[Magdalen] Scripture Study Redux

[Jim Guthrie]

Learn something new every day -- the Scripture passages used against LGBT people 
are called "Clobber Passages."

>From the moment the Supreme Court ruled last month in favor of a constitutional 
right to same-sex marriage, opponents placed the decision in a very specific 
analytical frame. Here, they contended, was an egregious example of secular 
culture triumphing over religious values and religious freedom.

“Profoundly immoral and unjust,” the United States Conference of Catholic 
Bishops said in a statement. The Orthodox Union, the national association of 
Orthodox Jewish congregations, declared its “emphatic” and “unalterable” 
religious opposition to same-sex marriage. The prominent evangelist Franklin 
Graham reiterated that God had created marriage between man and woman and said, 
“His decisions are not subject to review or revision by any man-made court.”

In the dissenting opinions in the 5-to-4 vote, justices seemed to anticipate the 
battles to come over adherence to the law by individuals and institutions that 
doctrinally oppose same-sex marriage. Justice Clarence Thomas noted the 
“potentially ruinous consequences for religious liberty,” while Chief Justice 
John G. Roberts Jr. wrote, “Unfortunately, people of faith can take no comfort 
in the treatment they receive from the majority today.”

Yet the discussion of secularism versus religion is incomplete. It ignores or 
elides the growing number of theologians and religious scholars in a range of 
faiths who, over a half-century, have been assembling and espousing scriptural 
arguments in favor of gay rights and ultimately marriage equality. The debate 
about same-sex marriage that has gotten too little attention is the 
intrareligious one.

Well worth the read at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/us/push-within-religions-for-gay-marriage-gets-little-attention.htmlCheers,
Jim

"The enemy isn’t liberalism;
the enemy isn’t conservatism.
The enemy, is baloney." - Lars Erik Nelson