Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Sara Miles (who I posted about a few posts ago) being interviewed by The San Francisco Chronicle...

You are married to a woman who you've been with for almost 14 years. How do you reconcile Christian teachings that oppose same-sex relationships with your own beliefs as a Christian?

Which Christian teachings? I think it's kind of simple to say that the Bible says this or that thing is good or bad. The Bible is a collection of documents that is remade every time somebody reads it. And Christianity is a religion that over the centuries has adapted to incredibly different cultures, so people reinterpret and reinterpret and reinterpret [the Bible]. I also don't feel like once the last pages of the King James Bible were assembled that God stopped talking to Christians. The conversation between God and the church is not finished.

That said, as a practical matter you've got the Anglican Church this week saying that gay marriage is a sin for Episcopalians in this country. Presumably that includes those at St. Gregory's Church.I think that there is a powerful tendency in Christianity, as in all religions, to scapegoat people and define yourself by who you are not. The people who are trying to get rid of gay unions are the same people who were enraged over the idea that women could be ordained. They are the people who are enraged that if you are divorced you can be remarried in the church. Once you start to exclude people because they are the bad ones, you are doing the kind of scapegoating that in my view Jesus exists to overthrow. And I think it's sad. And I also think it won't stand.

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