Marriage Equality

This article on Religion Dispatches caught my attention.  I am a person that does not think that same sex marriage between consenting adults is a threat to my 21 year marriage.  There are many on the other side of that debate from where I am.  There are many “isms” in our world and this is one that I trust during my lifetime finally dissolves from public debate.  I oppose amendments to federal or state constitutions that legislate discrimination.  It is hard to change a person’s mind.  It is something each person comes to on her or his own terms.  Living, education, life experience, and relationship are all part of a person growing, evolving, and changing positions.  Some change is pragmatic while other personal change has something to do with universal Truth.

Here is a bit of the interview.  Click the title to read or listen to the entire interview.

“I ‘Came Out’ For Marriage Equality”: An Anti-Gay Activist Changes His Mind
By Welton Gaddy | Religion Dispatches | May 25, 2011

One of the most frustrating things about today’s political rhetoric is the entrenched nature of those who argue any side of an issue. Political leaders and the media provide a bounty of messages to support a position, and it is profoundly easy to consume only opinions one already agrees with.

There are times that it feels as if we are at a permanent stalemate regarding some of the biggest issues facing our society and our nation.

That is precisely why I was fascinated to read, early last month, that a respected, successful strategist and activist for a prominent issue dared to grapple with his own conscience and, despite a good deal of fear and concern, publicly distance himself from the work he had been doing.

The activist is Louis J. Marinelli, and the issue is marriage equality.

In the summer of 2010, it was impossible not to see headlines about the Summer of Marriage Tour, as powerful messages opposing same-gender marriage proliferated online and with a physical traveling bus tour.

When so much of today’s activism is spoken of in terms of war and battle, with a faceless enemy determined to destroy all that’s good, how does one come to see opponents as individual human beings, people of value and worth, deserving of respect and consideration, of empathy and even support?

, 05/26/2011. Category: Culture, DOC Thoughts, Guest Column, Youth Ministry.

Theological Weather Forecasting

Back in April I was watching a storm chaser doing what they do, live, and during a pause he said, “Weather events can cause tragedy.  People think of tornadoes and weather as evil.  They are, it is not, not evil.  This is how the planet balances itself.  We don’t really know why, but it happens.  People are just in the way sometimes of the planet balancing itself.”  This article from Religion Dispatches caught my attention.  I don’t often watch the 700 Club or listen to Focus on the Family where one might readily hear this kind of “punishment theology”, but Robertson and his ilk must be keeping a low profile because the national news media have not booked him or others to talk about the sin of Midwestern states or that of the South that are causing the bad weather and flood waters.

Tornado Hits the Heartland: Is God Punishing Us?
By Jay Michaelson

The city of Joplin, Missouri is in ruins today, the most recent casualty of the worst storm season in more than half a century. In April, tornadoes ripped through Alabama, and swaths of greater Memphis spent part of early May underwater thanks to record-high flooding of the Mississippi river. If you didn’t know better, you’d think this was some kind of Divine punishment visited upon the South—and now the Midwest, the American heartland.

Which is funny, because when earthquakes struck Haiti, wildfires burned Israel, and a tsunami drenched much of Indonesia, plenty of religious leaders didn’t know better. Remember? How Pat Robertson blamed the Haitian earthquake on an 18th century pact with the devil? Or when Sephardic Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Ovadia Yosef blamed Israel’s latest bout of wildfires on secular Israelis not keeping the Sabbath? Or how about the time some Christian fundamentalists said that he 2005 tsunami in Indonesia was punishment for, in the words of one, “worldliness, materialism, hedonism, uncleanness and pleasure-seeking”? Where are these self-proclaimed prophets of Godly vengeance now? Do storms only evince heavenly displeasure when they land on blue states?

, 05/23/2011. Category: Culture, Guest Column, Theological Rant.
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