May (Web-only) 2004

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Debate continues as homosexuals marry legally, but quietly
It's impossible to miss the fact that Massachusetts today is allowing same-sex marriages. Even more impossible is to round up the thousands of articles related to the action. Angles abound: the attempts and consequences of non-resident marriages, looming decisions of neighboring states on whether to recognize the marriages, effects the ceremonies will have on the presidential campaign and the effort to pass a federal marriage amendment, and how the debate now changes.

There are many good sites to read about all of these issues. If you're interested in the subject, make sure you bookmark the MarriageDebate.com blog, by Maggie Gallagher and Eve Tushnet.

For now, Weblog is most interested in the response of the Christian community (or, rather, the Christian community that has an orthodox understanding of marriage). Several news outlets report today that religious opponents of gay marriage will in large part protest the ceremonies in silence. Or a kind of silence: Expect press releases, but not demonstrations.

"The main opponents of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, most of them conservative Christians, said they planned to keep quiet and stay out of the way as gay people began celebrating their first marriages, in part to distance themselves from any unseemly or violent protests that might take place," The New York Times reports today.

The same was true at church services yesterday, says The Boston Globe: "At some services, clergy didn't mention the same-sex marriage debate. …   And those who did used relatively quiet rhetoric."

Union Baptist Church pastor Jeffrey Brown told his congregation not to join protests today that could become violent or inflammatory. "Regardless ...