Yeah, right! One of the most interesting aspects of the whole same-sex marriage 'debate' is the way in which conservative voices position 'traditional marriage' (and by extension the Christian conservative movement) as the victim and GLBT-rights advocates as the oppressors.
It is most startling to hear conservative black clergy referring to their work to deny equal rights to a section of society as representing the modern continuation of the civil rights and justice struggle of the last century.
As far as I can tell, not one human or civil right belonging to heterosexual couples and their families is threatened by the prospective legitimation of same-sex marriage. But numerous rights currently enjoyed by same-sex and different-sex couples are threatened in every state that enacts a constitutional ban with a 'no equivalency' clause, as has been the case in Ohio and is proposed for Minnesota.
How can a movement which controls the legislative and executive branches of the most powerful nation on earth (and many of its state legislatures and administrations) claim to be an oppressed minority? Saying it makes it so, I guess.
We need to get the message out that this is not a struggle of righteous Christians against 'atheists, secularists and homosexuals,' as if these were mutually exclusive and opposing poles of society. And may God help every Christian leader who abuses his or her authority to teach such intolerance and discrimination and to demonize or render invisible alternative Christian voices.
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