As one partner in an interracial marriage, I enthusiastically support the provisions in the Respect for Marriage Act that codify the legal right to same-sex and mixed-race marriage.
“Every single American,” says President Joe Biden, and every decent human being should do so, regardless of whether these provisions involve them directly or not.
Theists have no more right to use their religious bigotry to prohibit a civil marriage license than to prohibit a civil driver license.
More controversially, I don’t “respect” the racist and anti-LGBTQIA+ bigotry of Mormonism, Christianity and Judaism that is proclaimed in their supposedly sacred texts and that is too often practiced by their adherents under the protection of “religious freedom.”
Nor do I “respect” the hypocrisy and empty excuses of the more progressive Abrahamic theists who pretend to preach equality, but who nonetheless support these bigoted institutions. Such bigotry isn’t excusable.
What next? “I like the good parts of ‘Mein Kampf’ and Nazism, so I stay”?
In commenting on the Respect for Marriage Act, the Mormon church insisted that its anti-LGBTQIA+ bigotry be given “due proper respect.”
Let’s get real. The “proper” amount of “respect” due is: None. Depending on the meaning of the word “respect,” of course.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Here, “respect” means “abide by,” “comply with,” or “accept.” Within boundaries, government must “comply with” the First Amendment provision allowing the free exercise of religion.
But “respect” commonly also means “regard highly,” “esteem,” or “admire.” Don’t conflate the two very different meanings of “respect.” And, importantly, don’t buy into the disingenuous, underhanded attempts by bigots to have you do so.
Mormon bigotry isn’t worthy of esteem. Christian bigotry isn’t worthy of esteem. Jewish bigotry isn’t worthy of esteem. Islamic bigotry isn’t worthy of esteem. Secular bigotry isn’t worthy of esteem, either. But at least secular bigotry doesn’t try to hide behind divine mandates.
It would be almost — not quite, but almost — unthinkable for American religious or secular leaders today to proclaim publicly that blanket objections to mixed-race marriage are “based on decent and honorable religious or philosophical premises,” as the Respect for Marriage Act unfortunately states for same-sex marriages.
Apologetics aside, bigotry against same-sex marriage is bigotry, just as bigotry against mixed-race marriage is bigotry.
Systemic racial bigotry isn’t only ancient history. Mixed-race marriage was illegal in Utah in my lifetime, and racial segregation in the U.S. was still legal. Racial segregation was not only preached but also practiced by the present Mormon prophet, seer and revelator. And the position of the Mormon church still today is that its practice of racial segregation was right for its time.
Like anti-LGBTQIA+ bigotry, racial bigotry has been systematically promoted and defended by religion. The theocratic Mormon Utah territory was a slave territory. Mixed-race marriages were illegal. Mormon Prophet Brigham Young preached, “In as much as we believe in the Bible ... we must believe in slavery.”
Young famously demanded death for people having mixed-race sexual relations: “Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.”
So, too, the Mormon Jesus, the Christian God and the Jewish Yahweh demanded that gay lovers be killed, according to their holy hate manuals (Leviticus 20:13). Likewise, the New Testament proclaims that sexually active gays and lesbians “are worthy of death” (Romans 1:24-32).
Irrelevant? Not at all.
The Mormon church explicitly cited both these violent, anti-LGBTQIA+ passages in pushing its prior attempt to prohibit same-sex civil marriage, while pretending that the church loves gays and lesbians as sons and daughters of God.
With love like that, who needs hate?
As Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote, “Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.”
The Respect for Marriage Act requires government to “respect”/”comply with” the right for theists to preach and practice their bigotry within the confines of their religious institutions. But should anyone “respect” that bigotry, in the sense of “admire” or “esteem” it?
No, thank you.
| Courtesy Photo Gregory Clark
Gregory A. Clark lives, plays and proudly violates the eternal laws of God in Salt Lake City.