A Christian Case For Gay Marriage

Change some minds? Huh-uh. Not ever. Challenging close-minded Christians on this is the same as attacking their faith.Haven’t you ever read C.S. Lewis? He got this part right: the elves are for themselves. Lucy convinced Aslan to give her a beautiful lemon meringue pie. Still thinking they were in the dark – and they were because of their small-minded selves – that awesome pie tasted like moldy cabbage.Try it sometime. You’ll swear off cabbage an enternity before you ever change a fundamentalists mind with a coherent argument.Now, if you get get them to a state of vulnerability and trigger their fear, then pull a gun on them they . . . .will take the bullet instead.

Change some minds? Huh-uh. Not ever. Challenging close-minded Christians on this is the same as attacking their faith.Haven’t you ever read C.S. Lewis? He got this part right: the elves are for themselves. Lucy convinced Aslan to give her a beautiful lemon meringue pie. Still thinking they were in the dark – and they were because of their small-minded selves – that awesome pie tasted like moldy cabbage.Try it sometime. You’ll swear off cabbage an enternity before you ever change a fundamentalists mind with a coherent argument.Now, if you get get them to a state of vulnerability and trigger their fear, then pull a gun on them they . . . .will take the bullet instead.

friction: help me out here, ’cause I don’t remember that from the Chronicles…which book was that from?

friction: help me out here, ’cause I don’t remember that from the Chronicles…which book was that from?

Lee,Good point, but you might be assuming that we’re dealing with reasonable people.

Lee,Good point, but you might be assuming that we’re dealing with reasonable people.

There’s an early Christian ritual for same-sex unions that’s really quite lovely, from the eleventh-century Greek manuscript Grottaferrata G.B. Without boring you with the whole thing, my favorite passages are 4 and 5:”Forasmuch as Thou, O Lord and Ruler, art merciful and loving, who didst establish humankind after thine image and likeness, who didst deem it meet that thy holy apostles Philip and Bartholomew be united, bound one unto the other not by nature but by faith and the spirit. As Thou didst find thy holy martyrs Serge and Bacchus worthy to be united together [adelphoi genesthai], bless also these thy servants, joined together not by the bond of nature but by faith and in the mode of the spirit [ou desmoumenous desmi physeis alla pisteis kai pneumatikos tropi], granting unto them peace [eirene] and love [agape] and oneness of mind. Cleanse from their hearts every stain and impurity and vouchsafe unto them to love one another [agapan allelous] without hatred and without scandal all the days of their lives, with the aid of the Mother of God and all thy saints, forasmuch as all glory is thine.”"O Lord Our God, who didst grant unto us all those things necessary for salvation and didst bid us to love one another and to forgive each other our failings, bless and consecrate, kind Lord and lover of good, these thy servants who love each other with a love of the spirit [tous pneumatike agape heautous agapesantas] and have come into this thy holy church to be blessed and consecrated. Grant unto them unashamed fidelity [pistis] and sincere love [agape anhypokritos], and as Thou didst vouchsafe unto thy holy disciples and apostles thy peace and love, bestow them also on these, O Christ our God, affording to them all those things needed for salvation and life eternal. For Thou art the light and the truth and thine is the glory.”Not only does the ceremony invoke Serge and Bacchus, the paired saints described as “erastai,” lovers, in the earliest manuscripts containing their story; it invokes Philip and Bartholomew as well, and practically in the same breath. Were they also lovers? Very possibly. I’m thinking here of their introduction in Matthew: “The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” (Matthew 10.2-3, ESV) It’s intriguing that they’re introduced as a pair, with no mention of why, or of what either of them does. If they were indeed lovers, Jesus would have known, and clearly had no problems tolerating the fact.Even more interesting is a bit of finagling around the introduction of the two in Matthew. Is there, or isn’t there, a comma between the names of Philip and Bartholomew? In other words, are they being introduced together as a pair, or singly, their names simply next to one another? In King James, there’s a comma separating them; in Douay-Rheims and Darby, there isn’t; in the various versions of the Κata ΜatΘaion, there isn’t; in the 1569 Sagradas Escrituras, there is. Have various translators been attempting to subtly erase a relationship that was once tolerated?It strikes me as possible, at any rate.Sources: Boswell, John, Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe (New York: Villard, 1994)

There’s an early Christian ritual for same-sex unions that’s really quite lovely, from the eleventh-century Greek manuscript Grottaferrata G.B. Without boring you with the whole thing, my favorite passages are 4 and 5:”Forasmuch as Thou, O Lord and Ruler, art merciful and loving, who didst establish humankind after thine image and likeness, who didst deem it meet that thy holy apostles Philip and Bartholomew be united, bound one unto the other not by nature but by faith and the spirit. As Thou didst find thy holy martyrs Serge and Bacchus worthy to be united together [adelphoi genesthai], bless also these thy servants, joined together not by the bond of nature but by faith and in the mode of the spirit [ou desmoumenous desmi physeis alla pisteis kai pneumatikos tropi], granting unto them peace [eirene] and love [agape] and oneness of mind. Cleanse from their hearts every stain and impurity and vouchsafe unto them to love one another [agapan allelous] without hatred and without scandal all the days of their lives, with the aid of the Mother of God and all thy saints, forasmuch as all glory is thine.”"O Lord Our God, who didst grant unto us all those things necessary for salvation and didst bid us to love one another and to forgive each other our failings, bless and consecrate, kind Lord and lover of good, these thy servants who love each other with a love of the spirit [tous pneumatike agape heautous agapesantas] and have come into this thy holy church to be blessed and consecrated. Grant unto them unashamed fidelity [pistis] and sincere love [agape anhypokritos], and as Thou didst vouchsafe unto thy holy disciples and apostles thy peace and love, bestow them also on these, O Christ our God, affording to them all those things needed for salvation and life eternal. For Thou art the light and the truth and thine is the glory.”Not only does the ceremony invoke Serge and Bacchus, the paired saints described as “erastai,” lovers, in the earliest manuscripts containing their story; it invokes Philip and Bartholomew as well, and practically in the same breath. Were they also lovers? Very possibly. I’m thinking here of their introduction in Matthew: “The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” (Matthew 10.2-3, ESV) It’s intriguing that they’re introduced as a pair, with no mention of why, or of what either of them does. If they were indeed lovers, Jesus would have known, and clearly had no problems tolerating the fact.Even more interesting is a bit of finagling around the introduction of the two in Matthew. Is there, or isn’t there, a comma between the names of Philip and Bartholomew? In other words, are they being introduced together as a pair, or singly, their names simply next to one another? In King James, there’s a comma separating them; in Douay-Rheims and Darby, there isn’t; in the various versions of the Κata ΜatΘaion, there isn’t; in the 1569 Sagradas Escrituras, there is. Have various translators been attempting to subtly erase a relationship that was once tolerated?It strikes me as possible, at any rate.Sources: Boswell, John, Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe (New York: Villard, 1994)