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Church Lags Behind, Again
Whether marriage is a function of the state or the religious institution is not the issue, since the two have been so deeply intertwined for so long. Every minister or rabbi acts as an agent of the state when he or she performs a wedding ceremony and signs the state’s official marriage license.
What is the issue is whether or not the state has the right to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples. The California Supreme Court has stated that they do not and I rejoice in that.
I now hear people saying that this issue ought to be the subject of a referendum and the tired old cliché is being trotted out that these are activist judges “making law from the bench.” That is absolute poppycock. The job of the courts in a constitutional democracy is to protect the rights under the law of all citizens. One does not subject constitutional rights to the prejudices of the general population. That is the rule of the mob. Mobocracy and democracy are not the same. We heard the same thing in the days of the civil rights movement as people, who had historically violated the constitutional rights of our black citizens, wanted to subject those rights to majority vote. That is nothing except bigotry, either racism or homophobia, with the hope that their prejudice is still a majority viewpoint in the society.
California and Massachusetts are leading the way. New Jersey is just one step away. In a decade this issue will be settled in terms of equality before the law for gay and lesbian people.
As usual the religious institutions will lag behind. Churches fought the suffrage movement that finally won for women the right to vote in presidential elections. Churches resisted desegregation until their opposition was dismissed for the racism it was. Churches are today the last bastion of homophobia in its resistance of the rights of our gay and lesbian citizens. Their typical weapon is to quote the Bible. Of course a review of history will reveal that this tactic has lost every battle in which it has been used. The church quoted the Bible to oppose the Magna Carta and to support the divine right of kings. The church lost. The church quoted the Bile to oppose Galileo and to support a flat earth at the center of the universe. The church lost. The church quoted the Bible in defense of slavery, segregation and apartheid. The church lost. It quoted the Bible to deny women equal education, equal opportunity and equal status before the law. The church lost. The church quoted the Bible to oppose evolution and the work of Charles Darwin. The church lost. Today the church quotes the Bible to defend its rampant and dishonest homophobia. The church will lose this battle also.
John’s Gospel had Jesus declare that his purpose was to bring life to all people abundantly. Perhaps the church ought to look at its sorry record of using the Bible to diminish the humanity of one group of its victims after another or to descend to the moral pits represented by Pope Benedict XVI, who persists in defining homosexuality as deviant and abnormal, despite massive evidence to the contrary. Perhaps the Vatican has forgotten they did the same thing to left-handed people just a century ago. The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who places ecclesiastical unity above both truth and justice, is one more example of moral ineptitude.
The time has come for churches to face the dark side of their own contribution to human ignorance and prejudice. The laws of this nation will give equality to homosexual people. The blessing of the churches will be conveyed to gay and lesbian couples. There is no doubt about this. The only thing in question is how many more people will be victimized by ecclesiastical homophobia before enlightened leadership appears that will first apologize to our victims for our negative history and, second, lead this nation into a new understanding of our essential humanity, which comes in black and white forms, in male and female forms, and in gay and straight forms. I will rejoice to see that day. It is not far away.
By
John Shelby Spong
|
May 27, 2008; 4:15 PM ET
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Posted by: Brian | June 8, 2008 11:33 AM
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"Scandinavian Lutheran" sees Spong as a prophet. Let's see. Sweden has implemented pretty much all of Spong's heresies, er, recommendations. The result? A once Christian nation now has about 1% of its population in church on a given Sunday. (Of course that is probably little old ladies, thus the newer generations are lost entirely.) More evidence that Spong preaches death to Christianity.
Posted by: robroy | May 29, 2008 5:45 PM
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HAMMERHEAD:
**Have you noticed that all of these television ads for medications to prevent the spread of herpes,all include a disclaimer that their claims are good for heterosexual contact only?
And with good scientific reason.
If these pharmacutical companies thought they could rake the homosexual cash in to they would.**
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The drug companies are playing CYA. The ads don't say the drugs are effective for heterosexual contact only. They say they have only been specifically tested in heterosexual situations. That doesn't mean that the newest herpes drug, for example won't work for gay men with herpes; there's no reason to think it wouldn't. You'll notice that the impotence drug commercials only feature hetero couples as well - that doesn't mean that they won't work for gay men. The drug doesn't care what your orientation is,, any more than the disease does.
**A marriage license issued to people who statisitically,per capita,have a sexual disease rate that is off the charts compared to heterosexuals,is no more a "constitutional right"
as a drivers license is to a habitual drunk driver.**
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Promiscuity is not a behavior limited to gay men. No one at the Clerk of Courts office asked about our STD histories or how many previous partners either of us had when my husband and I bought our marriage license. My state no longer even requires a blood test for a marriage license.
All they asked for was ID and exact cash.
And just so you know, the greatest increase in HIV cases is cuurently among heterosexuals.
Posted by: Lepidopteryx | May 29, 2008 2:21 PM
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John Shelby Spong´s opinions would have been close to the mainstream in Sweden, but to speak up like he has done for so long in the cultural climate of the US (where I have spent close to a year) is nothing short of brave.
In the bishop I see a prophete. God (love) commands him.
Posted by: Scandinavian lutheran | May 29, 2008 5:24 AM
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"Maybe people who left would have stayed if the church were more open to the realities of modern life."
Spong was on the "cutting edge" of liberalization. If you were a straight white male, forget about ordination.
And his legacy lives on. The diocese, which was swept clean of orthodoxy by Spong's pogrom, is now declaring itself to be essentially bankrupt. See the treasurer's report http://tinyurl.com/6mjcm7 from two weeks ago.
Again, if you would like to kill the Church follow Spong's advice. If you would like the church to prosper, do the opposite.
Posted by: robroy | May 28, 2008 6:40 PM
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Robroy - Let's say your statistics on Spong's church are factual and accurate (you don't cite your source). Maybe the people who left would have stayed if the church were more open to the realities of modern life.
Posted by: E Favorite | May 28, 2008 10:32 AM
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ECLAT{ARiANiTY} is where Ye Are Destined to Go-eth, Do not be ye in Denial..., else..!
Posted by: Hallaluya! Praise The Holy No-Man! | May 27, 2008 10:48 PM
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Spong is a bitter man.
Posted by: Lisa E. | May 27, 2008 10:48 PM
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Mr Spong calls for the church to completely capitulate to the morally "neutral" cultural whims. The result of his surrender in his former diocese led to catatostrophe:
- Between 1978 and 1999, the number of baptized persons in the diocese fell from 64,323 to 36,340, a loss of 27,983 members in 21 years, a disastrous 43.5% decline.
-In 1976 there were 10,186 children pupils in Sunday School. In 1999 there were only 4,833, a loss of 5,353, 52.6% decline.
- The rate of decline under Spong - already fairly torrid—sharply accelerated after 1995. During the 1980s and early 1990s, there was often a loss of 1,000 members a year. From 1995 to 1998, there was a stunning drop from 44, 246 to 36,597 in only three years, a drop of 7,649—or more than 2,500 a year.
If you would like to kill Christianity in this country, by all means follow Spong's advice.
Posted by: robroy | May 27, 2008 10:28 PM
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You're a good man, Bishop. God bless.