“Call in Gay Day” and the new tension between blacks and the gay community have been surprising post-election developments. But last week’s surprise took the cake!
Thursday, I read with incredulity the words of Lisa Miller in a Newsweek article advocating gay marriage entitled, “Our Mutual Joy.” Although I knew that there would eventually be an all-out attack by the gay community on traditional marriage, I did not expect mainstream magazines to submit to the gay agenda so easily. It seems to me that the defeat of the attempts by gays to secure marriage rights has hurt the pride of their movement. Therefore, gay advocates seem to have a need to flex their muscles and exert their influence around the nation.
Miller’s article turned out to be nothing more than propaganda for the gay rights movement. Further, she set herself up as a biblical expert speaking out against the bias of the nation’s churches. I was especially surprised that Jon Meacham, Newsweek’s managing editor, decided to place this article on the front page of the famed magazine. Ironically, I participated in a symposium with him last month entitled, “One nation under God?” In the symposium setting, Meacham came off as an ivory tower, religious liberal even though the title of his last book was American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. The book was well researched, powerfully written, and critically acclaimed. Given Meacham’s brilliance, I expected a more fair and balanced presentation from his “shop.”
Further, given the tumultuous times in which we live, I expected more content and substance from such an authoritative, national voice. Perhaps Meacham only had the bottom line in mind - increased weekly sales. If that was his measure, I am sure he met his goals. Last week the magazine sold out quickly at newsstands around DC and it nationally received over 40,000 responses to the piece. Newsweek officials reported that the vast majority of these contacts were negative, stemming from a letter-writing campaign led by the American Family Association.
Was there any value to the article? Not really. It was a diatribe aimed at discrediting the biblically based opposition to gay marriage. Lisa Miller’s compelling, opening paragraph began with a huge misrepresentation of biblical truth and then it went downhill from there. She ended her introductory paragraph with the following negative query, “Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple…turn to the Bible as a how-to script?”
Her article questioned both the content of the Bible and the applicability of its lessons. Like so many casual biblical observers, Miller mistakenly painted Bible heroes solely in terms of their personal problems. In essence, she glibly recited superficial facts from the Bible without understanding the moral lessons they illustrate.
In addition to misrepresenting the content of the scriptures, Miller exaggerated the magnitude of the theological battle over gay marriage. She compared the battle for gay marriage, “waged for more than a decade,” with the pulpit controversy over slavery in the 1860s. Although gay marriage has become a huge cultural debate, only a small number of Bible scholars or theologians would make a case for gay marriage. As a result there are only a handful of churches in any city that are affirming to gays.
Not stopped by logic, history or cultural tradition, Miller boldly made this declaration, “Scripture gives us no good reason why gays and lesbians should not be (civilly and religiously) married – and a number of excellent reasons why they should.” Her assertion was so wrong headed that only people who have never read much of the Bible could believe it.
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