Okay, so President Obama Supports Gay Marriage

Years ago, I stood in the hallway of a Southern Baptist church discussing homosexuality with my pastor. I had grown up in a very conservative, country church but as an adult attended a much more liberal church in a mid-sized town with a large university. However, for years I had been struggling with the disconnect between my evolving beliefs and the increasing fundamentalism of the Southern Baptist Church. The whole carapace of my childhood faith, I thought, was either going to shatter or be transformed. I was seriously considering leaving the Southern Baptist Church, and the deciding factor was the church's stand on homosexuality. Oh, there were many other reasons to leave, but this one issue was the most important to me at the time. One of my best friends was gay; he came out of the same religious tradition as I, and I had watched him struggle to reconcile his sexuality with his religion. I had witnessed his pain. I had seen his first love in the death grip of AIDS, and I had watched him find love again. The gay friends I had in college opened my heart to tolerance; this friend opened my heart to complete acceptance. 

Now I had children of my own. If I left my church, in what religious tradition would I raise my family? Yet how could I raise them in this church? I knew I couldn't. 

In the hallway, my pastor described to me the Sunday School class whose members were gay, the pianist who was gay, the silent minority that sat every morning among people who would prefer them to live as celibates, who would prefer them to live a life without love, or who believed they could be "converted" to heterosexuality.  He said he believed that science would prove that sexuality was a continuum, that homosexuality was biologically linked; he was concerned that, once again, the Southern Baptist Church would find itself on the wrong side of history. He told me that he had the same concerns as I but that the day he stepped into the pulpit and announced that gays should be accepted fully in the church would be the day he would be out of a job. 

I think of that pastor today as I read the reactions to President Obama's interview with Robin Roberts of ABC News, in which the president announced his support of gay marriage. David Plotz of Slate is "irked by [the president's] all-too-eloquent conversion story" and believes that rather than evolving, the president had "always" favored gay marriage, that the president's announcement is one of political convenience.  (Others, here and here, are more generous.)

Perhaps, like my former pastor, President Obama indeed figured he might be out of a job if he officially announced his support of gay marriage, that he would lose political support. But I think he deserves praise for finally making that public announcement, even if it reveals what he has secretly thought for some years. I don't know if my former pastor ever stood before his church and revealed his unqualified support for gay rights. I moved across the country shortly thereafter and left the Southern Baptist Church.

Barack Obama's support of gay marriage will certainly affect the presidential campaign. It remains to be seen how, exactly, but I bet you there is a flyer out already claiming that Barack Obama's support of gay marriage is really a War Against Marriage and the Family. Ironic, huh?