Our Mutual Joy
Newsweek has an interesting article about the religious objections to gay marriage, exploring what the Bible says (and more importantly does not say) about homosexuality and marriage.
A literal reading of the biblical rules regarding heterosexual marriage is incompatible with what many modern Christians would consider a marriage, so how can we reconcile ignoring rules specifically stating adulterers be stoned, yet cling to a vague passage or two with dodgy translations that might be about homosexuality? Jesus condemned divorce, yet about half of American marriages end in divorce.
There's even a bit of exploration into the idea that reading the Christian Bible in a modern light seems to make the rules pro gay marriage.
The practice of inclusion, even in defiance of social convention, the reaching out to outcasts, the emphasis on togetherness and community over and against chaos, depravity, indifference-all these biblical values argue for gay marriage. If one is for racial equality and the common nature of humanity, then the values of stability, monogamy and family necessarily follow. Terry Davis is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Hartford, Conn., and has been presiding over "holy unions" since 1992. "I'm against promiscuity-love ought to be expressed in committed relationships, not through casual sex, and I think the church should recognize the validity of committed same-sex relationships," he says.
A literal reading of the biblical rules regarding heterosexual marriage is incompatible with what many modern Christians would consider a marriage, so how can we reconcile ignoring rules specifically stating adulterers be stoned, yet cling to a vague passage or two with dodgy translations that might be about homosexuality? Jesus condemned divorce, yet about half of American marriages end in divorce.
There's even a bit of exploration into the idea that reading the Christian Bible in a modern light seems to make the rules pro gay marriage.
The practice of inclusion, even in defiance of social convention, the reaching out to outcasts, the emphasis on togetherness and community over and against chaos, depravity, indifference-all these biblical values argue for gay marriage. If one is for racial equality and the common nature of humanity, then the values of stability, monogamy and family necessarily follow. Terry Davis is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Hartford, Conn., and has been presiding over "holy unions" since 1992. "I'm against promiscuity-love ought to be expressed in committed relationships, not through casual sex, and I think the church should recognize the validity of committed same-sex relationships," he says.