Where’s religion at the Prop. 8 trial?
Over at Religion Dispatches, there’s an assessment of the current trial and the absence of “religion” by Candace Chellew-Hodge
Thompson is challenging one of Cott’s ideas that modern marriage laws are shaped now by civil law and social developments; the defense attorney is pushing hard on the anti-gay marriage thesis that heterosexual marriage is tied to history and religion restricting unions to men and women. He repeatedly suggested in his questions that marriage laws are tied to Christianity. At one point, asking Cott about monogamy being the result of the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, the professor got a little impatient. “I know very little about Jesus Christ and his apostles,” Cott shot back at Thompson.
Evangelicals and homosexuality
How this tension will work itself out is a mystery. The Anglican communion is “this” close to schism because of a fundamental difference on the issue of homosexuality. Evangelical churches are going through their own convulsions on the issue, too. I found this article on MSNBC:
But with younger evangelicals and broader society showing greater acceptance of homosexuality, many evangelical churches can expect, at the least, a deeper exploration of the issue.”Highlands Church represents a breakout position, where you have a gay-affirming stance that moves beyond the traditional kind of liberal-conservative divide,” said Mark Achtemeier, an associate professor at University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “I’m finding lots of moderate conservatives just think there’s something wrong with a default position of excluding gays from the life of the church.”
I brought up the topic of social justice and gay marriage in my PHIL 101 Intro to Philosophy class. Would King, for instance, think the different treatment of same-sex couples would be similar to a segregationist discrimination? I think on the civil front things are much fuzzier than on the religious front. And by that I mean only that the “battle lines”, if I can put it that way, are very clearly drawn, in many adherents’ views, and on both sides of the issue, on scriptural grounds.