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The blog—informal opinions and chat about the parish

Thursday, July 2, 2015

More on Gay Marriage

You will notice that I tagged this post with "Doctrine." That's very brash and shaky on my part because I don't have the right to define it—I just want to report a little.

Gay marriage is one of those discussions that just won't die for a very long time. The Supreme Court ruling was supposed to settle things (though Texas and a few other states are fighting the idea) and our Bishop has sent out a letter, and now we should be able to move on to another issue. However, I suspect the discussion (and the unpleasantness) will continue for quite some time.

I am old enough that I grew up in an era when interracial marriage was illegal in many places. The landmark Supreme Court case concerned a couple that lived in Virginia, just across the river from my home in Maryland, and the judgment was handed down when I was in college. (Talk about "destroying traditional marriage"! At least for bigots!) I also remember that movies such as the Oscar-nominated Guess Who's Coming to Dinner were illegal in my home state because it showed an interracial couple.

I think there are a lot of parallels with the gay marriage discussion.

Law: The Supreme Court interracial marriage decision wasn't exactly welcome in many states. In Alabama, for example, local judges continued to enforce the anti-miscegenation laws for another three years, and it wasn't until 2000 that the anti-miscegenation language was removed from the state constitution (33 years). Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion for the unanimous Supreme Court majority in this decision, and for years home-made "Impeach Earl Warren" billboards appeared along Maryland highways.

Faith: Like most segregation laws, the anti-miscegenation laws were said to have a divine mandate. In fact, the lower court that upheld Virginia's law based its opinion mainly on theology and on the idea of God's providence in placing peoples of different colors in different places. It took a while for churches and religious people to catch up (and some still have not).

Personal emotions: Growing up where/when I did, I never saw an interracial couple. And as time went on and I began meeting a few, there was always an involuntary twitch somewhere in my brain, saying, "This just isn't right." It still reappears at times, and I just have to tell that twitch that it is wrong.

The parallels with gay marriage are really vivid here. The law of the land has changed, though it will take years for everyone to adapt local regulations to the national law. Bible-based argument against gay marriage and acceptance of gay people was always very thin, and one by one even the most conservative scholars are beginning to understand that. What really remains for Christians is dealing with the "ick factor"—the personal emotions we experience.

Down through 21 centuries, the church has had to deal with a lot of times when doing what was right just didn't feel good. This might be another one of those for some of us.

NOTE: Here's an article by an Episcopal priest, The Church is the Next Frontier, which really nails the topic.

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