CLGS Responds

A Summer to Remember

by the Rev'd Jay Emerson Johnson, Ph.D.
Programming and Development Director, CLGS

Quite frankly, I have never understood why the institution of marriage requires protection or how it could be threatened when people who love each other just happen to be of the same sex. Devoting an entire week to the protection of marriage—as President Bush recently declared for the week of October 12-18—seems quite beside the point when marriage equality has not yet been achieved for all of our citizens. To deny rights for some must surely threaten the rights of all. Indeed, I cannot imagine a better way to strengthen the institution of marriage than to extend its benefits and responsibilities to those couples seeking it but who are at present denied access to it.

Perhaps, given the remarkable summer of 2003, marriage has become the proverbial line in the sand, drawn by those who have grown alarmed by the progress in social justice made for LGBT people over the last few months. Never before has a movement for civil rights experienced such rapid advancement in such a short period of time. Evan Wolfson, Director of Freedom to Marry, made that observation during a recent meeting of the National Religious Leadership Roundtable (of which CLGS is a member) convened by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. And he is quite right.

It has indeed been a summer to remember in many ways. It began in June with the legal sanctioning of same-sex marriages in Canada, which was quickly followed by the stunning decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas, which invalidated laws against "sodomy" in all fifty states. In that decision, the justices actually confessed their error in coming to the opposite decision about the same issue in 1986 and cited the help they received in this year's case from an brief written in part by theologians and church historians.

Just a few weeks later, the Episcopal Church's triennial General Convention confirmed the election of the Rev. V. Gene Robison, an openly gay man, as bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire—a historic first for the Episcopal Church. And while that Convention rejected a resolution calling for the drafting of liturgical rites for same-sex unions, the delegates and bishops permitted "local option" on this issue, which allows dioceses who wish to bless such unions to do so.

Meanwhile, the Vatican issued a statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding the legal recognition of "unions between homosexual persons." This statement reiterated the Vatican's moral and theological objections to same-sex unions, yet went further by encouraging elected officials to resist and work against the legal recognition of such unions. President Bush likewise reaffirmed his view of marriage as a relationship necessarily involving one man and woman and called for a way to "codify" this view, which a new legislative movement for a Constitutional amendment on marriage would seek to do.

If all of this were not enough, a granite monument to the Ten Commandments was removed from the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court. While not directly or explicitly related to LGBT concerns and issues, the controversy surrounding this monument to a biblical text underscores the extent to which religion continues to shape the assumptions, values and postures of American society. Chief Justice Roy Moore was responsible for placing that monument in the courthouse, arguing that its presence acknowledges "God as the moral foundation of our law" and the Ten Commandments in particular as the foundation for the American legal system.

CLGS and our allies and friends clearly have a great deal of work yet to do as we seek, in the words of our mission statement, to shape "a new public discourse on religion and sexuality . . ." I realized the urgency of that task in new ways this past August as I represented the Center in a number of interviews with news media following the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Almost without fail, both journalists and radio talk-show callers wondered how the Episcopal Church could reject the "clear condemnation of homosexuality in the Bible" or what right the Episcopal Church had to "abandon centuries of tradition."

CLGS offers the resources, tools, programs and events for sorting through these complex issues with clarity. To that end, and as the debate on same-sex marriage continues to expand and percolate throughout our society, CLGS is pleased to announce the formation of a Marriage/Civil Unions Resource center on this website. These resources—suitable for both academic and faith communities, for lay people and interested representatives of the media—will range from the academic (historical, theological, and ethical) to the practical (liturgies of civil union, sermons and denominational statements).

The topic of same-sex marriage will likely remain controversial for quite some time, not in the least for many lesbian and gay people themselves. As we produce and collect resources on this topic, CLGS will respect the wide range of opinions at work in this debate and the diversity of opinion about it within communities of faith and LGBT communities alike. We will, however, continue to insist on working for the full inclusion of lesbian and gay couples in the civil benefits and responsibilities of marriage as a matter of social justice.

Look for the launch of this Resources Project soon, or sign-up to receive our e-mail updates and you'll be sure to know when these resources are available.

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