Thursday, July 15, 2004
Despite the optimistic "We'll fight the good fight" rhetoric coming out of the Republicans, I believe the 48 votes in the Senate yesterday for the Marriage Amendment is the closest Congress will ever come to putting such an Amendment up for a vote.
I find, strangely, that though I am against gay marriage, I've crossed some kind of boundary and find myself in a place that's OK. The vast majority of children in America from here on out will learn that homosexuality is OK, but my oldest kids are beyond my control now and my youngest are safely out of public school and into our rather conservative Catholic grade school. Most businesses will eventually, even in the heartlands of America, be forced to provide services and benefits for gay spouses, but that's OK, I work with many people now and have no idea what their home lives are like. Those who marry, over time, will most likely have less and less respect for what marriage is, but hey, look at how little respect for marriage there is now, and I'm getting along OK because I have respect for it. More and more people will join the sinking scales that believe me to be Archie Bunkerish on the issue of homosexuality, but, you know, what do I care what people think of me? I don't go out on stumps and call gay people or girls in short shirts or guys with low-hung pants spawns of Satan or anything, I just think my own thoughts (except for this RCIA blog, that is) and try to remember to pray for them.
I don't think Christians, historically, have sought to petition governments in the countries in which they lived to legislate their beliefs, did they? They left that up to God... and if the stray leader, here or there, saw a shining cross up in the sun, well that just made things easier. I don't think having our tack turn into the wind for awhile will do Christianity in America any harm, and it may just do us some good... make us stronger, make us get to know each other a little better, make us meet a little more often... make us share those knowing, Christian glances across crowded rooms full of fallen angels.
No, I'm not giving up the fight for America, I'm returning to my Christian roots... I'm becoming a religious minority.
I find, strangely, that though I am against gay marriage, I've crossed some kind of boundary and find myself in a place that's OK. The vast majority of children in America from here on out will learn that homosexuality is OK, but my oldest kids are beyond my control now and my youngest are safely out of public school and into our rather conservative Catholic grade school. Most businesses will eventually, even in the heartlands of America, be forced to provide services and benefits for gay spouses, but that's OK, I work with many people now and have no idea what their home lives are like. Those who marry, over time, will most likely have less and less respect for what marriage is, but hey, look at how little respect for marriage there is now, and I'm getting along OK because I have respect for it. More and more people will join the sinking scales that believe me to be Archie Bunkerish on the issue of homosexuality, but, you know, what do I care what people think of me? I don't go out on stumps and call gay people or girls in short shirts or guys with low-hung pants spawns of Satan or anything, I just think my own thoughts (except for this RCIA blog, that is) and try to remember to pray for them.
I don't think Christians, historically, have sought to petition governments in the countries in which they lived to legislate their beliefs, did they? They left that up to God... and if the stray leader, here or there, saw a shining cross up in the sun, well that just made things easier. I don't think having our tack turn into the wind for awhile will do Christianity in America any harm, and it may just do us some good... make us stronger, make us get to know each other a little better, make us meet a little more often... make us share those knowing, Christian glances across crowded rooms full of fallen angels.
No, I'm not giving up the fight for America, I'm returning to my Christian roots... I'm becoming a religious minority.
