RALLY AGAINST SSM MISSES THE POINT: Rev. Jason Poling

AS AN EVANGELICAL pastor with conservative views on most political issues, I might be expected to attend today's expected Defend Maryland Marriage Rally in Annapolis. But I'll skip it, and here's why:

This rally misses the point about marriage.
I share with rally organizers a concern for the state of marriage in our society. As a pastor, I am intimately familiar with the tragedies that are involved in once-healthy marriages that are threatened and dying, and I have counseled people through the pain of infidelity and divorce. I am very aware of the responsibility I bear when I unite a couple in marriage.

But I am not convinced that same-sex marriages are the primary threat to marriage today. Far more dangerous are the many pseudo-marital arrangements that allow people to experience "marriage lite" without entering into the serious commitment involved in marriage. The recognition of "domestic partnerships" and "civil unions" among homosexual couples can necessitate the same recognition for heterosexual couples. This phenomenon is well advanced in Scandinavia, where marriage has become the exception rather than the rule even for families with children.

It is the commitment involved in marriage that makes it so fulfilling when it is pursued faithfully. It seems ironic that at a time when marriage is threatened by the lack of commitment, those who want to uphold marriage are seeking vigorously to oppose those who pay this noble institution the honor of participating in it. ...

Condemning homosexual arrangements is easy for people who have no interest in homosexual behavior, much easier than addressing inappropriate heterosexual behavior. It's been my experience that it's a lot easier to fall into immoral behavior when one's attention is directed at somebody else's immoral behavior rather than at one's own faults.

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posted by Eve at 4:30 AM VOTE

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