Last week Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, announced that he had changed his position on same-gender marriage. The reason: learning that his son Will is a gay man, and concluding that “all of our sons and daughters ought to have the same opportunity to experience the joy and stability of marriage.”
Writing before last November’s Election Day and the stunning progress at the ballot box, Hope College Professor of Psychology David Myers has reflected on the rapid and inevitable shift toward marriage equality, and the dangers for the church in opposing it:
Popular opinion, we all agree, should not decide ethics. But as neuroscience and psychological science document the natural basis for sexual orientation, as people become educated regarding these findings, as more and more gays and lesbians become known to loving family and friends, and as generational turnover rolls in like an ocean tide, it’s pretty clear where things are headed.
…Will our grandchildren look back on today’s culture war over sexual orientation as but another chapter in the church’s ever-reforming history – as a time the church was the oppressor rather than standing with the oppressed?
Read the whole essay, “The Church’s Future in a Gay-Supportive Age,” here.
David Myers was a featured speaker at the Covenant Conference in Houston in 2010. His presentation, “The Christian Case for Gay Marriage,” is available here.