What The Recent Supreme Court Decisions Mean For Me?

In case you were hiding under a rock in Siberia, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on two cases regarding same-gender marriage today.

The highest Court in the nation declared:

• Article III of the Defense of Marriage Act—a statute passed by Congress in 1996 that, specifically for federal benefit purposes, defined marriage as between one man and one woman—is unconstitutional.

• The private sponsors defending California’s Proposition 8—a 2008 ballot initiative that banned the state from issuing marriage licenses to same-gender couples—did not have legal grounds to represent the state as private parties appealing the state’s position; thereby returning the case to its Ninth District Court of Appeal’s decision as Proposition 8 being unconstitutional.

So what does all of this mean for me? Strictly speaking, I am currently neither in a same-gender marriage nor am I a legal resident of the state of California. So how exactly do I have any stake in either of these rulings?

Thoughts On The "Red Facebook Explosion"

An interesting phenomenon happened on Facebook recently that thoroughly caught my attention. Anyone who logged on to the social networking outlook on Tuesday, March 26th and Wednesday, March 27th would have seen it. Thousands of profile pictures changed to this red and pink equals sign, painting everyone’s Newsfeeds in a sea of red.

The image being used was a modification of the logo for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC is an advocacy group for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender individuals), typically a yellow equals sign with a navy background. This trend was inspired because on March 26th and 27th the U.S. Supreme Court heard cases regarding the constitutionality of Proposition 8—the California ban on same-gender marriage—and DOMA—officially “Defense of Marriage Act,” which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-gender marriages as marriage, thereby prohibiting the federal government from granting them the 1,100 or so federal benefits for married couples regardless of which state they live in.

Now, I am well privy to the type of groundswell movements that often take place on social networks. Granted, most of the time it goes something like this: my Facebook Newsfeed is suddenly swarmed with “GO BIG RED!!” statuses, and I instantly know the Nebraska Cornhuskers are playing. But this was much bigger than that, because EVERYONE—coast to coast—would have seen it.

Homosexuality in the Mennonite Church: The Pittsburgh Experiment

Every two years, Mennonite Church USA holds a biannual convention to bring together Mennonites from all over the country. It is an opportunity to reunite with old friends, to worship God, and to celebrate a religious heritage that goes that goes all the way back to the Reformation in Europe. 

This convention also gives Mennonite Church USA’s delegate body—composed of representatives from member conferences and affiliated organizations—a chance to decide the direction that the broader denomination will take. And where I was always more concerned with the other aspects of the convention, it is the workings of the delegate body that I now find interesting.

And it is specifically the issue of inclusion of homosexuality that I particularly direct most of my attention.

Gay vs. God

If you were to ask me what the current state was between homosexuality and Christianity, I’m not entirely sure how to answer that one. I would say it is encouraging to see how many churches are becoming openly affirming and accepting, but there are still far too many yet that are not anywhere close; and that makes for a very polarized confrontation surrounding the issue of the level of acceptance.

However, if there is one thing I could say about all of this—if I were to, say, write a paper on it—my thesis would essentially be this: Homosexuality is the one issue that—in order to survive—I feel the church, as the universal body of Christ, will have to admit defeat and learn from secular culture that homosexuality is not wrong, but is instead something to be accepted as a natural part of life and (for some of us) to be embraced.

Critique: "Embrace Gay Marriage NOT Gay Culture"

In my last student newspaper article at my university, right before I graduated, I wrote an article that generally made the point that affirming gay marriage does not automatically also affirm gay culture. Now since then, I have realized the error of my ways in writing that article—which is why I am posting an altered version of that article in my blog.

To be honest, I would prefer for you just to read this one and forget about the other one. But for those of you who did read my initial article, it may be good to realize that you will recognize many portions of this post. Do not be alarmed. (I am pretty sure this does not count as plagiarism…I think….)

Musing on CPMC Annual Meeting

Not too long ago the Central Plains Mennonite Conference (CPMC)—which my church is a member congregation of—held its Annual Meeting. This was actually my fourth time in attendance to the delegate sessions, although this was my first time not actually being a delegate but simply a guest.

Attending Annual Meeting is always one of the most enjoyable parts of my summer. I like it because I always seem to leave feeling like I am a part of something bigger. This year, in particular, saw the end to a long and painful saga as St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship finally withdrew their membership from CPMC and instead joined the Central District Conference (CDC) of MennoniteChurch USA.

Civil Unions vs. Gay Marriage

Many people in the United States of America think that by offering civil unions or domestic partnerships, they are doing LGBT individuals a favor. A large portion of this comes from the belief that marriage is a religious ceremony, and homosexuality is a big taboo for a lot of religious people.

But this actually ignores one very important thing: marriage is not just religious, it is also civil. Now for years this has been wrapped up into one thing, but ever since the separation of church and state they have become two different animals. Basically you can be married without a religious ceremony, and you can be married without recognition by the government (the situation currently tied to cases of polygamy).

Preaching To The Choir...Almost...

I am always surprised when I come home how much opposition I DON’T get for being gay. If you read my previous post, “Land I Cannot Love,” you may have gotten the impression that this is an awful place to live as an openly gay man. But the truth is, it is not as bad as you or I would assume.

Now maybe I am just special because I actually do  try to juggle my faith with my sexual orientation. Is it possible that my continued interest in religion—more than most I might add—in an area of the country that is highly religious gives me some leeway that I would not have been given otherwise? It seems odd for that to be the case, because most of the opposition gay people get comes from religious people…and it is not like this is a religiously liberal area of the country either.

The Narnia Inside My Closet: Part 3

< Part 1  |  Part 2 >

In my first two posts, I wrote about my life growing up. I was a gay teenager who did not know how to process the fact that I was gay. The fact that I did not know anyone else around me who knew what I was going through put me even further into a rut.

The whole situation was actually quite simple: underlying my whole rejection of my own attraction to boys was my faith.

The Land I Cannot Love

After going back to live with my parents were I grew up, I recently realized something that I did not like: inevitably, probably not in the too distant future, I will be forced to move away from here for good.

This scared me; the thought of packing up a U-haul with everything I own and going to live in a new place—although it sounds exciting—brought tears to my eyes. Tears not of joy, but of sadness. I, very much down to my deepest bone, want to love this place—to call it home. The problem is I cannot. Being gay is just too much of a burden.

Historic Presidency Makes Step Forward

In case you have been living in a shell this past week, here’s what you missed: both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden came out in the media this week in favor of same-sex marriage. This is historic as this is the first presidency in U.S. history to openly affirm LGBT individual’s rights to marry.

This comes as good news for LGBT rights advocates as the Obama administration has thus far had a bumpy roller coaster ride of a presidential term. 

They were able to pass the Matthew Shepard Act in 2010 finally recognizing violence against LGBT individuals as a hate crime. And they successfully repealed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in 2010 allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military. All of this was bolstered by marriage equality being legalized in Connecticut in 2008; Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire in 2009; Washington D.C. in 2010; and New York in 2011.