…in Augusta the leadership of Maine casually ignored their own policy when they enacted same-sex marriage. They pretended that the state had no historic interest to protect marriage as an essential institution which preserves the important roles that men and women each play in marriage and the raising of children.
Bishop Robinson of New Hampshire is much like those legislators. He pretends that the Episcopal Church’s teaching on marriage is no longer important. As a partnered homosexual living in a same-sex union, he is outside the church’s official position on sexual relationships.
He is a schismatic ringleader of a recent majority of the Episcopal Church’s leadership, which openly defies the church’s own teaching on sexual relationships. You would think that the way Bishop Robinson and some Maine Episcopal clergy act that the official teaching of the church is to equate same-sex unions to marriage in the eyes of God and the church.
Not.
[blockquote] Not. [/blockquote] You just can’t make this stuff up. I’m glad I opened the article; It appeared to me that the closing word of Kendall’s excerpt was actually his comment on a vast joke.
Is Maine still attached to the continent, or have they drifted off with the melting Arctic ice floes into the loneliness of the the mid-atlantic?
[[i]I’ve now edited the main entry to make it clear that the full entry is an excerpt from the article – elfgirl[/i]]
Once again…Gene Robinson, the Simple Country Bishop of every place [i]except[/i] New Hampshire!
The shift has been in realizing that the marks of the Holy Spirit are present in many gay and lesbian partnered relationships in just the way they are in many heterosexual marriages.
Another part of the shift has been our coming to terms with the full humanity of gay and lesbian people – and dealing with their real experience rather than projecting our fears and distaste onto them.
Our understanding of Christian marriage has changed radically from Biblical times – are conservatives railing against the loss of treating the bride as property? Are they crying “foul” when people past child-bearing age are married in the church?
Heterosexuals have been proclaiming the truth that their sexuality is a gift from God – and rightly so. Homosexuals are now proclaiming the same thing – and rightly so. Heterosexuals have believed in a sacramental theology for some time: now they are being asked to take it seriously. So what’s the problem? If you really want to exclude gay and lesbian people from marriage on the basis of Biblical teaching, you probably should be reinstituting the dowry real soon.
This article speaks volumes about how I feel about VGR. He has promoted the degradation of marriage for long enough. Looks like people are starting to stand up now.
Someone didn’t get the memo. . . .
debra wagner, you rock.
duh!
Bravo to Ms. Wagner!
Wishing doesn’t make it so, my dear Ms. Wagner.
the battle is joined in Maine, and though most voices have been polite, the battle is bitter – the bitterest I have seen in years. Polls show still that Mainiacs favor civil partnership but not marriage by 6 or 8 percentage points.
But the real point is thas: the state may have an interest in marriage but it has no constitutional authority either to compel or forbid. LD 1020’s guarantee that no church shall be forced to perform same sex marriage is a red herring, for the state has no authority one way or another. That’s what the First Amendment is all about.
Larry
I disagree with TEC. Marriage is EXCLUSIVELY between one man and one woman. PERIOD!
This is a brave woman. I shudder to think what the advocates of inclusion and tolerance have in store for her now.
#3, TBWSantaFe wrote
“If you really want to exclude gay and lesbian people from marriage on the basis of Biblical teaching, you probably should be reinstituting the dowry real soon. ”
This is a non sequitur.Christian marriage doesn’t require a dowry. Christ is very clear that marriage is a life long union of one man and one woman. He says nothing about a dowry. Your objection seems to be based on a misunderstanding of how Christians view scriptural warrant.
It is indeed the case that “our understanding of Christian marriage has changed radically from Biblical times.” However, the reason for this change is Christ himself and the biblical witness to his life and work. That is, Christians understand the bible in light of what Christ has done and said. Thus, there are “biblical” views of marriage that lack dominical warrant and aren’t therefore normative for Christians. On the hand, there are biblical views of marriage that have clear dominical authority; e.g. one man and one woman for life. These dominical views are normative for Christians.
Traditional Christians already take the sacramental theology of marriage seriously. I wish you would take seriously Christ’s teaching that man and woman are made in the image of God, and that this image is sacramentally manifested in marriage, when man and woman, becoming one flesh, bring forth new life, just as God created life in the beginning. Even if you didn’t agree with it, taking this seriously would help you be more charitable to Christians who seek only to be faithful to the clear biblical witness of Christ.