Scripture does not support heterosexual monogamy
Posted Monday, May 9, 2011
In response: What the PCUSA confessions say about marriage
It is easy and convenient for Carmen Fowler to mention what the confessions say about marriage, but she neglects what the Scriptures themselves say, and leaves out an important part of the Confession of 1967, which also places marriage among those relationships within society where injustice and discrimination, both racial and orientation discrimination, occur. The Confession of 1967 (9.44) reads,
a. God has created the peoples of the earth to be one universal family. In his reconciling love he overcomes the barriers between brothers (sic) and breaks down every form of discrimination based on racial or ethnic difference, real or imaginary. The church is called to bring all men (sic) to receive and uphold one another as persons in all relationships of life: in employment, housing, education, leisure, marriage, family, church, and the exercise of political rights. Therefore the church labors for the abolition of all racial discrimination and ministers to those injured by it. Congregations, individuals, or groups of Christians who exclude, dominate, or patronize their fellowmen (sic), however subtly, resist the Spirit of God and bring contempt on the faith which they profess.
The way I read this, we are called to defend the civil rights of all people, including overturning the discrimination written into U.S. law with the "Defense of Marriage Act" which separates LGBTQ couples from the 1,138 Federal benefits and responsibilities that come with Federal recognition of their marital rights. As American Christians, taking any other stance denies our equal protection under the law and the social equity and justice to which Jesus called us. We already have good policies on employment and housing protection for LGBTQ persons in the PCUSA, but you wouldn't know it since our policies haven't been shared widely by the denominational leadership.
Fowler also fails to mention that the form of marriage that is almost a Biblical universal is polygamy, specifically, patriarchal male polygyny (multiple wives). Jews didn't begin to cease the practice until the 10th century CE, and then mainly in Europe. While there is a complex polemic in Scripture about how such polygamist families struggle to find harmony in such relationships, especially around legitimate heirs to the throne, the practice of polygamy explains Mark's recognition of Jesus' siblings, most likely by another of Mary's "sister-wives."
Mark 6:3 “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. (NRSV)
In fact, instead of marriage, both Jesus and Paul encourage celibacy unless one cannot control their sexual urges. See Matthew 19:10-14 and 1 Corinthians 7:8-9. Marriage, then, was the backup position for the weak.
What Fowler and others argue with their facile conflations of Scripture is a cultural argument to uphold heterosexual privilege and superiority. To pretend that the Scripture is univocal in its support of heterosexual monogamy is to impute one’s own cultural biases into not only the confessions, but our present conversation about the authority of Scripture. The Scripture is the higher authority, after all, and if the confessions contain historic, cultural misconceptions about the meaning and forms of marriage in the Bible, then they must be reconsidered, first in the light of the love of Christ, and then in light of the witness of Scripture.
Rev. Will McGarvey
Community Presbyterian Church, Pittsburg, Calif.
