bible and homosexuality. According to Frits Gaum, editor of the DRC magazine, Die Kerkbode, “The DRC was more certain [in its 1986 conclusions] of exactly what the Bible said than they are today” and so a committee has been assigned to further study the issues. DRC moderator Coenie Burger says that while he cannot accept that a homosexual’s engaging in same-sex activity is right, he believes the church needs to show more sensitivity and love for homosexual members and not make their already difficult lives even more so.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, evangelical Anglican George Carey, says there’s nothing “sinister” about same-sex relationships. Interviewed by London’s Daily Telegraph, Carey added: “as long as we don’t call it marriage … there may well be a case for looking sympathetically at civil partnerships” for gay and lesbian couples.
A 7-point “Defense of Biblical Marriage” memo is making its way around cyberspace. The tongue-in-cheek advice for codifying marriage on biblical grounds comes complete with Bible proof texts. “A. Marriage in the United States shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women. (Gen 29:17; II Sam 3:2-5). B. Marriage shall not impede a man’s right to take concubines in addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21). C. A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed (Deut 22:13-21). D. Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be forbidden. (Gen 24:3; Num 25:1-9; Ezra 9:12; Neh 10:30). E. Since marriage is for life, neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any State, nor any state or federal law, shall be construed to permit divorce. (Deut 22:19; Mark 10:9). F. If a married man dies without children, his brother shall marry the widow. If he refuses to marry his brother’s widow or deliberately does not give her children, he shall pay a fine of one shoe and be otherwise punished in a manner to be determined by law. (Gen.38:6-10; Deut 25:5-10). G. In lieu of marriage, if there are no acceptable men in your town, it is required that you get your dad drunk and have sex with him (even if he had previously offered you up as a sex toy to men young and old), tag-teaming with any sisters you may have. Of course, this rule applies only if you are female. (Gen 19:31-36).”
Allegedly Bible-based bias against gay marriage echoes allegedly Bible-based bias against interracial marriage. A recent Letter to the Editor of Charisma illustrates this. A reader from Tennessee chides editor J. Lee Grady for saying that anyone who is afraid of letting his daughter marry outside her race is a racist. As Grady has his “scriptural” reasons for opposing intra-gender marriage [see Review, Fall 2003], the Tennessean has his “scriptural” reasons for opposing interracial marriage. Citing Ezra 9:1-4, he says: “You may think I am some racist, but I have given you Scripture to back up my beliefs.”
“The most difficult obstacle that the foes of gay marriage face is that no matter how they choose to frame their side of the debate – ‘traditional family values,’ ‘defense of marriage,’ ‘our Judeo-Christian heritage’ – they will be pitting a mere abstraction against millions of very real people across America who have told their friends and relatives and co-workers that they are gay.” This point is made by Adam Goodheart, a fellow at Washington College’s C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, in a New York Times Op-Ed piece (November 23). He notes that this “phenomenon [is] alien to the politics of race; rarely, alas, does a racist wake up one morning to discover that he has an African-American son or brother.”
Goodheart further observes: “Individual politicians’ stances on the issue may end up being determined as much by personal and family loyalties as by party affiliations. Republicans, after all, are as likely as Democrats to have gay children. Vice President Dick Cheney, who treats his lesbian daughter’s partner as a member of the family (the couple sat among the Cheneys and Bushes in the presidential box at his inauguration), came tantalizingly close to supporting gay marriage in a campaign debate in 2000.” He goes on to note that President Bush has “spoken publicly about the role that his gay friends and acquaintances have had in influencing his views on homosexuality.”
Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin has vetoed the state legislature’s passage of a bill defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The Democratic chief executive called the antigay act “divisive” and “mean-spirited.”
Says self-described “libcon” William Safire: “There should be no legal or economic discrimination against homosexuals anywhere in the U.S. And what is lawful in Vermont or Massachusetts should be recognized in every other state because we are one nation when it comes to basic rights, popular statutes to the contrary notwithstanding.”
Some heterosexual couples are postponing marriage to protest the fact that gay couples are not allowed to marry. Andrea Ayvanzian, dean of religious life at Mount Holyoke College, and Michael Klare, a professor and writer for The Nation, are one such couple. Says Ayvanzian, a minister in the United Church of Christ: “It’s like the days before the Civil Rights movement. If you got on the bus, there were white people in the front and black people in the back. This is just as clear – heterosexuals get married and gays and lesbians don’t.” She adds: “I want to have a real wedding, even if we’re 80. I’m holding out for that.”
It is not cheap to take such a stand, since economic policies favor legally married couples over those who are not.
According to the U.S. Census, 1.2 million Americans are in same-sex relationships while 9.8 million heterosexual Americans live with someone outside marriage. Among those who eventually marry, most (53 percent) have lived together first. The Gallup Poll finds that 45 percent of 20-somethings do not think the government should license marriage.
