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Dreary day. Spent much of it indoors, eating too much, reading the Barack Obama book, and watching tv - specifically my DVD of the BSG miniseries, the Torchwood episode entitled Adrift (we are three episodes behind in the States), and Mad Men, which is almost too deep for my overstressed brain to deal with at the moment but at the same oddly gripping. I find myself fascinated by Donald Draper, Peggy, and Vincent Karthesier's disenchanted ambitious married ad exec who can't figure out what it is he wants, jealous and resentful of what other's have.
At any rate, I read this passage in Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama this morning that I wanted to share, for reasons that should be apparent when you read it. Say what you will about Obama, he is certainly a thoughtful individual.
For many practicing Christians, the same inability to compromise [he was talking about abortion] may apply to gay marriage. I find such a position troublesome, particularly in a society in which Christian men and women have been known to engage in adultery or other violations of their faith without civil penalty. All too often I have sat in a church and heard a pastor use gay bashing as a cheap parlor trick - "IT was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!" he will shout, usually when a sermon is not going so well. I believe that American society can choose to carve out a special place for the union of a man and a woman as the unit of child rearing most common to every cultur. I am not willing to have the state deny American citizens a civil union that confers equivalent rights on such basic matters as hospital visitation or health insurance coverage simply because the people they love are of the same sex - nor am I willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount.
Perhaps I am sensitive on this issue because I have seen the pain my own carelessness has caused. Before my election, in the middle of my debates with Mr. Keyes, I received a phone call from one of my strongest supporters. She was a small business owner, a mother, and a thoughtful, generous person. She was also a lesbian who had lived in a monogamous relationship with her partner for the last decade.
She knew when she decided to support me that I was opposed to same-sex marriage, and she had heard me argue that, in the absence of any meaningful consensus, the heightened focus of marriage was a distraction from other, attainable measures to prevent discrimination against gays and lesbians. Her phone message in this instance had been prompted by a radio interview she had heard in which I had referenced my religious traditions in explaining my position on the issue. She told me that she had been hurt by my remarks; she felt that by bringing her religion into the equation, I was suggesting that she, and others like her, were somehow bad people.
I felt bad, and told her so in a return call. As I spoke to her I was reminded that no matter how much Christians who oppose homsexuality may claim that they hate the sin but love the sinner, such a judgement inflicts pain on good people - people who are made in the image of God, and who are often truer to Christ's message than those who condemn them. And I was reminded that it is my obligation, not only as an elected official in a pluralistic society but also as a Christian, to remain open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided, just as I cannot claim infallibility in my support of abortion rights. I must admit that I may have been infected with society's prejudices and predilections and attributed them to God; that Jesus' call to love one another might demand a different conclusion; and that in years hence I may be seen as someone who was on the wrong side of history. I don't believe such doubts make me a bad Christian. I believe they make me human, limited in my understandings of God's purpose and therefore prone to sin. When I read the Bible, I do so with the belief that it is not a static text but the Living Word and that I must continually be open to new revelations - whether they come from a lesbian friend or a doctor opposed to abortion.
This is not to say that I'm unanchored in my faith. There are some things that I'm absolutely sure about - the Golden Rule, the need to battle cruelty in all its forms, the value of love and charity, humility and grace.
( my own philosophical/religious musings on the topic )
At any rate, I read this passage in Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama this morning that I wanted to share, for reasons that should be apparent when you read it. Say what you will about Obama, he is certainly a thoughtful individual.
For many practicing Christians, the same inability to compromise [he was talking about abortion] may apply to gay marriage. I find such a position troublesome, particularly in a society in which Christian men and women have been known to engage in adultery or other violations of their faith without civil penalty. All too often I have sat in a church and heard a pastor use gay bashing as a cheap parlor trick - "IT was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!" he will shout, usually when a sermon is not going so well. I believe that American society can choose to carve out a special place for the union of a man and a woman as the unit of child rearing most common to every cultur. I am not willing to have the state deny American citizens a civil union that confers equivalent rights on such basic matters as hospital visitation or health insurance coverage simply because the people they love are of the same sex - nor am I willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount.
Perhaps I am sensitive on this issue because I have seen the pain my own carelessness has caused. Before my election, in the middle of my debates with Mr. Keyes, I received a phone call from one of my strongest supporters. She was a small business owner, a mother, and a thoughtful, generous person. She was also a lesbian who had lived in a monogamous relationship with her partner for the last decade.
She knew when she decided to support me that I was opposed to same-sex marriage, and she had heard me argue that, in the absence of any meaningful consensus, the heightened focus of marriage was a distraction from other, attainable measures to prevent discrimination against gays and lesbians. Her phone message in this instance had been prompted by a radio interview she had heard in which I had referenced my religious traditions in explaining my position on the issue. She told me that she had been hurt by my remarks; she felt that by bringing her religion into the equation, I was suggesting that she, and others like her, were somehow bad people.
I felt bad, and told her so in a return call. As I spoke to her I was reminded that no matter how much Christians who oppose homsexuality may claim that they hate the sin but love the sinner, such a judgement inflicts pain on good people - people who are made in the image of God, and who are often truer to Christ's message than those who condemn them. And I was reminded that it is my obligation, not only as an elected official in a pluralistic society but also as a Christian, to remain open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided, just as I cannot claim infallibility in my support of abortion rights. I must admit that I may have been infected with society's prejudices and predilections and attributed them to God; that Jesus' call to love one another might demand a different conclusion; and that in years hence I may be seen as someone who was on the wrong side of history. I don't believe such doubts make me a bad Christian. I believe they make me human, limited in my understandings of God's purpose and therefore prone to sin. When I read the Bible, I do so with the belief that it is not a static text but the Living Word and that I must continually be open to new revelations - whether they come from a lesbian friend or a doctor opposed to abortion.
This is not to say that I'm unanchored in my faith. There are some things that I'm absolutely sure about - the Golden Rule, the need to battle cruelty in all its forms, the value of love and charity, humility and grace.
( my own philosophical/religious musings on the topic )
