DOMA

I see that the Supreme Court has struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. The Court also struck down California's Prop 8 allowing gay marriage to resume in California.

I'm happy to see this decision. There's some outcry, of course, but i think the tide of public opinion has finally shifted. In 30 years I suspect people will wonder why this was ever even an issue.

Something that happened concurrent with this is I became aware of an argument being put out by some conservative Christians. It's long been acknowledged that Jesus said nothing about homosexuality, but some are taking a statement from the Gospel of Mark as evidence that he would disapprove of gay marriage. Jesus said...

But from the beginning of creation, "God made them male and female.' "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

Mark 10:6-9.

The assertion is that Jesus was promoting the idea of monogamous marriage between a man and a woman over any other model. Actually, if you read the whole chapter you see that isn't the case.

The Pharisees asked Jesus if it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife. Jesus acknowledged that the Law of Moses allows a man to do so if he presents a certificate to her but condemned the practice as hard-hearted.

The view of marriage in biblical times was not that it was a loving relationship between equals. Marriage was an arrangement in which the woman was given to the man and more or less became his property. Women had some rights but nothing like the rights their husbands enjoyed. They were expected to be obedient and faithful, while the man was free to see prostitutes, or sleep with female slaves, or even marry new wives. Women had no recourse to divorce their husbands, even if they were flagrantly abusive, but a man could divorce his wife if she displeased him in any way.

This biblical model of marriage is not something we should want to return to. In two thousand years, marriage has become something much better than it was in those times. For us it is not compulsory or arranged, but entered into freely for the sake of love between equals. It has become something I believe Jesus would have approved of.

The free and equal union of two people who come together in love and faithfulness in one of the great blessings of life. It blesses two men or two women as surely as a man and a woman.