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05/06/2011
Fine, NY's Rev. Gillison -- so tell your congregants to stop getting civil marriage licenses
This sums up just about all you need to know about the mindset underlying New York's anti-equality efforts. From the New York Times:
The Rev. William Gillison, vice chairman of the Empire Missionary Baptist Convention, which represents several hundred Baptist churches around the state, said he had preached against legalizing same-sex marriage many times at his church in Buffalo, and would again. “This is a case where the state has entered an area that rightfully belongs to the church, not the other way around,” he said.
Faith Groups Campaign to Block Gay Marriage [NYT]
"State entering the church." Except not. At all. Not even a little bit.
Not one organized gay activist -- NOT. ONE! -- is working to force churches to marry gay couples. Churches will be just as free to deny gay couples as they currently are to deny interfaith, atheist, or any other kind of heterosexual couple that the church leaders see as unfit under their moral purview. The matter up for discussion is CIVIL marriage equality -- the church decisions will remain up to the individual churches/denominations/sects, something that all marriage equality groups full support.
In the church/state equation, there is only one side that is, undeniably, working to enforce a tangible limitation upon the other. As long as anti-equality faith leaders keep up such shenanigans, the state of affairs will remain less than great. But if these self-appointed deniers would at least acknowledge what they are doing to others' civil equality, it would be a somewhat refreshing step forward.
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