The Bible Supports Same-Gender Marriage

I SCOOPED THIS OFF huffingtonpost.com FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE

Last week, a friend, colleague and wonderful pastor, Rev. Jean Southard, faced the highest court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) after being accused of violating her ordination vows and the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by presiding at the wedding of two women.
The facts of the case -- that Rev. Southard had performed a marriage for two women -- were not up for debate. Instead, it was Scripture and church polity that the defense, prosecution and commissioners looked to. After two days of deliberation, the court decided that Rev. Southard was innocent of all charges.
So, why is this notable?
In the last 40 years, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights movement has made huge strides toward full equality and inclusion. As another dear friend and colleague, Elder Michael Adee, puts it, "discrimination against the LGBT community was like a three-legged stool." The first leg classified same-gender love as a mental illness -- until the American Psychiatric Association removed this classification in 1973. The second leg criminalized same-gender love -- until in 1996 the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court decision struck down these laws. Only one leg of the stool is regarded by many as still standing -- that same-gender love is a sin.
This third leg of the stool is wobbling, ready to fall. The truth is that if there was anything close to a rule against same-gender marriage in the Bible, Rev. Southard would have been found guilty last week, as would the other ministers who have been compelled by their faith to marry same-gender couples and went before her to church court -- and were acquitted.
What the Bible does say is that God has called all creation very good. In other words, God makes all kinds of people and loves the diversity of humankind.
What the Bible does say is that we are not meant to live alone. God creates LGBT people, knowing them in their mothers' wombs, and declares them good. And in Genesis, the Lord said, "it is not good that the man should live alone; I will make him a helper as his partner." The loving relationships and families forged by LGBT people are gifts to them from God because they, just like all humans, are not meant to live alone. And these families of choice that include friends, sometimes, and, more and more, children, are beautiful gifts from God to our communities.
What the Bible does say is that God is love. Out of this love, God enters into covenantal promises with Noah, with Abraham, with Israel, with Jesus' disciples, with the world. More than any other Biblical material dealing with marriage, these loving covenants in Scripture are the foundation for our current understanding of marriage as a long-term commitment between two people to support one another, build families together and up build their communities together.
When we open our eyes to our neighbors, we recognize gay and lesbian couples whose lives bear all the qualities we recognize as marriage. God's love as expressed in the Bible has led us to our present conception of marriage as a bond of loving commitment.
What the Bible does say is that God can help us see new things where we were blind before. For example, God inspires us to use the covenantal pledge of fidelity between two women, Ruth and Naomi, as the second most-read Bible passage at weddings. The first most-read is 1 Corinthians 13, the ode to love which, of course, was not written as a primer for marriage but can serve well as one. When we know same gender couples whose marriages and whose service in our communities epitomize the qualities of love captured by the Apostle Paul, we must stand up for the revelation that God has inspired us to see.
What the Bible does say is that judgment belongs to God. Period. Jesus said it many times: Judge not that ye be not judged. The faithful thing to do according to Scripture is to listen to and to love your neighbor as yourself. We are to examine the log in our own eye long before we have the audacity to point out the speck in the other's eye.
Progressives of faith need not flee from the Bible in order to stand up for the beauty, truth and goodness of love. Let's stand on Scripture -- the examples I have given and more you can supply -- as we knock away the feeble lie claiming that same gender love is a sin. Let's gain strength from the witness of Rev. Southard and the acquittal that upholds the wedding she performed. Let's complete the work needed to flatten the three-legged stool of prejudice against LGBT people. God is giving us this job to do. We sin when we shirk it.

The Best of Wikileaks' Qaddafi Dirt

How crazy is hopefully-soon-to-be-deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi? Why don't we check Wikileaks to find out? (Spoiler alert: He is pretty crazy.)

Wikileaks, the secrets-sharing website that began to release a huge cache of classified diplomatic cables last year, has several messages about Qaddafi and Libya. As, we guess, some kind of retrospective of corruption, despotism and derangement, both The New York Times and ABC News combed through the state department's Qaddafi-related cables, trying to flesh out our picture of Qaddafi's regime. And, wow! It's pretty awful. Obviously, there is some charmingly flamboyant eccentricity, as in this now-classic cable:
Qadhafi appears to rely heavily on XXXXXXXXXXXX and reportedly cannot travel with his senior Ukrainian nurse, Galyna XXXXXXXXXXXX. He also appears to have an intense dislike or fear of staying on upper floors, reportedly prefers not to fly over water, and seems to enjoy horse racing and flamenco dancing.
Or, in a cable intended for then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice preparing her for her visit to Libya (emphasis ours):
Muammar al-Qadhafi is notoriously mercurial. He often avoids making eye contact during the initial portion of meetings, and there may be long, uncomfortable periods of silence. Alternatively, he can be an engaging and charming interlocutor, as he was during NEA A/S Welch's meeting on August 14. A self-styled intellectual and philosopher, he has been eagerly anticipating for several years the opportunity to share with you his views on global affairs. We've been told that issues he might raise include Sarkozy's Union for the Mediterranean proposal (which al-Qadhafi opposes), the Georgia conflict, illegal migration (Libya is a key transit country), Iran, Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict (including his "Isratine" one-state solution), and Africa.
But for every "Isratine," there are ten cables about the regime's corruption and brutality. Like this one:
Qadhafi often speaks out publicly against government corruption, but the politically-connected elite has direct access to lucrative business deals. This commercial access can easily be cut off when individuals fall out of favor. The Qadhafi family and other Jamahiriya political favorites profit from being able to manipulate the multi-layered and regularly shifting dynamics of governance mechanisms in Libya. They have strong interests in the oil and gas sector, telecommunications, infrastructure development, hotels, media distribution, and consumer goods distribution. The financial interests of Qadhafi and his key allies present both opportunites and challenges for reform efforts in Libya. Any reform is likely to be cyclical over the long-term.
Or, if that wasn't depressing enough, you can read about Libya's shady arms deals, or the country's attempts to "blackmail" foreign embassies for visas. Or about Qaddafi's kids:
All of the Qadhafi children and favorites are supposed to have income streams from the National Oil Company and oil services subsidiaries. Saif is involved in oil services through One-Nine Petroleum and other Qadhafi family members and associates are believed to have large financial stakes in the Libyan Tamoil oil marketing company based in Europe and Oil Invest.
The kids are of special interest because, as Ambassador Gene Cretz points out in one cable,
the sharp rivalry between the al-Qadhafi children could play an important, if not determinative role, in whether the al-Qadhafi family is able to hold on to power after Muammar al-Qadhafi exits (one way or another) the political scene.
It's looking increasingly likely that Qaddafi will be leaving the political scene, in one way or another. But it also seems unlikely that any of the Qaddafi family will end up holding on to power. And based on those Wikileaks cables, that is very good news.

Judge to Lohan: 'I Don't Care That You're Lindsay Lohan

In a cleavage-baring top and chunky jewelry, Lindsay Lohan reported to court today court for the grand theft of a $2000 necklace. Per usual, the appearance was livestreamed on TMZ. The judge announced that if Lindsay Lohan accepts a plea bargain—as her lawyer has said she'd like to do—it will have to include jail time. "If you plead in front of me, you are going to jail, period. If the case settles here, you will go to jail," Judge Keith Schwartz said. Worrying about whether the ruined starlet would become a "repeat offender," he asked for "additional psychological information" and made his lack of interest in LiLo's celebrity clear:

There are things you need to understand. I've never met you, you've never met me outside of this court to my knowledge. I don't care that you're Lindsay Lohan