The young mother held the hands of her two children as they watched the spectacle unfold. Not twenty feet away a mass of people assembled in front of the nation’s highest court waving signs in support of marriage equality while others brandished banners declaring the opposite. I approached the woman and asked what she and her children were doing here. I learned that they were from Minnesota and were passing through DC on a spring break trip. “I wanted my kids to see this piece of history,” the mother said, “After all, this is about civil rights and without civil rights my family wouldn’t be possible.” As she spoke these words she wiggled her right arm jostling her daughter’s attention away the sidewalk. The child was African American. The woman was white.
Visiting the Supreme Court on the day that they entertained oral arguments regarding the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8 left me with mixed emotions. On one hand, it was a tremendous example of the power of free speech within the public square. On the other hand, it was a sobering reminder of how some people choose to utilize that right while claiming that the exercise thereof carries with it God’s imprimatur.
What struck me most was that the supporters of same sex marriage, many of whom would not profess to be Christians, spoke more of love than those opposed to same sex marriage, most of whom would profess to be Christians. I’m not talking about Westboro Baptist folks here either (although a contingent of their group was present). A large Marriage March organized by the National Organization for Marriage filled the block with signs that, while not promulgating hate, nevertheless did nothing to proclaim the richness and fullness of God’s love. Instead, this group waved signs declaring, “Kids do best with mom & dad.” While I will not denigrate the salubrious effects of two parent homes, I am also keenly aware that some single parent homes might desire to quibble over the mechanics of such a phrase.
However, the point is not to belabor a conversation on what is "best" (although this would be interesting and even useful), but rather to note that nowhere in the messages propagated by these Christian demonstrators was there any mention of God’s love. Switch over to the other side of the block and there were plenty of signs declaring that “God loves love” and “Marriage is Love Commitment & Family.” If I were an outsider looking in, I would wonder why the word “love” was MIA in the Christian demonstrators’ vocabulary when love seems to be such a central theme to their understanding of God and subsequently, their faith.
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I also wondered about the parallels between the Christians who opposed civil rights in the 1960’s and the Christians who are perceived to be opposing civil rights in 2013. Regardless of whether or not Christians perceive gay rights to be coterminous with civil rights, a large contingent of Americans are starting to make this connection and my conversation with the mother from Minnesota highlights this ongoing shift in thinking. The average American is not interested in debating the merits of Leviticus 19 and it’s getting to the point where even a third grader can grasp the incongruity between demanding strict adherence to certain tenets of Levitical law while completely disregarding others. Some might find it ironic that the early church received persecution in part due to its emphasis on equal treatment of all people- a tremendous treat to a Roman Empire built on a hefty class system.
As I was leaving the rally, I passed a father and his two teenage sons, clearly tourists, watching the Marriage March unfold before them. After a few moments, the father turned away and began walking towards the Capitol building. “Come on guys,” he said, “We’ve seen enough intolerance for one day.”
Look up “pyrrhic victory” in the dictionary in a few years when those teenage boys can vote or decide whether or not to attend church and you might just find the faces of the folks who organized the marriage march today.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, “I have decided upon love because hate is too great a burden to bear.” Regardless of your position on the issue of same sex marriage, let Dr. King’s words be the platform from which you base your entire argument. Anything less is a one way ticket to the obscure corners of history in this life and in the next.
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