Once I grew up and got over my immature misunderstandings about sexuality and gender, I began to see how wrong our rules were about things like marriage. I was raised with the privilege of being straight, so it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t be allowed to marry someone I fell in love with – I just could. Then, I began to learn about the freaky rules some states have about parental permission for teenagers to marry. It is shocking to see how many states still allow children under 18 to marry! And most of those states fought against same-sex marriage. Something I believed to be a simple matter of wanting to spend your life with someone you love is complicated by religious bigotry and ignorance.
The Southern Baptist Convention has decided to jump on the bias train and try to get the right for same-sex couples to marry overturned. They believe that the Supreme Court, which has had mixed results recently, from a rights point of view, is ripe for change in this area. The SBC’s reasoning, simply put, is that God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve – which, if they actually read Genesis 2, is not really true – and allowing LGBTQ people to marry is outside the realm of decency. They don’t seem to mind when heterosexual cheat and steal, but God forbid non-straight people pursue happiness. And don’t worry – marriage isn’t the only right they want to remove. Stay tuned.
I will never understand why people who say they follow Jesus are so committed to cruelty. In fact, their entire agenda is about instilling fear, inflicting pain, and infecting minds with lies. If it was okay for King David and Jonathan to be in love, it should be okay for other people too. If Jesus thought it was okay for eunuchs to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, it should be okay for other people too. This attempt to take away rights has nothing to do with God and everything to do with self-loathing, fear, and ignorance. If you don’t like same-sex marriage, don’t get same-sex married. Otherwise, as we used to say in New York, mind yer business! It isn’t your place or right to be the boss of anyone but yourself.
Prayer – Holy God, send Your Holy Spirit up us so that we can see love from Your perspective, not our own. Amen.
Today’s art is “David and Jonathan”, detail from window in St. Mark’s Portobello, Scotland.