Dobson took aim at Obama’s asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy — chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. “Folks haven’t been reading their Bibles,” Obama said. Dobson accuses Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus’ teachings in the New Testament. “I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology,” Dobson said. ”He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.”

Of course, Obama is hardly the first to raise the question of which Biblical principles should be applied in creating public policy. And he raises an important issue: just which principles are now antiquated and no longer need to be followed? I hardly think Dobson would agree that the Old Testament texts used to justify a Biblical injunction against same sex marriage would be antiquated.

So the question really is—and this is especially important when you look at what Jesus had to say about homosexuality (which is absolutely nothing)—how can we tell which part of the Bible is antiquated and need not be followed, and which part isn’t? Can you answer that for us, James?

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.