Gay marriage: Fear and oppression also won at the ballot box

As an early supporter of Barack Obama, I rejoiced over his victory and the promise it brings for a less-violent and more-just world.

Buried in the election results, however, comes the news from four states that efforts to recognize the loving aspirations of 5 percent of our neighbors have been dealt a stunning blow of oppression. While we might not be surprised that Arkansas, Florida and Arizona would seek to deny the right of legal marriage to committed people of the same gender, the vote in California to overturn its Supreme Court's legalization of marriage equality was disheartening, to say the least.

Demoralizing might be a better word, because voters in these states made a conscious decision to hurt others. Theirs was a deliberate decision to inflict pain on good people. So "demoralizing" is the correct word: "to corrupt or undermine in morals or moral principle; to pervert or deprave," says my old Webster's.

The morality now violated rests on the oldest of spiritual guidelines: that we do or do not do to others what we wish they would do or not do to us. What saddens me is that when asked, these voters are likely to cite religious reasons for this political act of fear.

We in the church have a long history of moral intolerance toward those who differ from us, which makes it imperative we recall the cardinal distinction in Jesus' teaching between true morality and its moralistic perversion. While one can cite the fears of gospel writers and invoke their words literally (one may think) to support an act of discrimination, one cannot live in the spirit of Jesus and then act to put down the legitimate hopes of loving and committed couples.

With Jesus it is always the walk of love and justice that marks a faithful person. He reserved his strongest words of judgment for those who used religious moralism to undermine faithful understanding and action. The invocation of moral codes and their intimidating use against the more vulnerable of God's people undermines moral principle and perverts the intention of Christ.

There is nothing in the legal recognition of marriage between same sex couples that threatens marriage itself. Quite the reverse is true. It affirms and strengthens marriage by expanding its understanding.

Nor is there anything in the behavior of these couples, now disaffirmed, that would justify such action. Gay couples consistently exhibit a higher level of fidelity and responsibility in marriage than their heterosexual fellow citizens.

No, what prompts these acts of electoral violence is fear and fear alone, too long cultivated by our religious leaders in direct violation of the spiritual principles they claim to uphold.

Efforts to head off any attempt to legalize marriage equality will be coming to Washington state soon enough. There are churches where couples can find support and encouragement, and the theological conviction that in the most important sense they are surely married: "Let the state do its worst. In God's realm you are affirmed and welcomed."

But that is not enough when basic legal rights are so intertwined with our marriage laws. So I urge people with any spiritual foundation to become involved in the effort to head off the demoralization campaigns that will now draw upon the fears voiced in yesterday's elections.

Gregory Turner, a retired United Church of Christ clergyman, teaches history and theology at Seattle University's School of Theology and Ministry.