The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage - TIME

Contents:

• GAY MARRIAGE
• HOW EVANGELILS ARE CHANGG THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE
• INSI THE EVANGELIL FIGHT OVER GAY MARRIAGE
• THE BATTLE OVER GAY MARRIAGE
• GAY MARRIAGE ALREADY WON | APR. 8, 2013
• INTERNATNAL GAY MARRIAGE
• HOW GAY MARRIAGE WON
• THE CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR GAY MARRIAGE

GAY MARRIAGE

“It would be a ep psychologil and emotnal blow to a lot of gay, lbian, and bisexual people to be told that even if their state has to regnize a marriage formed out of the state, that their state nohels disapprov of their relatnship and effectively nsirs them send class cizens, ” says Michael Boui, a law profsor at the Universy of Buffalo.

’s gay operative class, there’s the quiet rignatn that the right to wed is likely to be on the docket the next five years, and there’s not a whole lot protectg . Glenn Thompson voted agast buttrsg marriage rights earlier this month, and three days later attend the weddg of his gay son; he isn’t likely to suffer any real nsequenc outsi of fay rnns. It’s not that there are many sgle-issue voters on those topics, but vot supportg the rights of pregnant dividuals or gay upl may be ed as a proxy for character and morals—and Washgton overreach.

HOW EVANGELILS ARE CHANGG THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE

If evangelil Christiany is famo for anythg ntemporary Amerin polics, is for s plete opposn to gay marriage.

My magaze story for TIME this week, “A Change of Heart, ” is a ep dive to the changg allegianc and divis evangelil church and muni over homosexualy.

INSI THE EVANGELIL FIGHT OVER GAY MARRIAGE

Support for gay marriage across all age groups of whe evangelils has creased by double digs over the past , acrdg to the Public Relign Rearch Instute, and the fastt change n be found among younger evangelils—their support for gay marriage jumped om 20% 2003 to 42% 2014.

“I refe to go to a church where my iends who are gay are exclud om Communn or a marriage venant or the bety of Christian muny, ” Meeks tells me.

At the Southern Baptist Conventn’s three-day, October bootmp to tra more than 1, 300 evangelils to double down agast gay marriage, Stanley met together wh both LGBT evangelil advot and SBC lears for a closed-door nversatn about whether their different views on gay marriage put them outsi the fah. Brandan Robertson, 22, is the natnal spokperson for Evangelils for Marriage Equaly, an effort started by lennials to help evangelils support civil gay marriag, if not marriag church. Jt Lee, 37, of the Gay Christian Network hosted his 11th annual nference last week Portland, Ore., and 1, 400 people attend, double the number who me last year.

THE BATTLE OVER GAY MARRIAGE

Lee’s iendship wh Alan Chambers, the former head of the ex-gay anizatn Exod Internatnal, was one of the key factors that led Chambers to apologize for the hurt his anizatn ed, and the anizatn shut down.

For the past six months, the church has played a short wele vio at the start of every service that clus the le “Gay or straight here, there’s no hate here. ” One of the pastors now sends a weddg gift on behalf of the church every time she hears that gay ngregants are gettg married.

Pastor Ryan Meeks, 36, regularly preach an unual brand of evangelilism that prais J but steers clear of pro-Ameri, pro-gun and anti-gay rhetoric. “I refe to go to a church where my iends who are gay are exclud om Communn or a marriage venant or the bety of Christian muny, ” he says. ” EastLake’s pivot is a signal that change is g to one of the last redoubts of opposn to gay marriage Ameri.

GAY MARRIAGE ALREADY WON | APR. 8, 2013

Support for gay marriage across all age groups of whe evangelils has creased by double digs over the past , acrdg to the Public Relign Rearch Instute.

INTERNATNAL GAY MARRIAGE

But the fastt change n be found among younger evangelils, whose support for gay marriage jumped om 20% 2003 to 42% 2014. Seattle has a higher percentage of gay-uple hoeholds than San Francis–1 17 upl livg together the cy is gay. –based effort by 24-year-old gay evangelil activist Matthew V to raise up LGBT-affirmg voic every evangelil church the untry.

The Gay Christian Network’s Jt Lee, 37, hosted his 11th annual nference this month Portland, Ore., and attendance swelled to 1, 400, double the size of last year’s.

(Lee’s iendship wh Alan Chambers, former print of the ntroversial Exod Internatnal mistry, which claimed to cure gays of homosexualy, helped prompt Chambers to publicly apologize for the hurt Exod had ed, and the group shut down. Now Lee and Chambers have been workg together wh the Colossian Fom Grand Rapids, Mich., to help evangelils warm to the gay nversatn.

HOW GAY MARRIAGE WON

) “The creasg efforts by evangelils, and pecially a new breed of young activists, to re-exame their attus and beliefs about LGBT people is a wele velopment, ” says Gene Robson, the first openly gay and partnered bishop the Epispal Church.

THE CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR GAY MARRIAGE

When Dan Haselte, the lead volist of the wily popular Christian band Jars of Clay, tweeted April, “I jt don’t see a negative effect to allowg gay marriage. Baptist pastor Danny Cortez of New Heart Communy outsi Los Angel told his church Febary that after thkg about for 15 years, and after his son me out to him, he cid to bee gay affirmg.

Illois’s Wheaton College, Billy Graham’s alma mater, do not regnize alumni gay marriag, but this fall hired a celibate lbian to work s chapla’s office. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Universy hired an openly gay choreographer to assist wh a mp productn of Mary Popps last sprg and then backtracked by sayg he was an pennt ntractor, not an official employee.