This week, I’m all aflutter about the decision in my home
state of Pennsylvania to allow same sex marriage. Of course, it’s been the law
in my chosen state for ten years (we moved here in 2004, too, the same year it
came through), but this feels different. Pennsylvania is such a big state—the
part I’m from is basically Ohio—and while it’s may not be such a paradigm shift
for Philadelphia, for Erie, this changes a lot. Admittedly there was something Onion-satire-like
about the headline on the Erie Times-News: “Another same sex couple applies for
marriage license.”
In Massachusetts, this is old news. Still, there’s something about the place
where I’m from recognizing the right
to marriage for all people that feels healing. My right to marry my spouse was
never questioned because my beloved happens to be male, but that is not the
case for one of my high school best friends, who had three weddings with her
wife—one commitment ceremony, one legal NH civil union (presided over by yours
truly), and one party when that civil union became a legal marriage on January
1 2011. Phew. They had to buy a lot of champagne.
Marriage is a sacrament, a gift, and a blessing. There’s an
old image of the church that imagines us as “the bride of Christ”—this is not
an image that I feel particularly drawn toward, but it reminds us that the
covenant of marriage is holy—and the failure of the church or the state to
extend equal benefits to all is just an injustice. Of course I believe in separation of church
and state, but I also want a wedding I officiate in church to be legal in the
eyes of the state. I haven’t been to Pennsylvania in years, but I still feel so
grateful for this. Judge John Jones, in the PA case wrote, “In the sixty years since Brown was
decided, 'separate' has thankfully faded into history, and only 'equal'
remains. Similarly, in future generations, the label 'same-sex marriage' will
be abandoned, to be replaced simply by 'marriage.' We are a better people than
what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history"
This is the country we are becoming; we’re not there yet,
but slowly, slowly. This is what we say
we’ll do in our baptismal covenant: to strive for justice and peace and respect
the dignity of every human being. With
each state where marriage for all becomes a reality, we get just a little
closer to making that possible. Oregon
went this week, too. I’ve written this stuff
in my parish newsletter before. I’ll write it again. It’s like that parable
Jesus tells in Luke 15:
Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of
them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one
that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his
shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his
friends and neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my
sheep that was lost.
Every time, every
time there is a victory for peace and justice, we are called to rejoice. So today,
I’m rejoicing for those two couples in my hometown who’ve gotten their marriage
licenses. Easter continues!
PS--for the face of gay Erie, PA, I present Jessie and Ricardo, also known on facebook as "The gay guys who ride around Erie on a bicycle made for two," a fan page with almost 6000 followers."
Interview: Art in Tandem
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