Christians who oppose marriage equality (or LGBTQ rights of any kind) are ignoring Jesus’ command to love their neighbors as themselves.
They are choosing to revoke the freedoms from others that they already enjoy: the right to marry the person they love, the right to adopt children, the right to body autonomy, the right to define their identity, the right to spousal benefits.
Their incessant persecution of people whose relationships, families, and healthcare decisions do not affect them in the slightest isn’t just a lousy thing to do on a human level; it’s also a willful act of rebellion against Jesus.
– John Pavlovitz
Excerpted from “The Sin of Denying Someone’s Joy”
The Beautiful Mess
August 12, 2025
Excerpted from “The Sin of Denying Someone’s Joy”
The Beautiful Mess
August 12, 2025
Related Off-site Links:
Who is Kim Davis? Ex-Kentucky Clerk Wants Supreme Court to Overturn Gay Marriage Ruling – Marina Johnson and Maureen Groppe (Louisville Courier Journal, August 12, 2025).
Kim Davis Supreme Court Showdown: Could This Be the End of Gay Marriage in America? – Marie Joy Toledo (International Business Times, August 12, 2025).
U.S. Supreme Court Formally Asked to Overturn Landmark Same-sex Marriage Ruling – Devin Dwyer (ABC News, August 11, 2025).
See also the following Wild Reed posts:
• Progressive Catholic Perspectives on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Marriage Equality Ruling
• Mariam Williams: Quote of the Day – July 13, 2015
• Tim Wise: Quote of the Day – June 26, 2015
• Ian Reifowitz: Quote of the Day – February 2, 2015
• On the First Anniversary of Marriage Equality in Minnesota, a Celebratory Look Back at the Important Role Played by Catholics (2014)
3 comments:
First, the embedded link that should go to that Substack actually goes to a Tom Friedman NYT piece on the Gaza War.
Second, I cannot think of a good non one-on-one situation where replying to an accusation of sin and sinfulness with "no you're the sinner and the one engaging in the sinfulness here" is fruitful. (In my long experience, that mirroring approach only has the possibility of good fruit in a strong one-on-one relationship in a face-to-face dialogue of just two people.) Basically, it has a TON of what might be called "elder brother" energy (cf. Parable of the Prodigal Son, Elder Son, and Merciful Father) - actually, *competitive* "elder brother" energy.
That energy is the kind of thing the closes hearts and therefore minds, and therefore only signals that conversation is a game of one-upmanship and tit-for-tatship.
I am sensitive to this dynamic because of a homily I heard at a young age - the most memorable homily I’ve experienced in my decades of life occurred around or after 1970, around the time I turned 10 years of age. The Catholic priest giving the homily had read the Gospel passage from Luke 18:9-14 - the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. After closing the Book of the Gospels, the priest paused for a short but perceptible while, and then said a single sentence to this effect: “I wonder how many of us are thanking God we are not like that Pharisee.” Then he stood there for another short but perceptible while, and then sat down for some further silence before rising to lead the Creed. It blew my mind. And its import has been with me nearly daily for the rest of my life.
Decades later I encountered a long-form version of this from C.S. Lewis*. * “He [the devil] always sends errors into the world in pairs--pairs of opposites...He relies on your extra dislike of one to draw you gradually into the opposite one.” I would amend Lewis to note that sometimes, if you stare at your enemy long enough, you become more like her/him/it/them, so you might just end up staying stuck in the same error."
So, to engage in a bit of prolepsis here, one might well object that this caution forces one tolerate intolerance. That's actually not my point. Rather, I would suggest something else - from the 16th century Spanish Carmelite mystic, San Juan de La Cruz in a letter near the end of his life in Madrid to a Carmelite mother in Segovia: “[Y] adonde no hay amor, ponga amor, y sacará amor” - “And where there is no love, put love, and you will draw out love."
How do we love Kim Davis and those who are pushing her case to the SCOTUS? Isn't that the question?
Thanks, Percy! I've corrected the link.
Particularly in this environment in which white Christian nationalism has sought to hijack the Christian message, clearly rejecting hatred perpetrated in the name of Christianity is important. It may not turn the heart of Kim Davis but it protects the LGBTQ+ people her abusive Christianity harms. It also highlights the core of the Christian message and names its distortion. So, I guess I'm arguing for a different focus of energy. I can only lift Kim David ( and other violently homophobic people who use their faith to harm people) up to God's power and grace. Meanwhile, I am called to speak the truth in love, claimed the core message of love at the heart of the gospel, and focus on the marginalized and those in solidarity with the marginalized, which is where Jesus spent his time.
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