Why Reconciliation Must Be More Than Racial

On November 4th our nation broke the color barrier that had a strangle hold on the highest civil office in our form of government. In the same voting booth citizens in California voted for President-Elect Obama, and against a court ruling that extended civil rights to homosexual persons. I appears that the left coast (somewhat ironic in this instance) does not believe that homosexual persons have suffered long enough to be afforded the civil rights that not long ago kept interracial couples from being married. And it is for this reason that Reconciliation as a mission imperative for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) must be something other than solely a pragmatic, racial experience.


I watch Keith Olbermann almost every night. He has become for me what Morrow was for his generation of listeners and viewers. On November 10th, Mr. Olbermann delivered a special comment on Proposition 8 measure in California. I think it is a good place to begin the conversation about reconciliation, the biblical witness, and what it means to live in a free society. And now, Keith's thoughts.

Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment on the passage, last week, of Proposition Eight in California, which rescinded the right of same-sex couples to marry, and tilted the balance on this issue, from coast to coast.

Some parameters, as preface. This isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics, and this isn't really just about Prop-8. And I don't have a personal investment in this: I'm not gay, I had to strain to think of one member of even my very extended family who is, I have no personal stories of close friends or colleagues fighting the prejudice that still pervades their lives.

And yet to me this vote is horrible. Horrible. Because this isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics. This is about the human heart, and if that sounds corny, so be it.

If you voted for this Proposition or support those who did or the sentiment they expressed, I have some questions, because, truly, I do not understand. Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships, these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option. They don't want to deny you yours. They don't want to take anything away from you. They want what you want—a chance to be a little less alone in the world.

I keep hearing this term "re-defining" marriage. If this country hadn't re-defined marriage, black people still couldn't marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal in 1967. 1967.

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Filed Wed - November 12, 2008, 04:02 PM in

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