The
sale and consumption of alcohol, suffrage, the teaching of
evolution in public school, the Civil Rights movement in general and
interracial marriage in particular, feminism...they all had something in common. There was a time when they were opposed by a significant number of conservative Christians in the United States on religious grounds (I realize that this is still the case for evolution). To be sure, there were Christians who not only did not oppose these things but who worked tirelessly to help bring them about. And yet, there was a time when each of these things was opposed by a majority of conservative Christians for what was presented as religious reasons.
When I think about same-sex marriage today, two things jump out out me:
- The fact that so many conservative Christians oppose it on religious grounds reminds me of all the other times conservative Christians have been on the wrong side of history.
- With history as a guide, I expect that the day will come when Christians in the future claim that Christians never opposed same-sex marriage but actually helped to bring it about.
The day will come when same-sex marriage will be legal throughout the United States. In fact, I'll be surprised if this does not happen during my lifetime. And at some point after it happens, we will hear Christians claiming that they were for same-sex marriage all along and that it would not have happened without their efforts.
Those of us alive today will know that this is not true and is little more than shameless
revisionist history. We will know that same-sex marriage is yet another example of many conservative Christians being
on the wrong side of history, clinging to bigotry and using their "holy" book to justify it.
