As I watch Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, and other former Confederate states try to delay same-gender folks from getting married, I keep remembering Governor George Wallace saying, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!”
The governor later repented, apologized, and acknowledged that he had been on the wrong side of the issue and on the wrong side of history. I read last week that that, while 57 percent of Americans support marriage equality, almost 75 percent of Millennials do. Since that generation now officially outnumbers Baby Boomers, there is an inevitability not only in the law, but in the court of public opinion. The last generation to oppose treating all law-abiding American taxpayers equally is going to die sooner rather than later.
This battle may be over, but the war is not yet won. Just as racist politicians are working overtime to chip away at the hard-won Voting Rights Act, so they will use the artificial ruse of religion to try to sustain discrimination against lesbian and gay people. It is, however, all a lie. As a clergy person for most of my life, I can tell you there is no one on the planet who can make me preside at a wedding I don’t want to perform. If pastors actually believe the Bible is inerrant they wouldn’t do Donald Trump’s third marriage because, although Jesus didn’t say anything about MY marriage, he did talk about Trump’s considering he has been divorced … TWICE.
Ironically, some pastors in the South still won’t marry a mixed-race couple, and they have every right to be racist bigots. Fundamentalists also have the right to be homophobic bigots, and that is how history will judge them both.
However, I have paid the same taxes as every heterosexual citizen of the United States, and the GOVERNMENT doesn’t have the right to discriminate against law-abiding taxpayers simply because a minority of people’s religion doesn’t approve. THAT is what it all comes down to. If you need to explain that to some of your friends who are as narrowly fundamentalist as ISIS, send them this Liberating Word. As an activist in the South for 35 years, I have really thick skin. Almost as thick as Jesus’ skin must have been when dealing with fundamentalists of his day. Some things never change.
Blessings,
Rev. Michael Piazza