Kos
expressed yesterday what I'm sure many progressives are feeling:
The issue of Gay Marriage is obviously the hot topic, and it's one that arouses passions on all sides (me included).
But to those of you who cry doom, that say, "You've fallen into Rove's trap!", I say chill. The issue'll pass. And probably sooner rather than later.
It's a huge issue, and one that cuts to the core of our identity as Democrats. Rove may have introduced the debate, but we are responding to the Democrats, not Rove. The Democratic contingent in the Senate has handled the issue adroitly -- it doesn't matter whether they are for or against gay marriage or civil unions, they simply say that the Constitution is not the place to address the issue.
It's a simple response, and one that avoids the emotional baggage of debating the merits of the issue. There's a reason to the US Supreme Court likes to decide charged issues based on procedural grounds. It delays the issue until such a time that passions are cooled, and cooler heads can prevail.
Those who view this as a purely political issue wish it would go away as soon as possible and prefer to not debate it on its merits. But it's not a purely political issue. As much as secular progressives dream of a world where every one leaves their religious views at home when they come to discuss politics in the public square, that is not where we are at this time in this country.
We have a problem with Christian fundamentalism in this nation. It's not as acute as the threat posed by Muslim fundamentalism in other parts of the world, but it has been an almost constant source of division and distraction during the past 35 years.
Modernity and globalization are producing fairly rapid social changes in our society. Fundamentalism--in America's case, Christian fundamentalism--is one fear-filled response to that change. It seeks to turn back time to an idealized, non-threatening past. But fundamentalism ultimately fails because it cannot stop the march of modernity, it can only prevent its adherents from adapting to it.
American Christianity has arrived at a very teachable moment. Choosing to base their arguments about sexual behavior on ancient biblical texts, the fundamentalist leaders risk removing the veil that has shielded the eyes of their followers from the peculiarities and difficulties of the Bible. How many younger Evangelical women will be pleased to learn for the first time about the scriptures' technical definition of "adultery" that commanded that a wife be stoned to death for sleeping with another man but allowed her husband to consort with prostitutes without sanction? How long will Christian Right spokesmen be able to warn of the bogeyman of polygamy before someone demands that they show which biblical passages actually prohibit the practice? There exists a real opportunity to free many in the fundamentalists' flock from the manipulation that has been practiced upon them.
There are few things that would produce more benefits to the progressive cause. Our political discourse has been warped for a generation by one wedge issue after another, and no one should be so foolish as to think that gay equality will be the last. Christian fundamentalism is either a problem we must address or one to which we will be subject indefinitely.
Non-fundamentalist Christians have a critical role to play in this. We are able to debate this is "on the merits" and carry the discussion to the very core of the fundamentalists' presuppositions. The outcome will surely not be that fundamentalism will disappear, but just as surely its appeal to those frightened by change will be substantially reduced.
Unfortunately, the established Christian Left has taken a pass on this issue, but there are Christian progressives who are ready to cover the "religious flank" for the movement of which we are a part. We see this marriage debate not as something we wish would go away but as an opportunity to help move American Christianity out of its prolonged adolescence toward a maturity in which the faith can again be a voice for justice and peace.