Gay and lesbian parents have no significant negative effect on the children they rear according to a study released in November by the Canadian Psychological Association. In addition, it was found that there is no empirical evidence to suggest that children reared by gay and lesbian parents will develop a homosexual orientation.
The laws of some 80 countries permit imprisonment, torture and execution of people for homosexuality. The U. S. House of Representatives has responded to this by introducing a bipartisan resolution against this situation has been introduced in the U. S. House of Representatives by Reps. Christopher Shays, R-CT and Tom Lantos, D-CA. According to human rights watch groups, Zambia and Zimbabwe are high on the list of such antigay countries.
“Ex-gay” movement leader Alan Chambers asserts: “For far too long the Christian Community has harped on homosexuality as if it was the greatest sin of all and on homosexuals as if they were the greatest of all sinners.” Writing in The Exodus Impact (November 203), Chambers continues: “Too many have a different set of standards for the homosexual sinner and the heterosexual sinner. Our outward actions have proven that it is far more acceptable to have heterosexual sex before marriage or a heterosexual adulterous affair than it is to even have a homosexual thought or temptation. We Christians have been outwardly ignorant and those struggling with or involved in homosexuality have gotten the message loud and clear: Christians are hypocritical when it comes to sexual sin.”
Anything But Straight is a new book on the “ex-gay” movement by the gay activist who caught “ex-gay” John Paulk in a Washington, D.C. gay bar and, in August, revealed the continuing high-risk homosexual activity of another “ex-gay” leader. Author Wayne R. Besen says: “The most important thing the book reveals is that these programs are ridiculous, they’re a failure, and they do nothing but destroy lives across the board. As one ex-gay in the book told me, there are no graduates, only dropouts.”
“Please Respect Our Choice” is the tag line of an “ex-gay” ad campaign in Washington, D.C. Metro stations. Under the slogan, “I CHOSE TO CHANGE,” ads read: “It may not be a choice you want to make, but you should know thousands of us already have.”
White evangelical Christians are the most likely to say they believe that homosexual orientation can be changed. The Pew Research Center finds that 73 percent of “highly committed” evangelicals believe sexual orientation can be changed.
But, as psychotherapist Ralph Blair points out, the real story is this: a quarter of these “highly committed” evangelicals did not claim to believe it! Besides, he says, “What evangelicals want to believe, think they should believe and will even say they believe and what they really do believe can be different.” He says: “Gay men in the ‘ex-gay’ movement know very well that they don’t change sexual orientation – and, more and more, they’re admitting it publicly.” Blair continues: “Heterosexual supporters of the “ex-gay” movement don’t believe it really works. Just ask any father in Evangelicaland how comfortable he’d be if his daughter announced she wanted to marry a guy who admits he used to be gay but now claims he’s ‘ex-gay’. Let’s be honest.”
A Baptist school in Denver has changed its gay policy to get vouchers. Silver State Baptist Church has changed its policy of threatening to expel openly gay students and so now qualifies for vouchers. The revised policy states that “premarital sex and sexual perversion, between opposite and/or same sex students” are grounds for expulsion. Under the new policy, a gay student would be allowed to attend school.
The Evangelical Women’s Caucus was split in 1984 over irreconcilable differences on issues of homosexuality. S. Sue Horner of North Park University has now written a history of that crisis, “Trying to be God in the World,” and it’s published in a collection of essays in Gender, Ethnicity, & Religion: Views for the Other Side, edited by Rosemary Radford Ruether (Fortress Press).
The Anglican Churches of Nigeria and Uganda have severed ties with the Episcopal Church USA over the ordination of the openly gay bishop in New Hampshire. They said they “deplore, abhor and condemn … this divisive and unscriptural act.” The two African churches have a combined membership of 25.5 million.
Anglicans in South East Asia have cut off relations with the U.S. branch of Anglicanism due to the “abomination” of New Hampshire’s new bishop. Among these Asian Anglicans are those in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Nepal.
The Russian Orthodox Church has announced it must “freeze its relations” with the Episcopal Church USA due to the ordination of the openly gay bishop. Condemning what it called “the perversion of human nature,” the Moscow Patriarchate insisted Bible passages that “condemn homosexuality are clear and unequivocal.”
Churches in Norway are flying flags in support of gay people. Vagan Church and Svolvaer Church in Norway have joined with other congregations around the world to display the rainbow banner of gay civil rights. The gesture is meant to assure gay and lesbian worshippers that they are welcome without prejudice.
Homosexuality is the product of white culture! This is the view of an Aboriginal church leader in Australia. Indigenous church leader Dennis Corowa says that homosexuality is not a part of Aboriginal culture and that it shames blacks.
First Presbyterian Church of Downers Grove, Illinois has ordered a gay music director to repent of his homosexuality or resign. He has left. A chaplain at the Darlington School in Rome, Georgia was asked to apologize to donors for his support of the openly gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire. He refused to do so and resigned.
