Last week, a friend, colleague and wonderful pastor, Rev. Jean Southard, faced the highest court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) after being accused of violating her ordination vows and the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by presiding at the wedding of two women.
The facts of the case -- that Rev. Southard had performed a marriage for two women -- were not up for debate. Instead, it was Scripture and church polity that the defense, prosecution and commissioners looked to. After two days of deliberation, the court decided that Rev. Southard was innocent of all charges.
So, why is this notable?
In the last 40 years, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights movement has made huge strides toward full equality and inclusion. As another dear friend and colleague, Elder Michael Adee, puts it, "discrimination against the LGBT community was like a three-legged stool." The first leg classified same-gender love as a mental illness -- until the American Psychiatric Association removed this classification in 1973. The second leg criminalized same-gender love -- until in 2003 the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court decision struck down these laws. Only one leg of the stool is regarded by many as still standing -- that same-gender love is a sin.
This third leg of the stool is wobbling, ready to fall. The truth is that if there was anything close to a rule against same-gender marriage in the Bible, Rev. Southard would have been found guilty last week, as would the other ministers who have been compelled by their faith to marry same-gender couples and went before her to church court -- and were acquitted.
What the Bible does say is that God has called all creation very good. In other words, God makes all kinds of people and loves the diversity of humankind.
What the Bible does say is that we are not meant to live alone. God creates LGBT people, knowing them in their mothers' wombs, and declares them good. And in Genesis, the Lord said, "it is not good that the man should live alone; I will make him a helper as his partner." The loving relationships and families forged by LGBT people are gifts to them from God because they, just like all humans, are not meant to live alone. And these families of choice that include friends, sometimes, and, more and more, children, are beautiful gifts from God to our communities.
What the Bible does say is that God is love. Out of this love, God enters into covenantal promises with Noah, with Abraham, with Israel, with Jesus' disciples, with the world. More than any other Biblical material dealing with marriage, these loving covenants in Scripture are the foundation for our current understanding of marriage as a long-term commitment between two people to support one another, build families together and up build their communities together.
When we open our eyes to our neighbors, we recognize gay and lesbian couples whose lives bear all the qualities we recognize as marriage. God's love as expressed in the Bible has led us to our present conception of marriage as a bond of loving commitment.
What the Bible does say is that God can help us see new things where we were blind before. For example, God inspires us to use the covenantal pledge of fidelity between two women, Ruth and Naomi, as the second most-read Bible passage at weddings. The first most-read is 1 Corinthians 13, the ode to love which, of course, was not written as a primer for marriage but can serve well as one. When we know same gender couples whose marriages and whose service in our communities epitomize the qualities of love captured by the Apostle Paul, we must stand up for the revelation that God has inspired us to see.
What the Bible does say is that judgment belongs to God. Period. Jesus said it many times: Judge not that ye be not judged. The faithful thing to do according to Scripture is to listen to and to love your neighbor as yourself. We are to examine the log in our own eye long before we have the audacity to point out the speck in the other's eye.
Progressives of faith need not flee from the Bible in order to stand up for the beauty, truth and goodness of love. Let's stand on Scripture -- the examples I have given and more you can supply -- as we knock away the feeble lie claiming that same gender love is a sin. Let's gain strength from the witness of Rev. Southard and the acquittal that upholds the wedding she performed. Let's complete the work needed to flatten the three-legged stool of prejudice against LGBT people. God is giving us this job to do. We sin when we shirk it.
Follow Rev. Dr. Janet Edwards on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RevJanetEdwards
Johann Hari: How Can Conservatives Object to Protecting Gay Kids?
Gay Marriage: Our Mutual Joy - Newsweek
What the Bible Says - And Doesn't Say - About Homosexuality
The Bible and Gay Marriage - Newsweek
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
Leviticus 18:22; 20:13
Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
>And in Genesis, the Lord said, "it is not good that the man should live alone; I will make him a helper as his partner."
That partner to a man was a woman. She needs to stop taking parts of the Bible and leaving out the ones that don't fit her view.
Equality is for every human being…how unintelligent are some of these leaders to compare beastiality and children marrying older men as a comparison for gay equality. Don’t they know we are talking about equal rights for adult human beings! What do animals and children have to do with adult equality? Next it will be against policy for the ill to marry a healthy person! Most people agree that we are all creations of God. Aren’t we a proud nation?!!!!
No the truth is that some religious bodies are more suceptible to the blowing winds of moral relativism.
Even accepting for those who argue translative errors in the Bible, almost everyone can be clear that there are no scriptures which mention any support of same-sex marriage. To suggest that it does is purely intrepretative and modernistic revisionism.
but a boy can't marry a boy.
Just a thought (oh, and I don't believe in the Bible ;]).
Marriage is marriage.
