THREE NEW BOOKS EXAMINE PROS, CONS OF SSM: From the San Francisco Chronicle

Mark Jordan -- a Roman Catholic convert and professor of religion -- has a stock answer when his airplane seatmate asks, "So, are you married?"

"No," he replies. "It's not legal yet in Georgia."

If that doesn't stop the conversation, Jordan may go on to explain how the Bible doesn't really bless monogamy, condemn homosexuality or anoint what conservatives call "traditional family values."

And even if queer matrimony were blessed by the Bible and the Great State of Georgia, neither Jordan nor his gay partner wants anything to do with it.

"We don't want a marriage," he said in an interview. "The institution is too broken for us to sign on."

Jordan, the Asa Griggs Candler professor of religion at Emory University, was in San Francisco last week to promote his book, "Blessing Same-Sex Unions -- The Perils of Queer Romance and the Confusions of Christian Marriage."

It is one of three books coming out just in time for June brides and grooms who want to look at the history and theology of marriage. In "What God Has Joined Together -- A Christian Case for Gay Marriage," David G. Meyers and Letha Dawson Scanzoni challenge the notion that Catholics and conservative evangelicals hold the true "Christian" position on holy matrimony. Author Stephanie Coontz takes an even longer view of marriage in "Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage." ...

Nevertheless, Jordan said he understands how some gay couples want a marriage "because it feels like the ultimate form of acceptance by their churches and families." ...

Jordan lost a partner to AIDS in the summer of 1995, and watched the various ways his friends responded to the news that their lovers had AIDS.

"Some people bolted, and some people didn't. I'm really interested in the people who didn't, the people who thought this romantic, giddy, erotic relationship is actually serious enough for me to spend three years, five years, going through hell with this person," he said.

"All of a sudden there was a premium on fidelity, not in the sexual sense, but in the sense of staying with someone in sickness and health, until death do us part."

more
posted by Eve at 4:06 PM | link

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home