Read this excerpt from a defense of same-sex unions by the Rev. Canon Michael Wyatt of the Washington National Cathedral. (Hat tip to TitusOneNine.) His arguments are eloquently stated, and their policy justifications are not implausible.
On the merits, I'm still on the fence about committed same-sex unions. I don't think we know enough about their long-term sociological effects. (I don't buy the conservatives' argument that the question is settled solely by the Scriptural prohibitions against homosexuality.)
That's why I'm glad the Episcopal Church has in essence adopted a diocesan-option policy about blessing same-sex unions. Just as the 50 states are laboratories of democracy (in Justice Brandeis' phrase), the different dioceses can serve as laboratories of the church.
On the merits, I'm still on the fence about committed same-sex unions. I don't think we know enough about their long-term sociological effects.
Well, given the divorce rate in the United States (which involves only opposite-sex unions, of course), perhaps "same-sex unions" aren't necessarily something that needs the most scrutiny, in terms of long-term sociological effects.
(And BTW, the divorce rate is higher in Red America than in Blue, as is the rate of teen births - which is almost twice as high in Texas as it is in Massachusetts.)
Posted by: bls | December 06, 2004 at 02:46 PM
Sorry, D.C; that post probably wasn't in the spirit of the thread. And it's your blog.
I just can't see what there is to debate about "same-sex unions," which already exist de facto if not de jure, and have for millennia. If nobody's noticed this, don't we have our proof right there?
Posted by: bls | December 06, 2004 at 03:36 PM
bls, I don't think your post was out of line. The conservatives are always trying to argue that their position on this and other hot button issues comes from a stance of superior, traditional moral values. Yet those parts of the country which supposedly exemplifies these "traditional, family values" actually have worse outcomes when measured against those very standards.
Shines a rather bright light on that hypocrisy, doesn't it ? ;)
Posted by: David Huff | December 07, 2004 at 08:33 AM