Furthermore, the canon of scripture is a product of humans getting together to decide what was in and what was out. Scripture is part of tradition and that places authority with the church. For 300 years, there was no New Testament as a canon of books. No one who wrote a letter or a gospel expected them to be placed within a collection. I see scripture as holy, but it is not absolute in every case. For example, in Romans 1, Paul calls homosexual relations unnatural. Well, Paul had no concept of genetics or of being born naturally homosexual. All of my homosexual friends can't remember ever liking the opposite sex and it's obvious that it didn't happen over time. It's not a disease or psychological mishap. Therefore, it is natural and Paul was wrong. What should be upheld as valid interpretation should be the interpretations found in the creed and the ecumenical councils.
Genesis 2:...But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 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 then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
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.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Jesus reiterates Gods design.
Matthew 19 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
If God made Adam another man we would be done, and if he did not give man a choice between good and evil, choosing good would be...meaningless.
I do not claim to be without sin.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer penned the words, "Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate"
Who can live like Jesus did? All of Jesus' life demonstrated obedience to God, and that obedience was manifested above all in his death on the cross. Again, the point is not that we must manifest perfect obedience in all that we do. Rather we are to reflect on our lives, asking whether our thoughts, words and deeds show that our primary allegiance is to the God who is light.
KD, Do you understand what Christ did. I am assuming from a previous post you have read through the OT, and then can only assume you read through the NT as well.
Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
My sins are not atoned by sacrificing unblemished animals, Christ stepped in to be the sacrifice for our sins. I do have in my heart to follow God's commands starting with his greatest, and then his second, and then everything seems to come in order.
I'll tell you why it doesn't make sense. God didn't sit down with a pen and paper and write out the Bible. Men with their own agendas did. Whether God came to them or not the fallible constructed the Bible. The fallible put all of these thoughts and rules and laws and restrictions down masking it with unconditional love and grace without regard to the hatred that would ensue because of it. It's agenda serving at it's finest. It's man claiming undeserved power by selecting who can receive God's forgiveness and unconditional love. Most importantly, it's a lie. But the blinders are coming off.
I am a Gay man who is so grateful that you are willing to advocate for LGBT people!
I am also grateful that even though you are a "Level 2 Community Moderator" you chose to engage Luna Searles in dialogue rather than censuring his/her comment!
I just don't understand how your advocacy is any different from Luna who says that…
God "loves LGBTs but what does that love mean if he can't accept them for who they choose to love? I know homosexuals that live the way God asks and many of them love even more fiercely and unconditionally than heterosexual people I know. So, because they chose to spend their lives with someone of the same sex they're undeserving of his forgiveness? How does that make sense? How is that fair?"
From my perspective, you, Luna Searles and I are all saying the same thing. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I have to fan you AND Luna Searles for advocating for Love -- which is divine!
--ez
Married couples get tax, SS and other benefits, paid for by single people. Now that gays can get in on it, we'll call it "equal rights". Here's a thought: why not go like Sweden and other countries, and get government out of the marriage business? Idea: pass a law that prohibits discrimination based on marital status. It leaves the issue of marriage to the church or conscience, where it belongs.
It should be left up to the people involved and their churches if they choose to marry in a church.
The government should be concentrating on the economy and not on private matters.
Something I always like to bring up (many people find this argument far-fetched - but I like to think that it makes a lot of sense) is this:
The religious tend to argue that gay marriage tarnishes the sanctity of marriage, yes? For marriage is supposedly a religious bond, yes? Then I'm wondering why two heterosexual atheists can get married...and no one says a thing.
Another thing...if I were to take a black Sharpie and draw a solid line over all of the laws in Leviticus that we, as a people, completely ignore...I'd have a solid black page save for that one line: "Man shall not lay with man, for it is an abomination." Whenever I bring this up, someone always says, "But times have changed!" Yes! Times HAVE changed! So let's give gays their rights!
Matthew 19:1-8 (talking about the union of man and woman)
Romans 1:18-32 (EXTREMELY obvious, when talking about homosexuality, and what it was "worthy" of, in verses 26, 27, and then in 32.. talking about how even knowing it was against God's will, they still do it, and enjoy it all the same)
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (speaking indirectly of the sins of Romans 1:18-32, and that those guilty of those sins, can still be forgiven)
Galatians 6:19
Titus 1:16 (a scripture to be looked at by those who say the Bible approves of homosexuality, even after reading some of the obvious verses against it)
Jude 1:4,7,19 (verse 7 for those who say Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction was due to "inhospitality")
Again.. back to my primary point.. the argument that the Bible supports homosexuality, is flawed from the start.
Leviticus paraphrased, Man shall not lie with another man as he does with a woman. Okay I got that, You cannot be gay. But where does it say that a woman cannot lie with a woman. It would appear that sexually women are more free to be Lesbian, Bi, or Straight. Please include links to the relevant scriptures that states women cannot be lesbian, thanks!
These are your own words from a previous post:
**"In any case, I don't really care what they mean at all because I'm not interested in following Biblical rules that were intended for the Levites. However, I do intend to throw doubt on the prevailing interpretations because they are what are used to deny human rights to your fellow human beings.”**
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Angel1999/the-bible-supports-samege_b_825157_78478726.html