Prop 8

I've been so elated about the election that it has been difficult to think about what happened in California. I haven't wanted to lose steam... But, it's impossible to ignore the fact that we still face these disagreements with each other over basic civil rights.

As I sat at my Living the Questions seminar on Wednesday, I thought about how often I, as a left-leaning open-minded Christian, have sublimated my true beliefs in the face of more conservative views. I thought about how the entire time I was growing up there was this intuition in me that said, 'that doesn't sound like a loving God' when confronted with narrow interpretations of the divine. I feel evangelistic now - about my expansive view of God and my radical views of Jesus. I don't want to keep silent.

I got into an argument with Norm our contractor over this issue of marriage for all. He made what I'm sure he felt were innocuous statements about the timing of pushing this gay marriage stuff and said things that sound evil to me like: what about civil unions?

I lit into him. I gave my now well worn argument comparing civil unions to Brown vs. the Board of Ed and the ignominy of the concept of separate but equal... I hollered that, as a WASP man he had no idea what it meant to be asked to wait and be patient for rights that others enjoy. If it were 1922, I said, and I weren't allowed to vote, how long should I wait for you to wake up and acknowledge my right? When is it a good time for you? When might you get around to it, since you aren't the one suffering?

My pastor and her partner were married in California. I can't imagine waking up one morning to find that I am no longer married. Or that the marriage license I purchased from the state of Texas was invalid. Would they give me my money back? Or is it insult and injury for same sex couples who paid the state for the right to marry?