William Jewell College has rejected the demands of the Missouri Baptist Convention to “fall in line” with the Convention’s Fundamentalism. One of the demands was that the Student Bill of Rights not be changed to forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation. The college’s refusal to comply is costing it nearly a million dollars. Five other Baptist institutions that now have set up their own governing boards are being taken to court by the Convention – regardless of Paul’s teachings against Christians suing other Christians (Rom 6). The Convention claims to be upholding “holiness, righteousness and godliness” while William Jewell’s president claims “the whole thing is about control.”
“Is the gay community too tolerant of the preaching of intolerance in religious settings?” This was the question posed in The Advocate Poll in early November. The Advocate is the nation’s leading GLBT magazine. Readers responses: 81% yes, 15% no, 4% undecided. Said one reader: “We wouldn’t be silent if we heard preachers spewing racial or ethnic rhetoric on Sundays. Our silence acts as our acceptance of the intolerant bigots in the pulpits.” Said another: “No special rights for ‘Christians’!” But another reader acknowledged: “Gays are entirely intolerant of anyone who disagrees with us. Our attitude is either you agree with me, or you hate me and would love to see me dead.”
Internationally-celebrated reggae stars are urging the beating, shooting and burning of gay people. In derogatory Jamaican patois, Bounty Killer, Elephant Man and Beenie Man all call for anti-gay violence.
The New York City Council has passed a resolution calling on Congress to honor Mychal Judge with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Judge is the New York Fire Department chaplain who was killed in the 9/11 terror attack at the World Trade Center. He’d removed his protective headgear while giving the last rites to a fallen rescue worker. Peter Gorman, president of the United Fire Officers’ Association said about Judge (who was gay): “I can honestly say if something good came out of September 11th it is that the world and the nation got to know Mychal Judge for his goodness, his faith, and his heart.”
The late Lewis B. Smedes was one of three Calvin Seminary alumni awarded the first-ever annual Alumni Award during this year’s seminary commencement activities. Smedes, who taught at Calvin College and Fuller Theological Seminary (which named a chair of Christian ethics in his honor), was also remembered in the Christian Reformed Church magazine, The Banner, in May. It displayed a portrait of Smedes and his wife on the cover and included a chapter from his posthumously published memoir, My God and I (William B. Eerdmans, 2003).
Smedes forthrightly supported gay and lesbian Christians. He was a keynoter at both the eastern and western summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned.
Presbyterian theologian Jack Rogers is scheduled to receive the 2004 Lazarus Award. The award is given by The Lazarus Project, a Presbyterian ministry “empowering gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and heterosexuals to love one another.” Rogers, who once served as moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA), has taught at Fuller Theological Seminary.
American Quakers have nominated a gay, HIV-positive South African for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. The American Friends Service Committee has nominated Zackie Achmat, who grew up as a Muslim in Cape Town and is known for his refusal to take AIDS drugs until they were also available to millions of his fellow South Africans. The South African government finally approved a plan to give free anti-retroviral drugs to all in need of them.
“The greatest weapon of mass destruction in the world right now is AIDS.” So says World Vision president Richard Stearns. This evangelical mission has launched the Hope Initiative to increase awareness of the AIDS crisis around the world.
Mortal Secrets: Truth and lies in the age of AIDS is a new book by Columbia University researchers on secrecy and sex among HIV-positive gay men. About a third of the men interviewed admitted that they lied to casual sex partners about their HIV status. One of the authors, psychiatrist Robert Klitzman, says: “I was horrified by some of the things people told me. … It led us to think about the importance of a code of sexual ethics.”
The Vatican’s message on World AIDS Day: “AIDS is a pathology of the spirit.” The pastoral letter condemned the use of condoms and spoke of the “importance of respecting the religious and moral values of sexuality.” An ad campaign by Catholics for a Free Choice, released on World AIDS Day, proclaimed: ‘We believe in God, we believe that sex is sacred; we believe in caring for each other; we believe in using condoms.”
The vice-president of Taiwan says AIDS is God’s “punishment on homosexuals.” Annette Lu told an AIDS forum that the “wrath of God” sent AIDS to distinguish men from animals. But she’s a bit behind the times. AIDS is killing millions of heterosexuals and their children all over the world while there are virtually no cases among lesbians.
AND FINALLY:
Political cartoonist Bob Gorrell’s take on marriage for gay people appeared in The New York Post on November 24. His cartoon pictured a dumpy man hunched over a bar, tie unloosened and drink in hand, muttering to nobody in particular: “Well if my own marriage is any predictor, they won’t be gay much longer!”
Dolly Parton, on Oprah on November 4th, was asked by Melissa Etheridge if she believes in same-sex marriage. Said Dolly: “Hell, yeah. Why shouldn’t you folks suffer like us?”
Meanwhile, Britain’s Plain English Campaign has given a doublespeak award to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his saying to a radio interviewer: “I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman.”