Philocrites

Peter Gomes vs. Archbishop O'Malley.

by Philocrites

The Rev. Peter J. Gomes, minister of Harvard's Memorial Church, writes today's must-read op-ed.

There are always conscientious people of deeply held religious conviction who, alas, on the basis of those convictions find themselves on the wrong side of history, such as those in our own Commonwealth who hanged witches in the 17th century and embraced the fugitive slave laws in the 19th century; and those who in our own time find the support of custom, reason, and faith in their prejudices against Roman Catholics, Jews, and persons of other colors and ethnicities.

This resistance to extending not special rights but civil rights to homosexuals in marriage is but the most recent instance of this dubious legacy, and is not made any more palatable or respectable today by the support given to it by visible and highly placed clergy across denominational lines, from whom we have a right to expect better. . . .

To extend the civil right of marriage to homosexuals will neither solve nor complicate the problems already inherent in marriage, but what it will do is permit a whole class of persons, our fellow citizens under the law heretofore irrationally deprived of a civil right, both to benefit from and participate in a valuable yet vulnerable institution which in our changing society needs all the help it can get.

("For Massachusetts, a chance and a choice," Peter J. Gomes, Boston Globe 2.8.04)

Copyright © 2004 by Philocrites | Posted 8 February 2004 at 10:15 AM

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