Jun 17 2008
Still Here!
It’s now been more than twenty-four hours since California started granting same sex marriages, and, guess what? The state hasn’t fallen into the ocean. The Big One earthquake didn’t crumble every building. Lightning bolts didn’t strike anyone dead. Even in Kern County (where, by the way, I am headed tomorrow to visit family), life went on pretty much as normal as can be.
What has happened is a lot of love expressed. There are a lot of happier people in California. County coffers are filling up with revenue from the issuance of marriage licenses. The wedding industry is having a field day filling orders for wedding cakes, formal wear, wedding halls, you name it.
In my home of Martinez, a small group from the Westboro Baptist Church, the family (and that all it is—one family) from Kansas led by Fred Phelps who demonstrate all around the country against homosexuality, was spreading their hate here this morning at the wedding of Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder Steve Weir and his partner John Hemm. The CC Times website has video coverage and I’m sure it will be on the news elsewhere tonight.
One’s first reaction tends to be of sadness and disgust, but I will never forget the time this same group showed up in 2001 outside of Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) General Assembly/United Church of Christ General Synod in Kansas City with a big demonstration. The youth of the churches, however, organized on their own an even bigger counter-demonstration across the street, and that evening Mary Donovan Turner, now the dean of Pacific School of Religion, delivered one of the greatest sermons I have ever heard, one that, without mentioning them directly, addressed the events of the day in a way that was as Christ-like as one human being could be. I have never been prouder of my denomination than I was that day.
And I am pretty darn proud of my church today, too. Thank you to Janet Appel, a lay member of First Christian Church Concord for your leadership and grace and for being out in front on such an important day as yesterday by performing the first same sex marriage in Alameda County. Thank you to all of you who support our ministries and our sense of social and individual justice. Not all of us agree on all of the issues of the day all of the time – and that’s certainly okay, in fact it’s the way I think it should be – but we all practice our faith passionately and honestly and with a deep commitment to creating a better world for all of God’s people. My church truly is an inclusive, loving community of faith and justice, seeking, celebrating, and serving Christ through open minds, committed hearts, and willing hands.
It’s a great day to be a person of faith and a Californian.
