Newsweek’s cover story this week is the religious case for gay marriage. Politico reports religious leaders are unhappy about it.
No kidding.
The piece is an timely read in light of California’s failed Proposition 8. After reading it, it’s unclear, at least to me, what exactly the goal of the piece is, despite the title. Who was the author, Lisa Miller, trying to convince? Most religious leaders aren’t going to buy that the Bible is in favor of same-sex marriage and even a lot of gay activists either don’t, or don’ t want to.
Maybe it was just a nice fluff piece her editors at Newsweek wanted to see because, hey, gay marriage is still a hotly debated topic!
In seriousness, overall, Miller’s use of actual text to support her thesis seems lacking. While marriage is praised in the Bible–both Old and New Testaments–(and no, Miller, the Bible didn’t refer to marriage as ‘between one man and one woman,’ that phrase just came about some time after the inspired Word did), homosexuality (a ‘man lying with a man’ is what the text usually says) is never praised, admired, encouraged. Ever. In any context. In Hebrew. Or Greek. Old or New.
Her textual references and understanding of theology is a bit curious as you head down the stretch. First she pokes fun at references to marriage relationships–celibacy, polygamy, adultery–in Scripture as inadequate or inconsistent or outdated in this day and age, but then she closes the piece by saying according to Scripture, Jesus was all love and warmth and inclusion–therefore her religious case is made. (Nevermind His reasons for being so. It wasn’t for any kind of cultural acceptance, agenda or goal like she posits. But, I wouldn’t expect your average Newsweek journalist to really have a solid theological understanding of Jesus Christ.)
Is the Bible, or isn’t it outdated! Make up your mind and make your case with one or the other, not both.
Had she not been so inconsistent within her own piece, it might have been more persusasive, though, still I guess, would have ticked those ‘religious folks’ off.
