What is the strongest theological argument in favor of same-sex marriage? The answer, I contend, is that such relationships are visible signs of God's grace -- an amazing kind of one-way love that is a pure gift and cannot be earned. I've come to this realization based upon over 20 years of being together with my husband Michael, through our ups and downs, and for better or for worse.
Same-sex marriages are sacramental because they are a reflection of the larger grace-filled relationship between God and humanity. The classical theological definition of a sacrament -- including baptism, eucharist and marriage -- is that it is a visible and external sign of God's invisible grace. Same-sex marriages are holy because they are vehicles in which we can experience and gain a deeper understanding of God's unearned and unmerited love for us.
Michael and I have experienced a healthy dose of grace in our relationship over the last two decades. First of all, falling in love itself is an act of grace. As most of us have discovered, one simply cannot force another person to fall in love with her or him (that is, outside of the world of Shakespearean comedies and magic love potions). Love -- whether same-sex or opposite-sex -- is a manifestation of God's amazing grace precisely because it cannot be planned or earned. Love is not just a matter of works, but rather of grace.
More importantly, however, my marriage with Michael has survived (and grown!) because of the grace, or unmerited gift, of forgiveness. Over the last two decades, we have both forgiven each other for transgressions big and small, despite the fact that the other might actually be at fault and not "deserve" to be forgiven. I believe these graced moments of forgiveness are a reflection of the larger grace that marks the fundamental relationship between God and humanity.
Indeed, as Augustine of Hippo and Martin Luther have reminded us, grace is the central theme of the Bible, and, for that matter, of Christian theology. The parable of the prodigal son -- who is accepted unconditionally by his father with open arms, despite leaving home, squandering his inheritance, and living with pigs -- is all about grace. Similarly, God's gift to us of making human flesh divine in the incarnation -- despite our propensity to turn our backs on God, from the Garden of Eden to the present -- is also about grace.
As a queer theologian, seminary professor, and ordained minister, I have witnessed the gift of God's amazing grace reflected in countless same-sex marriages and relationships over the years. These marriages -- some of which have lasted decades longer than mine -- are nothing short of miraculous in light of the hatred and rejection that many same-sex couples have experienced from their families, churches, work colleagues, and local communities.
It's surprising to me that the leaders of the religious right -- including Protestant fundamentalists, Roman Catholic bishops, and Mormon leaders -- have overlooked (or ignored) the centrality of grace in their reflections upon same-sex marriage. Their narrow definition of marriage, based upon procreation and the complementarity of sexual organs, is an insult to the larger Christian message about God's extravagant grace-filled relationship with humanity. By focusing so closely upon the trees, they lose sight of the larger forest that is God's amazing grace.
Ironically, by restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples, the religious right is acting just like the narrow-minded zealots who were condemned by St. Paul in his New Testament letters. (Such zealots insisted that Christians had to follow specific religious rules like circumcision in order to attain salvation.) The religious right is proclaiming a gospel of works and not of grace. Its myopic view of marriage is a failure of not only the theological imagination, but also of the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love.
It is time that we challenge the false dichotomy that same-sex marriage can only be supported on the basis of legal arguments, and that same-sex marriage must be opposed on the basis of the Christian faith. In my view, the strongest argument in support of same-sex marriage is that it is a visible and external sign of God's amazing grace -- that is, a one-way love that is pure gift and cannot be earned -- that flows extravagantly from God to humanity.
Follow Rev. Patrick S. Cheng, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/patrickscheng
Gay Marriage & Homosexuality - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Religion and homosexuality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Religious views on same-sex marriage - Wikipedia, the free ...
As born again Christian Jude reminds all of us "to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (born again Christian).
God will always forgive your sins, no matter what sin it is. But you need to "repent" and turn your life towards God.
The Amazing Grace of Same-Sex marriage article is definitely missing "forgiveness and repentance." God will forgive those who are in the homosexual lifestyle, if they repent.
Here I Stand..........I Can Do No Other. So Help Me God. AMEN !!
Obviously, and per the article, many Christians are on the side of love, too ---- my point is: it seems strange that Christians could have ever gotten to a place of disrespect, judgment, closed-mindedness and animosity following a religion that's ostensibly about the opposites of those qualities.
Whatever increases love, respect, harmony between people, kindness, community, etc.
.... is good.
It's not complicated.
Finally, the most important thing to remember (at least from a Christian perspective) in the marriage equality debate as I see it, is that we are not God. Jesus calls his disciples to radical love. He was the one who hugged lepers and dined with the so-called sinners. So all that is required on behalf of Christians is love even if there are theological disagreements about the holiness of same-sex sexuality.
But you do not need to have the sacrament of Matrimony to be married. And if you are, there is no sin. Just you're opinion (NOISE) to say that that is sin. No one is telling God to stay out of it. Many people have wised up that organized religion is mostly nonsense. Couples do not have any contact with any religion to have a life full of grace.
I keep having to teach people that Matrimony is a religious issue, but that is all it means. You only get the nifty expensive wedding to say that your religion of choice thinks you are married.
Civil Marriage has NOTHING to do with any Religion and that itself is what is on the table today. The bible is irrelevant to civil marriage. The only 'bible' is the US Constitution to be married in the eyes of the law.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
This is not just about the love between two individuals, but about the love we should all feel for each other.
Marriage is a unique and special institution for the uniqueness of the heterosexual relationship between one man and one woman (the man shall be the "husband of one wife", as Paul admonished). Marriage is NOT whatever one wants it to be just because people "love" each other.
Gay marriage is legal in several U.S. states, and in an increasing number of countries (Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa and Sweden).
Therefore, marriage is, observably, not "just between a man and a woman".
What I would "love" is every child having a mother and a father raising him/her. This is what everyone who loves kids would love.
My other nephew flirts with a life of hedonism due to his being convinced that God does not love him. They really filled his heart with their hate during his early childhood. You should have heard him sing the hymns before his family crushed his heart. I swear the angels sang with him. He doesn't sing much now.
I still hope on both of them. They are so filled with sweetness and compassion. They do so much charity and disinterested love by others. God is still in them despite the violence they have walked through. As you relay in this article, they are charged with God's grace. If they can just break out to a personal connection with God's love they will be fine.
Perhaps your books may help.