News :: GLBT
Obama Cites Sermon on the Mount in Defense of Pro-Gay Stanceby Kilian MelloyMonday Mar 3, 2008 Speaking to a crowd in Ohio, Sen. Barack Obama said yesterday that the issue of LGBT equality is one that is included in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
Obama was talking to a crowd on a Sunday, with the appearance taking a "town hall" approach. In the course of the discussion, Cybercast News Service reported in a post today, Obama said of domestic arrangements between couples of the same gender, "I will tell you that I don’t believe in gay marriage, but I do think that people who are gay and lesbian should be treated with dignity and respect and that the state should not discriminate against them."
Continued Obama, "So, I believe in civil unions that allow a same-sex couple to visit each other in a hospital or transfer property to each other."
Obama, who has consistently said that he opposes marriage equality, went on to say, "I don’t think it should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state."
Continued the Ill. senator and hopeful for the Democratic nomination to this year’s presidential race, "If people find that controversial, then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans."
Obama was responding to a question posed to him by a Protestant minister, Leon Forte, who said, "Your campaign sets a quandary for most evangelical Christians because I believe that they believe in the social agenda that you have, but they have a problem in what the conservatives have laid out as the moral litmus tests as to who is worthy and who is not."
Added Forte, "So, I will ask you to speak to those two questions."
Obama took the question’s reference to "litmus tests" to mean GLBT equality and abortion, and his response not only addressed same-sex marriage but also the question of whether his support for women’s right to choose stood in contradiction to his Christian faith.
The CNS article noted that in his Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul wrote that sexual acts between men were sinful.
The reference to the Sermon on the Mount was less clear, however, since Obama may have been thinking of Jesus’ instruction that his followers should "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," the CNS article said.
Another possibility that the CNS article offered was that Obama was citing Jesus’ warning not to judge others because to do so invites judgment on oneself.
CNS also noted that the Sermon on the Mount, which appears in the Gospel According to Matthew in the New Testament, contains a number of crucial passages, such as the Beatitudes ("Blessed are...") and The Lord’s Prayer (also known as the "Our Father" for its opening words, "Our Father, Who art in Heaven...")
CNS noted that on Feb. 28, Obama posted an "open letter concerning LGBT equality in America" on his Web site, in which Obama promised, "As your President, I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws."
In his "open letter," Obama reiterated his stance against marriage equality, writing, "I personally believe that civil unions represent the best way to secure that equal treatment."
Continued Obama, "But I also believe that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples--whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage."
In terms of his support for the right of women to terminate their pregnancies, Obama said, "I think [abortion] is always tragic, and we should prevent it as much as possible," but, he went on, "I think that the bottom line is that in the end, I think women, in consultation with their pastors, and their doctors, and their family, are in a better position to make these decisions than some bureaucrat in Washington."
Continued the senator, "...I respect people who may disagree, but I certainly don’t think it makes me less Christian."
Addressing the crowd who had assembled at Nelsonville, OH’s Hocking College, Obama declared that his political views were not in contradiction to his religious beliefs, saying, "I am a Christian. I am a devout Christian. I have been a member of the same church for 20 years, pray to Jesus every night, and try to go to church as much as I can when they are not working me [on the campaign trail]."
Continued Obama, "[My faith] is not something that I try to push on other people. But it is something that helps to guide my life and my values."
At Politico.com, Ben Smith, in a Beb 28 blog posting
titled "Selling gay rights," wrote about a speech that Obama gave in Beaumont, Tex., to a crowd that, Smith reported, was about 75 percent black.
During the course of the speech, Obama responded to a question about LGBT equality by noting characteristics that should not serve as reasons for prejudice and unequal treatment before the law.
Wrote Smith, "When he came to saying that gays and lesbians deserve equality, though, the crowd fell silent."
At that point, Obama said, "Now I’m a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday," Smith reported, saying that those words produced "a sudden wave of noisy applause and cheers."
Smith wrote that Obama went on to say, "I hear people saying things that I don’t think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian."
At this point, Smith wrote, the crowd continued to cheer, rather than going quiet.
Smith wrote of Obama, "...his ability to sell gay rights in the black church is unique and appealing."
Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.
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