Genesis used by both sides in gay debate

Gay marriage, with all its religious ramifications, is suddenly a hot political issue that will fester for years.

Following Massachusetts' court mandate for gay marriages and imitations by some local governments, President Bush decided the Constitution should be amended to define marriage as between one man and one woman. He said society will suffer if wedlock is "severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots" and "millennia of human experience."

Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts quickly accused the president of "trying to divide America," while a New York Times columnist scorned Bush as "the preacher-in-chief."

Religious groups were already immersed in debate, with both sides, oddly enough, using the same Bible passage:

"God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. ... And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:27,28,31).

Tradition-minded Jews and Christians stress the "male and female" phrase as well as Genesis 2:24, later repeated by Jesus: "A man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh."

In the opposite view, the Bible teaches that "all human beings are created in the image of God. Therefore all share equally in their human rights." That's why Reform Judaism opposes an amendment, as summarized by the president of its rabbinical conference. The Reform rabbinate's 1983 policy book called same-sex marriage "a contravention of all that is respected in Jewish life," but the organization endorsed secular gay weddings in 1996 and synagogue blessings in 2000.

Also echoing Genesis 1 (without citing it), the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing declares, "Our faith traditions celebrate the goodness of creation, including our bodies and our sexuality," so people of all orientations have the right "to lead sexual lives."

That statement has 2,235 endorsers, including the retired head of the Episcopal Church and 14 Episcopal bishops, other mainline Protestants, Reform rabbis, Unitarians, academics and activists.

The pro-amendment Alliance for Marriage, meanwhile, has significant backing from Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, evangelical Protestant, black Protestant, Mormon, Orthodox Jewish and Muslim leaders.

Islam's unanimity also has a scriptural basis in several Quran passages about Lot (the Sodom prophet also depicted in Genesis) that brand homosexual activity as "shameful," "wickedness" and a "transgression beyond bounds."

Many conservative Protestants are using secular arguments. One article said "gay marriage would be (1) bad for marriage, (2) bad for children and (3) bad for society." And 70 "pro-family" leaders protested that "runaway courts" are hampering democratic decision-making.

However, biblical teaching is emphasized by the U.S. Roman Catholic hierarchy and a rare joint statement on America's "moral crisis" from the nine heads of Eastern Orthodox churches.

Some Protestants who want liberalization argue that Scripture permitted practices that were later rejected, and vice versa, so that, as Methodist theologian Walter Wink puts it, "the Bible has no sexual ethic." Examples:

Polygamy: The Bible portrays polygamy (a man married to more than one woman), though never polyandry (a woman married to more than one man). Polygamy eventually died out in Judaism and was always forbidden by Christianity because monogamy was God's original design in Genesis.

Concubinage: Some biblical figures had concubines, with rights similar to wives. David took 10 (2 Samuel 15:16), his son Solomon overdid matters with 300 (1 Kings 11:3) and grandson Rehoboam had 60 (2 Chronicles 11:21).

Levirate marriage: The Old Testament forbids a man to marry his brother's wife (Leviticus 18:16, in the section that also bars gay sex) but expects such marriage if a brother dies, leaving a widow living in the same household (Deuteronomy 15:5-10).

Conservatives say those practices were concessions to ancient situations, but the Bible consistently denounced same-sex couples.