How God Came to Be on Both Sides

So, voting happens on Tuesday. Should be a hoot.

Anyway, here in California there's this item on the ballot known as Proposition 8, which is essentially a measure that would add a line saying that marriage is between one man and one woman to our state constitution. It's fiercely contested, and is the most funded campaign (over $25 million on each side) in the US, second only to the presidential election.

Evangelical Christians, including Focus on the Family and Rick Warren, and other social conservatives in the state have been adamant in their support for the measure, while a smattering of others, including Google and Steven Spielberg, have been taking very public stances against the measure. Chuck Colson went so far as to say that if Proposition 8 does not pass (and thus same-sex marriage remains valid here in California) it will be a modern day Armageddon.

I will be voting against Proposition 8 for a number of reasons.

The primary reason that I will be voting against Prop 8 is because I believe very firmly in the separation of Church and State. I think that the only strong church is one which is free from the whims of our government, and I'm willing to accept that this sometimes will mean that our state will become more secularized. This, however, does not mean that our Church must compromise in any way, unless we see fit. The addition of this line, however, would be the institution of religious principles in an otherwise civil document.

Put another way, I find no compelling argument for Proposition 8 outside of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. I've heard the argument that every major society has held that marriage is between a man and a woman for 5,000 years, which is at least a little suspect. It's true in that I don't know of any source endorsing same-sex marriage over the span of human history, it's hardly true that the notion of marriage between one man and one woman is found throughout that time. For Christians, the Old Testament is filled with example after example of a godly man marrying multiple wives--in fact, this was often a sign of his godliness, as godliness led to prosperity and polygamy was a sure sign of prosperity. It seems to me that the New Testament's introduction of a man being married to but one wife (in Paul's description of a deacon, I believe) is more of a following culture thing than a moral revelation thing.

I certainly could be wrong.

I sat in my pastor's office this past Monday and for an hour and a half we discussed and debated these fourteen words and why they should or should not be added to our constitution. I respect and like my pastor very much, and though we still do not agree on this issue, those feelings have not changed. During the course of conversation, I made a comment to him that I did not understand at the time, but which I somehow still believed to be true. I said that there were Christians on both sides of this issue, and that I thought that those on both sides were right, both were following the will of God.

It was only days later that I kinda started to figure out maybe how that could actually be.

Maybe God cares more about the "why" when we vote than the "what." Maybe God hears my pastor's heart for holiness and redemption in his vote for Proposition 8 (as well as the heart of the rest of the church staff, the rest of the church, most of my friends, and even my girlfriend) but also hears my heart for compassion and justice (and justice in the sense that it is required that you view someone as an equal before you can act justly in relation to them) in my vote against Proposition 8, and God blesses both efforts. I'm reminded of that part in the Bible where Samuel is looking for a new king to anoint after Saul basically blows it. God tells Samuel, "People look at the outside appearance, but I look at the heart." (1 Sam. 16.7, good old Bible Gateway always comes to the rescue)

Maybe this is just what I tell myself so I can sleep at night knowing that I'm standing [what feels like] completely alone within my branch of the faith basically trying to destroy the most basic, time-tested foundation of all of civilization just for some "sinners." Or as one prominent minister out here put it, I'm throwing away 5 000 years of human tradition for just 2% of the population.

I guess I'm just doing what I feel like Jesus would have...standing up for the marginalized in our society. And I know that those of my creed on the opposite side feel the same about their stance, that they are indeed doing what Jesus would have done...standing up for moral truth and righteousness in a wicked generation.


On a slightly unrelated note, I love bluegrass music, and I have no idea why. I just do.

Peace, love, and joy.

Jesus Camp ~or~ Jesus Camp

So, I just finished watching Jesus Camp (imdb) which was an all-in-all fairly well-made documentary. Having grown up in the charismatic Christian circle, I definitely saw some artifacts from my childhood (though that's certainly not to say that my experience was like that of the children in this film). My only really big complaint against the movie is it's implicit assertion that most evangelicals are fundamentalist pentecostal evangelicals, which simply is not the case. This also carries into their portrait of evangelical Christians as somehow fully united or connected; obvious to anyone who reads this who's familiar with the evangelical Church, there are few things less united. Anywho, here are the straight notes from my steno while I was watching the movie (and if the bulleted list seems daunting, skip to the paragraph after it, cause that's where the best story of all is):

• Christianity really tends towards abject dualism (a quote from the movie goes something along the lines of 'Either you love Jesus or you hate him,' for example). This is terribly foreign to the world, and maybe not the way we ought to look at life. Worth considering, at least, possibly....
  
• The people showcased in this movie, and many Christians in general, seem to have warped Christianity from a spiritual movement into a political one. While I won't argue that our spirituality should not influence our political viewpoints, that doesn't seem to me to be the case here. For example, one of the home-school assignments (and I'm not saying anything about homeschooling; in fact, most of my favorite people in the world were homeschooled for most or all of their education) was analyzing the "logical fallacies" of scientists who argue for global warming. While analysis like this is good for any person's education, the question was obviously phrased with an intended answer ("Scientists believe that trends in recent summer heat point to a large-scale global warming. What's wrong with this thinking?") Additionally, the climax of the camp spiritual experience (at least, as edited by the filmmakers) was an anti-abortion rally. Lame. I mean, if that's the best we have to offer the world...
• We as Christians really reward obscure metaphorical language rather than just saying something straight out.
• There's a really ugly us-vs-them mentality on both sides of the Christian spectrum that gets really lame. (cf Jim Wallis over at "God's Politics," and most other evangelical leaders for a view from the "right")
• They just showed some sequences from New Life in Colorado Springs. Pretty trippy to see people that I recognize in a documentary...
• This "one-third of our generation was aborted stat," does anybody know where this came from? It really sounds crazy high to me, but I've heard it a lot in evangelical youth talk, mostly.

The highlight of the movie, though, for me was definitely one sequence where a pastor was affixing tape to kids mouths for a pro-life protest. (something like this) Anyway, the guy asks the kids their name before he slaps the tape on. The first kid says his name is Gideon. So the pastor tapes his mouth and says, "Gideon, maybe the Lord will have you lead the few to overcome the oppression of the many." He pats him on the back and sends him away. The next kid comes up; his name's Joseph. As pastor's taping his mouth, he says, "Who knows? Maybe God will have you to be head over the government someday, you dreamer of dreams." Pats him on the back, sends him away. The third kid comes up, and she's a little girl. So he asks her her name. She says, "Allison." As he's putting the tape on her mouth, he says, "Well, Allison, you look real nice with this tape on your mouth."

And I laughed.

Peace, love, and joy to you all.