Patriarchal Religions and Same Sex Marriage

Religions which are most distressed by the idea of Same Sex Marriage have a patriarchal structure, one that doesn't allow women in the top positions of the church hierarchy. Main stream Protestant churches, those who allow female pastors and bishops, are less likely to oppose SSM and may even encourage it.

Patriarchal religions also oppose abortion, the right of women to make reproductive choices. The Catholic Church also proscribes the use of artificial birth control, another way to burden women with more children, should the "natural" method fail, making them more dependant on their husbands. The Southern Baptist Convention is more direct in their position on the role of women in marriage, admonishing "wives to submit to their husbands." They surround this expression with qualifiers, we note, but that in no way diminishes the meaning of the words. Mainstream churches, in contrast, tend to see marriage as a partnership between equals that relies on cooperation rather than coercion, however that coercion is manifest and supported by religious doctrine.

SSM would be more like the mainstream church's view of marriage and the antithesis of the patriarchal view. Whether it's two men or two women, there is no obvious male in charge, submissive female in these situations. When patriarchal churches say that SSM would diminish "traditional" marriage and that children need both a father and a mother as role models, it's the patriarchal nature of these relationships that they are struggling to maintain. Equal rights for women and marriage rights for lesbians and gays, are both discordant with their patriarchal view of the world.

When I went to my granddaughter's Christening, and the pastor said the words and put the sign of the cross on her forehead, I felt twice blessed. The pastor was female and a testament that decades of effort to provide equal opportunities for women was worth it. My little granddaughter would have opportunities that my mother, a school teacher, could only have dreamt of.

Now it is time to provide gay and lesbian families, who are willing to assume the obligations, with the same rights and privileges that my wife, my children and I already enjoy.

As a Christian, I believe that God loves me as He loves all His children as evinced by the life and death of His Son. To show our love for God in return, we follow Christ's commandment to love God without reservation and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. That includes the gay and lesbian families who are your neighbors, as well as those who are mine.