Debating Gay Marriage...
As I sit outside in a parking lot I can't help but contemplate how same-gender unions, or Gay Marriage, as it is more commonly called, has become the topic of the week for me, in another one of those strange convergences that seem to be God's way of less than subtly nudging me down the right path. I have just left the last of the Episcopal Diocese’s "Listening Sessions on Same-gender Unions”, though I believe by not calling it what it is, namely Marriage, we cheapen it. Although I don't always feel it, I am often reminded how young I still am, the 2006 Marshall-Newman marriage amendment was the first taste of the larger GLBT rights battle, and my first taste of defeat.
This Sunday I will be debating this issue at VCU sitting right next to the author of that bill, Bob Marshall, but this night I was just to listen to 10 other people as they shared their beliefs about “same-gender unions”. One brave woman, who was still uncertain as to where the others stood on the issue, said she had been in a 12 year relationship, it reminded me that while this has been a week-long obsession for me, for many it has been day to day for years or even decades.
There is much to be upset about in the world these days. War drags on, the economy does not pick up, the absence of intelligent political discourse is discouraging. And the violence against young people seems to be rising. The number of reports of teen suicides is alarming—and so many of them are due to bullying, and so often about sexuality (or at least perceived sexuality). There also is 
The folks from Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka KS are coming to Richmond this Sunday. They will bring their message of "God Hates Fags" . . . . and Jews and Muslims and Catholics . . . . and families of dead soldiers . . . . and now Protestant churches.
