Betsy Shirley 6-26-2015
rainbowflagchurch

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling today that “same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry in all States,” many wondered how Christian leaders in the U.S. would react.  

But despite lingering stereotypes, many religious folk in the U.S. are now supportive of same-sex marriage. In fact, a recent survey found that “among religiously affiliated Americans, supporters today actually outnumber opponents.”   

Below, read some of the responses from Christian leaders — including evangelicals, Catholics, and Protestants — who have expressed their joy and support for today’s Supreme Court ruling, as well as the work left to be done towards full LGBTQ inclusion in our nation and churches.  

Benjamin Moberg 6-26-2015
rainbowflag

The debate is over.

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court decided this morning that marriage was a fundamental right for all couples regardless of gender. All Americans who wish to can now marry the same-sex partner they love. Every state law that bans such marriages is now dead. And it is overIt is finished. This debate, at long last, is done.

This is a good day to be present. I want to document this day into my memory, so I might tell my children about it later. Although at 25 I can’t possibly understand all this decision entails, there may be a day down the road when I stand tuxedoed and teary-eyed and holding the hands of another, and I want this memory to color that moment. I want to feel the gift of it.

But this day also brings up a lot of complicated feelings for me, too. I am, after all, a follower of Jesus, and many in this family of Christians are not celebrating with me. They are unsure of what to say, uncertain of what the future holds. 

Jim Wallis 6-26-2015
charleston

It is painfully true that in our time, in this year, in the United States, there is still no safe space for black people in America — even in their own churches. Racism is America’s original sin. It expresses itself explicitly and overtly in what we horribly saw last week in a black church, but racism continues on, implicitly and covertly, in American institutions and culture.

the Web Editors 6-26-2015
Image via Kostsov / shutterstock.com

Gay couples have a legal right to marry, SCOTUS ruled today. 

“The court now holds that same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry. No longer may this liberty be denied to them,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Washington Post reports. 

The 5-4 ruling comes as a legal confirmation of the rapidly changing tide of public sentiment towards legalizing same-sex marriage, which was legal in only four states until the last five years, but saw 33 more states rule in favor since 2010. 

Jennifer Bailey 6-26-2015
smoke

The past 12 months of violence against unarmed black bodies continues to draw national attention to the ongoing challenge of police brutality in the United States. Under the collective action call of #blacklivesmatter, activists and concerned citizens across the country challenge the ideology of white supremacy undergirding our criminal justice system and demand an end to state violence against black bodies. Yet the #blacklivesmatter movement is about more than an end to police brutality; it is call for the health, wholeness, and vitality of all black communities and a world in which black lives are no longer systemically and intentional targeted for demise. This includes an account of the physical environment in which black communities reside.

Joe Kay 6-26-2015
Charleston vigil

The sickness in our society is driven by the way we mistrust and pull away from one another; how we decide to care only about ourselves and our immediate families; the way we choose to serve only those who are like us – same race, ethnic background, sexual orientation, religion, political views.

Everyone else gets minimized and pushed away. We arm ourselves to protect our shrinking little space. We live like moles, wary of predators.

In guns we trust. In fear we live.

Adam Ericksen 6-26-2015
Statue of mother and child hands

Here’s the thing. God is your father and your mother and God transcends those categories because God is neither literally male nor female. But Father Longnecker thinks calling God Father and Mother is just too confusing for people. Apparently, the fact that God is One, yet Three, but really One … that isn’t confusing at all. But to call God Father and Mother … we can’t wrap our minds around that.

Father Longnecker is right that when his disciples asked Jesus how they should pray, he responded that they should pray to the father. Father Longnecker claims this is his slam dunk against calling God Mother. Jesus didn’t teach us to pray to our mother, but to our father.

Justin Fung 6-25-2015
Image via ATAHAC/shutterstock.com

To be honest, I don’t know how God will provide in this desert. But I won’t stop crying out for it. I don’t know how God is forming us as his people in the midst of this constant tragedy but I trust that his Spirit is at work in us. And I don’t know if we’ll come through our times of testing in the wilderness a more Christ-like people — but it’s my prayer and my hope.

Mark Lockard 6-25-2015
Wall of crosses

Racism has the insidious ability to show up in both large and small ways. People being hateful over a comic book character pales in comparison to the horror of Charleston, where a racist individual, emboldened by a wider culture willing to dismiss or outright ignore the realities of white supremacy (especially white male supremacy), slaughtered nine people. But that’s the nature of the virus that is societal racism: it infects broadly, shows up in multiple ways, and is far from easily eradicated.

What is a Christian to do? When events like Charleston occur, we, sadly, have been through similar situations enough times to follow an unspoken script. We condemn (though not always in the right way), we pray, we announce solidarity, and then we move on to the next issue. It’s a cycle that has become heavily problematic, almost to the point where our handling of racism is becoming as troubling as the racism that prompts our reaction.

Tobin Grant 6-25-2015
REUTERS / Brian Snyder / RNS

After the tragic events in Charleston, Republican leaders have backed efforts to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the Capitol in South Carolina. There has also been a move among once-supporters of Confederate symbols to take down monuments and other public markers of that era.

Why the change in position? I think one reason is the politics of the flag before the shooting.

In April 2011, Pew did a survey that included several questions on the Civil War (it was the 150-year anniversary of the start of the war). One question asked how people felt when they saw the Confederate flag — was it a positive, negative, or neutral reaction?