Tag: gay marriage

“But Marriage is No Sacrament.”

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From Gary Wills’ new article at New York Review of Books:

The early church had no specific rite for marriage. This was left up to the secular authorities of the Roman Empire, since marriage is a legal concern for the legitimacy of heirs. When the Empire became Christian under Constantine, Christian emperors continued the imperial control of marriage, as the Code of Justinian makes clear. When the Empire faltered in the West, church courts took up the role of legal adjudicator of valid marriages. But there was still no special religious meaning to the institution. As the best scholar of sacramental history, Joseph Martos, puts it: “Before the eleventh century there was no such thing as a Christian wedding ceremony in the Latin church, and throughout the Middle Ages there was no single church ritual for solemnizing marriage between Christians.”

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Preaching Out of the Closet

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Amy Levin: It’s barely been a day and President Barack Obama’s personal endorsement (belief? affirmation? slow and agonizing compromise?) of same-sex marriage in an interview with ABC’s Robin Robert’s has spread like wildfire across the news, blog, and twitter spheres. Obama’s comments came just a day after North Carolina passed a ban on same-sex marriage, becoming the 30th state to do so. Reaction to Obama has been divided to say the least. Some are excited, some are livid, and others are confused. Continue Reading →

#gaymarriageNY

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Kathryn Montalbano: After a 3-hour debate today in the New York State Assembly, the future of gay marriage in New York–and ultimately, the nation–remains unsolved and undistinguished from concurrent deliberation, including a property tax cap and New York City rent control.

Meanwhile, rallies in Albany–for and against gay marriage–have highlighted the preeminence of the issue amongst New York citizens despite the bill’s languid movement within the Senate’s walls.  While the fight for gay marriage, led by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, remains relatively civil inside, tensions amongst and between protesters outside have steadily increased throughout the day.  According to Sharon Baum of New York City, “This is not about religion, this is about civil rights.”  Opposing protesters singing “This Little Light of Mine” and chanting “God says ‘No!'” apparently disagree with Ms. Baum.

While recent efforts in New Jersey, Maryland, and Rhode Island have failed to contribute to the national gay rights movement, hope is brewing around the pending outcome in New York, with demographics rendering it the third-most populous state in the nation. Continue Reading →

Gay Parenthood and the End of Paternityas We Knew It

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An exclusive excerpt from Unhitched:  Love, Marriage, and Family Values from West Hollywood to Western China (pp. 50-55), a book by Judith Stacey, released from NYU Press last month.

by Judith Stacey

Gay fathers were once as unthinkable as they were invisible. Now they are an undeniable part of the contemporary family landscape. During the same time that the marriage promotion campaign in the U.S. was busy convincing politicians and the public to regard rising rates of fatherlessness as a national emergency,1 growing numbers of gay men were embracing fatherhood. Over the past two decades, they have built a cornucopia of family forms and supportive communities where they are raising children outside of the conventional family. Examining the experiences of gay men who have openly pursued parenthood against the odds can help us to understand forces that underlie the decline of paternity as we knew it. Contrary to the fears of many in the marriage promotion movement, however, gay parenting is not a new symptom of the demise of fatherhood, but of its creative, if controversial, reinvention. When I paid close attention to gay men’s parenting desires, efforts, challenges, and achievements, I unearthed crucial features of contemporary paternity and parenthood more generally. I also came upon some inspirational models of family that challenge widely-held beliefs about parenthood and child welfare. Continue Reading →

Religion Stories for the Week with Jeff Sharlet and Amy Sullivan

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Today Bloggingheads.tv has posted a conversation on religion and the media between Jeff Sharlet, founder and contributing editor to The Revealer and author of the forthcoming C Street and Amy Sullivan, contributing writer with Time magazine.  The topics that they cover are:  the killing of 10 health workers/missionaries in Afghanistan; gay marriage; the “Ground Zero Mosque”; the rise of anti-Islam; the Uganda “kill the gays” bill; Anne Rice’s falling away.  The video is 56 minutes long but if you want to pop in on a subject, a key below the frame will tell you when. Continue Reading →