By Dr. Ron Chapman
I was looking forward to this week's edition of the Leader because I expected there to be at least one letter to the editor condemning the U.S. Supreme Court's split decision in Obergefell vs. Hodges. I was not disappointed. Pastor Chandler's column advises Christian ministers to refuse to marry couples of the same sex because homosexuality is contrary to God's law and he is fearful of the Noah-like consequences that may ensue. (Chandler, 2015)
In the final analysis, if the spiritual leader of the Victor Valley Bible Church wishes to deny his ministerial services to same-sex couples (or to anyone else, for that matter), the U.S. Supreme Court, the Constitution, and I will fight to uphold his right to do so. What I can't support is his misuse of the Christian faith or the blurring of both equal protection clause and establishment clause guarantees to promote the continued marginalization of a minority in our community. Indeed, it is the issuance of marriage licenses and the state recognition of these licenses that is compelled, not the ceremonial rites of marriage. On the other hand, if I were a Pastor of a church, I would only feel honored to perform this rite for any couple in my congregation regardless of their gender. Why shouldn’t he?
"It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right." (Obergefell, 2015)
Associate Justice Kennedy's dicta has more Christian charity in it than all of the end-times demagogy of Pastor Chandler, whose tendentious reading of the Bible is obvious. For example: His mistaken reference to Paul's admonition to abstain from unfaithful sexual behavior in 1 Thessalonians 4:3; his a false equation of honor with heterosexuality in Hebrews 13:4; and his mistaken construction of God's law -- pursuant to the Torah – as a basis to discriminate against homosexuals (Sodomites, by inference) without reference to murderer's, fornicators, slave-traders, liars and perjurers. Where is his admonition to deny marriage rites to these sinners?
Pastor Chandler's intolerance of homosexual marriage may be supported by his reading of the Bible, but it is probably not founded in it entirely. Sociologists tell us that one's attitudes toward homosexuality predict one's attitudes about same-sex marriage, and psychologists tell us that "homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.” (Adams, Wright, & Lohr, 1996, p. 440)
Seen in this light, it is doubtful that Pastor Chandler will agree that Christians are free from the law of the Torah in deference to faithfulness to each other and inclusion of minorities (Lutheran Study Bible, 2009). Doubtful, because such would require his recognition that a significant purpose of Paul's mission to the Thessalonians and others was reconciliation rather than division. And, by the way, a Sodomite was a male temple prostitute, hardly the sort of individual Pastor Chandler is likely to see asking to take part in his marriage classes.
References
Adams, H., Wright, L., & Lohr, B. (1996). Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 105(3), 440-445.
Chandler, M. (2015, July 1). Should pastors still perform weddings. Lucerne Valley Leader, p. A4.
Lutheran Study Bible. (2009). Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress.
Obergefell et al., v. Hodges, Director, Ohio Department of Health, et al., 14-556 (U.S. Supreme Court June 26, 2015).
Dr. Chapman is a sociology instructor at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster and a resident of Lucerne Valley.