Love Wins

When I saw this image, I cried. What's even better, the actual White House was lit up last night in rainbow colors. Painted with light. Glorious, the rainbow, the sign that the storm is over and we can make landfall safely. 

And yet, the religious right is predictably screaming that their rights have been trampled, that Christianity has been trashed and will lose so much, that gay people are such a tiny minority, their rights should not even be acknowledged. "They have made this country a Sodom and Gomorrah" one woman cried. Quite clearly, she is no biblical scholar, because scripture points out in very clear language that Sodom's sin was mistreating the poor. Ezekiel 16:49 -- "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy."  So far as I can see, if anyone is turning this country into Sodom, it's the Republican congress, which has conspicuously fattened itself while slashing money from programs to help the poor like there is no tomorrow.  

Another thing they are ignoring (or maybe unaware of): many if not most gay people are their brother and sister Christians. Christianity is the largest religion in the country, and gay people are notoriously religious. Monasteries and Convents are full of gay people. Some (if not most ) of our favorite saints were gay. Have you read the poetry of St. John of the Cross? Seriously? A majority of the Catholic priesthood is gay. How many fundamentalist preachers are exposed as or have come out as gay? It's commonplace. The louder they preach against it, the more likely they are to eventually admit it's themselves they're yelling about. Gay people aren't out to destroy their own primary religion. Take a breath, folks. They're your brothers and sisters in the church, not your enemies.

Some legislators are trying to make it illegal for a gay person to force an anti-gay clergy person to perform a wedding for them. Now seriously, people! A wedding is a joyous thing, a time of great celebration and love -- the forming of a new family, a time of blessing! Why would anyone want a hostile person to officiate at, or attend or have any part in their joyous simcha? The odds of that happening are zero. About the same as gay guys wanting to serve pizza at their wedding... I would rather wrestle an alligator in my underwear than have a hostile fundamentalist preacher do my wedding. Such a nutty idea, it gives you some idea of how deranged these people have made themselves over this. Of course, it is a huge temper tantrum for not getting their way. If we had lost that case, I would be the one having the tantrum. 

So in spite of cries of disaster from the right, there won't be a disaster. The US just joined the world community that has already recognized same gender weddings, like Argentina, Ireland, the UK, Uruguay, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, Iceland, France, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greenland, and the list goes on. Love is winning all over the world. People are people and love is love. 

And the world is richer for it.