William Stacy Johnson - A Time to Embrace

A TIME TO EMBRACE

A TIME TO EMBRACE

Same-Sex Relationships in Religion, Law, and Politics

SECOND EDITION

William Stacy Johnson

WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN / CAMBRIDGE, U.K.

2006, 2012 William Stacy Johnson

All rights reserved

First edition pubished 2006

Second edition published 2012 by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

18 17 16 15 14 13 12 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Johnson, William Stacy.

A time to embrace: same-sex relationships in religion, law, and politics /

William Stacy Johnson. 2nd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes.

ISBN 978-0-8028-6695-0 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4674-3599-4 (ePub)

1. Same-sex marriage.

2. Homosexuality Religious aspects Christianity.

3. Homosexuality Law and legislation.

4. Homosexuality Political aspects.

I. Title.

HQ1033.J64 2012

306.848 dc23

2012006942

atimetoembrace.com

www.eerdmans.com

For my wife, Louise

Contents

PART ONE
RELIGION

PART TWO
LAW AND POLITICS

The Supreme Court has said... [m]arriage is the most important relation in life. Now thats being withheld from [same-sex couples]. It is the foundation of society. It is essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness. Its a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights and older than our political parties. One of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause. A right of intimacy to the degree of being sacred.

Ted Olson

Dramatic changes are afoot for same-sex couples. Six years ago, when the first edition of A Time to Embrace was published, the pro-gay marriage view it took stood in the minority. Now attitudes about gay marriage in the United States have suddenly reached a tipping point. In 2011 for the first time polls indicated a shift toward a These demographics suggest there will be even greater majorities supporting gay marriage going forward.

When the book was first published only three American jurisdictions provided some measure of equality for same-sex couples. Back then only one state, Massachusetts, approved of gay marriage, and only two states, Vermont and Connecticut, allowed civil unions. Yet now the number of jurisdictions that either allow or are moving toward gay marriage or civil unions has more than quadrupled. Gay marriage has been approved in seven American jurisdictions (Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and the District of Columbia). It has been approved in two more, Maryland and Washington, pending possible voter referenda. Civil unions exist in five new states (Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Rhode Island). Nine states have domestic partnership laws which, while falling short of full equality, are likely to offer a stepping stone toward greater equality in the future. If you add all this up, the result is over 20 percent of American states trying to provide some level of marriage equality and over 40 percent permitting some level of legal recognition for gay couples. No matter which side of the debate one is on, these trajectories cannot be ignored.

Why are so many changing their minds on this issue? The best answer became vividly apparent at the 2010 trial in the California case of Perry v. Brown (formerly Perry v. Schwarzenegger), a challenge brought against so-called Proposition 8. This proposition was the California constitutional amendment of marriage to same-sex couples does substantial harm. In short, it is hard data of this sort that is prompting public opinion to change.

This increasing openness to gay marriage in America follows a wave of similarly decisive moves internationally as well. When the first edition of this book was published, gay marriage was already recognized in the Netherlands (2001), Belgium (2003), Spain (2005), Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay. It is likely that over time many of these nations will move toward same-sex marriage. For example, same-sex marriage legislation is currently being considered in Luxembourg, Finland, and the United Kingdom.

Given this rapid pace of change, and especially the growing strength of legal arguments in

Changes in Moral and Religious Attitudes

As one might expect, these changes in the legal sphere are matched by shifts in moral and religious attitudes as well. When the first edition of this book was published, most mainline denominations still prohibited the ordination of partnered gay and lesbian people, and the ecclesial discussion of gay marriage was just getting off the ground. In 2005, as the first edition was going to press, the United Church of Christ (UCC), which witnessed the first ordination of a gay man in 1972, became the first major U.S. denomination to affirm equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender. This meant full inclusion in the institution of marriage its benefits and its obligations plus acquiring the societal respect that the m word brings with it.

In the UCC, pushing for gay ordination first before working through the question of the sanctity of gay relationships worked out well. In most other mainline churches, however, this sequence has produced turmoil. For over thirty years advocates within mainline churches have been urging the removal of categorical bans against gay ordination. These efforts met early resistance because many in the pews associated being gay with an immoral lifestyle. In other words, advocacy groups in the 1970s and 1980s often pressed their constituents to accept gay leadership before first helping them to accept gay identity or showing them a way toward a sanctified context for gay relationships. When the secular drive for gay marriage gained traction in the 1990s, suddenly a new conversation began in the churches. Greater acceptance of gay identity and the advent of new arguments for the consecration of gay relationships made the possibility of openly gay church leadership seem more morally consistent.

It is for this reason that changes on both the ordination and gay marriage fronts have recently taken root across American mainline denominations. In 2009 the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America voted that local bishops may allow is incompatible with Christian teaching.

Of course, the growing public and legal support for same-sex couples of heated give-and-take. When it finally did pass in New York, it did so because both Democrats and some courageous Republicans decided it should be so. This one legislative act doubled the number of American gays and lesbians who have access to marriage.

All this suggests that gay marriage will continue to make progress but will remain a source of contention. In the first edition of this bookhowever, the advent of gay marriage in the rest of the country will proceed on a state-by-state basis. It will take time for these states to undergo change.

This will present a complicated situation for the life of religious communities, and also for gay and lesbian couples. Ministers, rabbis, and other religious leaders are being called upon in places like the Northeast to preside at same-sex weddings, while their official denominational policy may not allow it. Gay and lesbian couples face the dilemma of being legally married in their home state but having their marriage go unrecognized when traveling to another. Imagine, for example, a married gay person whose spouse falls ill in another state where the hospital will not recognize the couples health care power of attorney. For the time being, then, ministers, gay couples, and religious communities face a patchwork quilt of laws that vary widely from location to location.