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Published On: Apr 07, 2009 10:27 AM
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Published On: Apr 07, 2009 10:27 AM
Isn't that ironic?
There's been an interesting new development the
continuing saga that is the argument over gay marriage in the Presbyterian
Church (USA).
The short version of the story is that a minister in the PCUSA was brought up on charges for officiating at a same-sex weddings in 2004 and 2005. Her Presbytery (the group of churches in a small geographical area) found her not guilty. That decision was reversed on appeal to the Synod (a group of Presbyteries in a geographical area) and she was given very lightest discipline possible, a rebuke.
Well, today the Synod decision was overturned and the original Presbytery decision was upheld at the General Assembly level by the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, our version of a Supreme Court. The decision itself should make the right wing fundies' heads explode.
See the fundies have been working so hard for so long to make sure we all know that "marriage is defined as one man and one woman". Heck, it's even in our denomination's Book of Order (one half of our denomination's "constitution"): "Marriage is a gift God has given to all humankind for the well-being of the entire human family. Marriage is a civil contract between a woman and a man. For Christians marriage is a covenant through which a man and a woman are called to live out together before God their lives of discipleship. "
See where this is heading yet?
The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission ruled that Rev. Spahr can't have violated the Book of Order by conducting same-sex marriages, because according to the denomination, anything that isn't between a man and a woman isn't a marriage. Hilarious.
Of course, that section of the Book of Order needs to be changed, and plenty of people are already working on it. But as it stands now, this is a brilliantly subversive decision that relies on the fundies' own silly arguments to work. Gotta love the irony.
UPDATE: Been thinking more about this, and the irony just keeps on coming...
The ruling itself is simply a very strictly literal reading of the Book of Order. So, those fundies who require a very strictly literal reading of the Bible should be thrilled! Ironic, no?
Also, the previous standard in the PCUSA regarding same-sex marriage was that a Minister couldn't perform a ceremony they thought was the same as a heterosexual wedding. But now it no longer matters what anyone thinks. Everyone can think that gay and straight marriages are equal, because they are. Don't get me wrong, all of this is still pathetic, wrong, idiotic and bigoted, but the ruling these people are enforcing on themselves is actually much more expansive than the previous rulings, and makes it impossible to discipline ministers for these ceremonies. Will the irony never stop?
Nope there's more...
Gotta love the circular reasoning: A minister can't be disciplined violating the Book of Order on marriage because the Book of Order says he can't do anything that would violate the Book of Order on marriage.
Want to marry 2 pigs? Well, that's not against the Book of Order now either. Yes, after years of warning us about teh gays, it is in fact the fundies have led the PCUSA to incest, bestiality, and polygamy. (Or if not bestiality yet, then at the very least, the baptism of dogs. But we all know that's just a slippery slope to actual fundie sanctioned bestiality.)
... drowning in irony.
The short version of the story is that a minister in the PCUSA was brought up on charges for officiating at a same-sex weddings in 2004 and 2005. Her Presbytery (the group of churches in a small geographical area) found her not guilty. That decision was reversed on appeal to the Synod (a group of Presbyteries in a geographical area) and she was given very lightest discipline possible, a rebuke.
Well, today the Synod decision was overturned and the original Presbytery decision was upheld at the General Assembly level by the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, our version of a Supreme Court. The decision itself should make the right wing fundies' heads explode.
See the fundies have been working so hard for so long to make sure we all know that "marriage is defined as one man and one woman". Heck, it's even in our denomination's Book of Order (one half of our denomination's "constitution"): "Marriage is a gift God has given to all humankind for the well-being of the entire human family. Marriage is a civil contract between a woman and a man. For Christians marriage is a covenant through which a man and a woman are called to live out together before God their lives of discipleship. "
See where this is heading yet?
The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission ruled that Rev. Spahr can't have violated the Book of Order by conducting same-sex marriages, because according to the denomination, anything that isn't between a man and a woman isn't a marriage. Hilarious.
Of course, that section of the Book of Order needs to be changed, and plenty of people are already working on it. But as it stands now, this is a brilliantly subversive decision that relies on the fundies' own silly arguments to work. Gotta love the irony.
UPDATE: Been thinking more about this, and the irony just keeps on coming...
The ruling itself is simply a very strictly literal reading of the Book of Order. So, those fundies who require a very strictly literal reading of the Bible should be thrilled! Ironic, no?
Also, the previous standard in the PCUSA regarding same-sex marriage was that a Minister couldn't perform a ceremony they thought was the same as a heterosexual wedding. But now it no longer matters what anyone thinks. Everyone can think that gay and straight marriages are equal, because they are. Don't get me wrong, all of this is still pathetic, wrong, idiotic and bigoted, but the ruling these people are enforcing on themselves is actually much more expansive than the previous rulings, and makes it impossible to discipline ministers for these ceremonies. Will the irony never stop?
Nope there's more...
Gotta love the circular reasoning: A minister can't be disciplined violating the Book of Order on marriage because the Book of Order says he can't do anything that would violate the Book of Order on marriage.
Want to marry 2 pigs? Well, that's not against the Book of Order now either. Yes, after years of warning us about teh gays, it is in fact the fundies have led the PCUSA to incest, bestiality, and polygamy. (Or if not bestiality yet, then at the very least, the baptism of dogs. But we all know that's just a slippery slope to actual fundie sanctioned bestiality.)
... drowning in irony.
Posted: Tue - April 29, 2008 at 04:59 PM