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Archive for the 'Immigration' Category

27 June
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Jim Wallis on Marriage Rulings

A strong statement today comes from Jim Wallis of Sojourners, who only recently came around on marriage equality. I know many people who have been heartbroken and angered by Wallis’ previous views and by his recent opinion that gay and lesbian binational couples should be excluded from the immigration bill to better its chances. Still, this is progress:

We need to stop blaming same-sex couples for the breakdown of the family. Heterosexual dysfunction, moral selfishness, sexual promiscuity, and economic injustices that pressure too many families’ lives are to blame. It remains an irony that many of those who speak out so strongly for marriage and family values are also so strongly against allowing gay and lesbian couples to get married and have a family. I wish I heard those same people speak as often or as strongly about Christian men who cheat or abuse their wives, or about too easy and convenient divorces, or about parents who don’t make their children their first priority.

Gay and lesbian people are children of God, fellow human beings, and American citizens. I have long believed that our LGBT brothers and sisters should have equal rights and protections under the law. The public policy conversation on what this means has clearly evolved. Years ago, civil unions seemed like a common sense, common ground solution, but I am now convinced that civil marriage equality is the best way to ensure that the principle of equal protection under the law is applied.

Read his whole reflection on this week’s Supreme Court decisions regarding marriage and the Voting Rights Act here.