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07/15/2015
The religious anti-gay crowd: They never understood the marriage fight; now they don't understand their loss
Over on the Family Research Council's blog, one of the viciously anti-LGBT group's more recent hires, Travis Weber, posts yet another bit of defiance in the wake of the Supreme Court's marriage equality decision. In this one, Travis makes the case that many churches will never accept the ruling:
[T]here is the unspoken assumption that after the Supreme Court speaks those who object to its decision will roll over and submit.
In the vast majority of cases that would be true. In this instance, however, the Supreme Court has badly misjudged the situation because its edict explicitly contradicts the teaching of the Church on matters of the definition of marriage and the dual nature of human sexuality (male/female complementarity). These are not negotiable positions. The press trumpets announcements from every wayward church but ignores the real story.
The real story is that orthodox churches have almost instantly discerned the severity of the situation but have not retreated an inch in refusing to accept the redefinition of marriage.
FULL: Obergefell Prompts Instant, Unflinching Resistance in the True Church ¿ Reaction of Tenth Presbyterian (Philadelphia) [FRC]
And then he goes on to give an example of one such church.
To which I ask: So what? The Supreme Court decision was about civil marriage equality, with religious ceremonial discussions left, as they have always been, with the churches. Some churches have and will move toward offering religious ceremonies to same-sex couples, and some will not (just as they deny ceremonies to other kinds of couples). That is not our fight. That was never the marriage equality movement's fight.
Even if every church in America vowed to deny religious ceremonies to gay couples, it wouldn't change one thing—not one word, letter, or period—about the Obergefell decision and its fifty-state granting of rights and protections. These are civil protections, independent of ancillary church ceremonies. The militant groups like FRC have never been able to accept that distinction. I'm not sure they ever will. The only difference? Our continued need to care (or lack thereof) about their grumblings and gripes.
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