Newsweek Makes Religious Case for Gay Marriage

Newsweek's cover story this week makes a religious case for gay marriage. The story not only debunks the myth that the Bible condemns gay marriage, but also points to pieces in scripture that actually support it (as well as pieces that show how the definition of marriage has evolved over time). Here's a passage to entice you to read the whole piece:

"Religious objections to gay marriage are rooted not in the Bible at all, then, but in custom and tradition (and, to talk turkey for a minute, a personal discomfort with gay sex that transcends theological argument). Common prayers and rituals reflect our common practice: the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer describes the participants in a marriage as "the man and the woman." But common practice changes—and for the better, as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice." The Bible endorses slavery, a practice that Americans now universally consider shameful and barbaric. It recommends the death penalty for adulterers (and in Leviticus, for men who have sex with men, for that matter). It provides conceptual shelter for anti-Semites. A mature view of scriptural authority requires us, as we have in the past, to move beyond literalism. The Bible was written for a world so unlike our own, it's impossible to apply its rules, at face value, to ours."

A Newsweek poll also shows that support for gay marriage is growing.