Marry MEBy Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union
I'm 33, single, and I want to get married. But I don't intend to do so until all the people I love can too under the law. With the work of a team of dedicated advocates, this year Maine will become the third New England state to legalize civil marriage for same-sex couples. And we'll be first in the country to pass civil marriage through the legislature...and keep it.
Today I stood with a brave group of gay and lesbian couples, one amazing legislator, clergy, and an impressive array of civil rights groups to introduce "An Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom." All loving, committed couples deserve the dignity and respect as well as the legal protections that marriage brings.
The bill is sponsored by Senator Dennis Damon (D-Hancock), a former schoolteacher, commercial fisherman and Maine High School "Baseball Coach of the Year."
Democrats have a 20-15 majority in the State Senate and a 95-54 majority in the House. Some House Republicans are backing a constitutional amendment to ban marriage for gays and lesbians, but we're hearing quiet support from unexpected allies on the right.
Of course, passing a marriage equality bill through the legislature is only the first step toward ending discrimination against gay and lesbian families. Maine has a referendum process by which legislation can be overturned. The good news is, our coalition started organizing two years ago around this issue, and we're ready to win a referendum challenging marriage. We've IDed 20% of our voters already, and organizers are on the ground now showing our video and signing up volunteers.
Our steering committee includes Maine civil rights veteran Pat Peard and the Executive Directors of our four lead organizations: EqualityMaine, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Maine Civil Liberties Union, and the Maine Women's Lobby.
We've been joined by the NAACP - Portland Branch, Maine Children's Alliance, a whole host of progressive groups, and over 140 clergy from fourteen denominations from the Maine Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry.
You can sign up to help at www.mainefreedomtomarry.org. Join us on Facebook and Twitter too. This is not my grandmothers' campaign - although both of them, including the one who voted for John McCain, support this bill.
Mark Driscoll's sermons are mostly too racy to post on GodTube, the evangelical Christian "family friendly" video-posting Web site. With titles like "Biblical Oral Sex" and "Pleasuring Your Spouse," his clips do not stand a chance against the site's content filters. No matter: YouTube is where Driscoll, the pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, would rather be. Unsuspecting sinners who type in popular keywords may suddenly find themselves face to face with a husky-voiced preacher in a black skateboarder's jacket and skull T-shirt. An "Under 17 Requires Adult Permission" warning flashes before the video cuts to evening services at Mars Hill, where an anonymous audience member has just text-messaged a question to the screen onstage: "Pastor Mark, is masturbation a valid form of birth control?"Make no mistake -- Driscoll doesn't represent anything close to an enlightened man of the (denim) cloth. He believes women should submit to their husbands, and is aghast at the modern interpretations of Jesus. Driscoll is obsessed with the idea that today's churches have feminized -- even homosexualized -- Christ. I guess he believes Jesus was an ass-kicking, crotch-grabbing, leering kind of guy, and if that view isn't changed, there's no way "real men" are going to return to the church.Driscoll doesn't miss a beat: "I had one guy quote Ecclesiastes 9:10, which says, 'Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.' " The audience bursts out laughing. Next Pastor Mark is warning them about lust and exalting the confines of marriage, one hand jammed in his jeans pocket while the other waves his Bible. Even the skeptical viewer must admit that whatever Driscoll's opinion of certain recreational activities, he has the coolest style and foulest mouth of any preacher you've ever seen.
Mark Driscoll is American evangelicalism's b?te noire. In little more than a decade, his ministry has grown from a living-room Bible study to a megachurch that draws about 7,600 visitors to seven campuses around Seattle each Sunday, and his books, blogs and podcasts have made him one of the most admired - and reviled - figures among evangelicals nationwide.
Take a look at Driscoll's masculinity issues below the fold.
Driscoll is adamantly not the "weepy worship dude" he associates with liberal and mainstream evangelical churches, "singing prom songs to a Jesus who is presented as a wuss who took a beating and spent a lot of time putting product in his long hair."This man has serious issues. Why on earth is patience and tenderness a horrible thing? Even more disturbing, Driscoll tolerates no dissent in his church and it sounds like the guy is more like a power-mad mafia don than a spiritual leader.God called Driscoll to preach to men - particularly young men - to save them from an American Protestantism that has emasculated Christ and driven men from church pews with praise music that sounds more like boy-band ballads crooned to Jesus than "Onward Christian Soldiers." What bothers Driscoll - and the growing number of evangelical pastors who agree with him - is not the trope of Jesus-as-lover. After all, St. Paul tells us that the Church is the bride of Christ. What really grates is the portrayal of Jesus as a wimp, or worse. Paintings depict a gentle man embracing children and cuddling lambs. Hymns celebrate his patience and tenderness. The mainstream church, Driscoll has written, has transformed Jesus into "a Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ," a "neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture that . . . would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell."
Nowhere is the connection between Driscoll's hypermasculinity and his Calvinist theology clearer than in his refusal to tolerate opposition at Mars Hill.So this is the future of the bible-beating movement? Folks are just plain terrifying....In 2007, two elders protested a plan to reorganize the church that, according to critics, consolidated power in the hands of Driscoll and his closest aides. Driscoll told the congregation that he asked advice on how to handle stubborn subordinates from a "mixed martial artist and Ultimate Fighter, good guy" who attends Mars Hill. "His answer was brilliant," Driscoll reported. "He said, 'I break their nose.' " When one of the renegade elders refused to repent, the church leadership ordered members to shun him. One member complained on an online message board and instantly found his membership privileges suspended. "They are sinning through questioning," Driscoll preached. John Calvin couldn't have said it better himself.
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