Confronting Religious Denial of Gay Marriage

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Writing in part for secular humanists, non-Christians, and ex-Christians, Wallace locates the beginning of religious vilification of LBGTQ Americans: these attacks recycle earlier, equally reactionary political opposition to racial desegregation and equal rights for women. Then, step by step, she lays out three major flaws in the religious argument against gay marriage. First, it derives from Plato and Greco-Roman sexual anxieties, not from Jesus. Second, opposition to gay marriage takes Bible verses out of context, ignoring their roots in Iron Age biology, sexual politics in the classic era, and pagan ritual practices. Third and most importantly, this opposition reflects an inadequate moral theology based on a denial of contemporary science and social science. Then and only then does she offer her own concept of marriage as a morally rooted, creative process, laying out common ground easily shared by Christian humanists and secular humanists alike. Her nimble, accessible account, richly leavened by personal stories, will facilitate new conversations and alliances among all those, believers and nonbelievers alike, who affirm the moral dignity of gay marriage. "Catherine Wallace is a force of nature. She is brilliant, persuasive, compassionate, and wise. Her new book in the Confronting Fundamentalism series addresses the issue of gay marriage. She does so with such clarity, directness, and zest that it's hard to imagine anyone reading this book without being challenged to understand LGBTQ identity--and marriage--afresh and anew." --Brian D. McLaren, author/speaker/activist (brianmclaren.net) "We are fortunate that someone as formidably sharp and intellectually rigorous as Wallace has turned her attention to a topic impacting so many casualties of the 'war on homosexuality, ' which has been raging for more than four decades. As one who has suffered great personal pain on the receiving end of fundamentalist thinking, I found Wallace's words offering not only sound reason and logic, but deep healing." --Joseph D. Mole, LMSW, Executive Director, Emmaus House "Wallace shows how the anti-gay hate-mongering typical of various fundamentalisms belies the humanity and wisdom of the deeply grounded moral imagination of Western cultures. In weaving together stories of her own and others' experience, sound scholarship, and humane wisdom, Wallace invites all of us to the public and consistent support of gay marriage that will accomplish the social and cultural transformation promised by legal changes." --Ellen K. Wondra, Research Professor of Theology and Ethics, Bexley Seabury Seminary Federation, Editor Emerita, Anglican Theological Review "Wallace argues effectively, passionately, persuasively for a deeply appealing conception of marriage that can and should be available to same-sex and different-sex couples alike. . . . As usual, Wallace is insightful, provocative, and thoroughly helpful." --Gary Chartier, Associate Dean, Professor of Law and Business Ethics, Tom and Vi Zapara School of Business, La Sierra University Catherine Miles Wallace is a cultural historian on the faculty of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. She is the author of For Fidelity: How Intimacy and Commitment Enrich Our Lives (Knopf, 1998).