MARRIAGE FOR ALL
Yesterday, North Carolina became the latest state to pass legislation that legally defines marriage as solely between a man and a woman.
After the passage of the measure, Tami Fitzgerald, chairwoman of the group Vote for Marriage NC said, “We are not anti-gay; we are pro-marriage…and the point — the whole point — is simply that you don’t rewrite the nature of God’s design for marriage based on the demands of a group of adults.”
Excuse me?
I’m lost, Tami.
Are you taking about Adonai? Allah? Ram? Elohim? The King of Kings? Huwa? Embu? Basa? Krishna? Brahma? Jesus? Buddha? And does that mean that if I’m a gay atheist, you’re all good with my same-sex marriage?
There are about as many “plans” as there are names for God. If “the whole point” of this measure is to not “rewrite the nature of God’s design for marriage,” then you wholly miss the point of marriage.
The “point” of marriage is to express the commitment of love to your partner. To bring out the best in your partner and let your partner bring out the best in you. To have someone with whom you share passions, dreams, and special moments with. Someone to engage with physically, mentally, emotionally. Someone to go on dates with. Someone to talk about the news with. Someone to cook for. Someone to ______________. (I don’t know what it is that you do. Maybe what you do is different than what I do. Whatever it is, the great thing about having a partner is the many different ways you can share life together.)
Sometimes partners have kids. Sometimes they have a lot of kids. Sometimes they adopt kids. Sometimes they want to have kids but are infertile. Sometimes they base the partnership on a mutual understanding that kids are a handful and they’d rather spend their time together on an isolated beach. No diapers. No pacifiers. No whining. No swaddles.
Whatever an individual partnership looks like is totally personal. It’s none of the government’s business. And it’s surely unacceptable for fellow citizens to judge a same-sex couple’s right to cohabitate, raise kids, and do whatever it is that partners do. Jesus Christ famously said, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” Matthew 7:1-2 ESV.
Now, Tami…I’m no biblical scholar, but I’m pretty sure the gist of this teaching is that judgment against others is bad because then YOU’LL be judged…which is also bad…but if no one judged each other, then we can really live in peace and harmony.
The expression of the commitment of love simply cannot be limited by sexual orientation. I’m deeply sickened by North Carolina. Judging fellow citizens on one of the most intimate and personal decisions of life—who to partner with—is nonsensical, discriminatory, and illegal. As the California High Court has already explained in overturning Prop 8 earlier this year, a ban against same-sex marriage violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
In a nutshell, the Equal Protection clause guarantees that all citizens in America be treated (you guessed it) EQUALLY, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Can you imagine a group of people that believed it was God’s plan to define marriage as between two white people? And then could you imagine a measure banning marriage between black people, since such a union would “rewrite the nature of God’s design for marriage?” I didn’t think so.
God’s plan is peace and love. Hateful judgment of our fellow citizens is way out of line with God’s plan. And the 14th Amendment.