The Time is Now

This week’s action by the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting Alabama’s same-sex marriage stay request is widely understood as a hint of things to come. Jurisprudence throughout the nation has overturned marriage inequality. Interestingly, the two dissenting justices cited the protection of the status quo as the reason they would have maintained the stay. Yet, the highest court of the land rejected such weak reasoning. Protecting the status quo at the cost of perpetuating injustice is anathema to Americans; it is anathema to Christ as well.

Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Our savior summarized the law as loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves. God’s law is love. This movement toward civil marriage equality suggests a nation ready to recognize love as it really is. As a nation, we are on the way to fulfilling the law for all people seeking marriage in this land. And, our church is on that same journey.

This summer we will take a significant step on that road. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church will have before it a similar question as it considers marriage equality in a church where at least 75% of Episcopalians now live in states with legal marriage equality.

Will they be able to marry in their own churches? Without prophetic action in the church, the status quo suggests no. If the House of Bishops and House of Deputies vote to change church law, we can lead the Supreme Court and the faithful in recognizing that marriage is between two people, regardless of gender.

Please read the Taskforce on the Study of Marriage’s Report and the recommendations it offers. This report is a continuation of decades of study, reflection and faithful practice. Please reach out and encourage your bishop and deputies to do the same. They need to know that our marriages are real and holy. Together we can make the case to the leaders of our church – as it is being made to the leaders of our nation – that the time is now for marriage equality. The time is now for it is time for the General Convention of the Episcopal Church to change its laws and amend our canons. The time is now to re-imagine the Episcopal Church -- with Marriage Equality -- to help faithful gay and lesbian Christians to fulfill God’s call of love lived out in their own relationships.

Matt Haines, President of Integrity USA.