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Final month, a petition was filed with the Supreme Court docket to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 determination that made same-sex marriage authorized on the nationwide degree. The particular person bringing the petition is Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who claimed that processing same-sex marriage licenses went towards her non secular convictions. Again in June, the Southern Baptist Conference voted to make overturning Obergefell v. Hodges a denominational precedence.
Whereas the assault on marriage rights is considerably separate from the makes an attempt to disclaim the existence of trans and non-binary individuals, it’s all tied collectively. The hassle to ban identical intercourse marriage actually solely is smart within the context of a binary understanding of gender. You will have to have the ability to label somebody “male” or “feminine” in order that you understand who they’re and should not allowed to marry. (In case you are a little bit fuzzy on the distinctions and terminology round intercourse, gender, and orientation, try the Flying Gender Unicorn.)
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Earlier than we dig into the nitty-gritty of Genesis 2, I need to make a short remark in regards to the crucial within the Gospels for shielding opposite-sex marriage: there may be none. And no matter one’s specific beliefs about same-sex marriage, to prioritize the overturning of marriage rights–to make overturning Obergefell the main focus of your non secular motion– is to comply with the management of worldly powers and never the management of Jesus. (See Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.)
In my earlier put up I checked out gender variety via the lens of the creation story in Genesis 1:1-2:4a. I now invite you to show your consideration to the creation story in Genesis 2:4b-24. That is the story of Adam and Eve (sort of, however these names aren’t used on this chapter), a textual content regularly used to help each the subjugation of ladies and the insistence on opposite-sex marriages. At its coronary heart, although, this second biblical account of creation shouldn’t be about God establishing inflexible guidelines, however about God’s deep and intimate love for God’s creatures. Within the Genesis 1 story, the Divine One appears to talk people into being, however in Genesis 2:7, God kinds the primary human “from the mud of the bottom and breathe[s] into [their] nostrils the breath of life.” There’s a bodily connection between creator and creature right here that’s akin to childbirth.
As soon as the human is created, divine love propels God to hunt what’s good for them. Whereas the chorus in Genesis 1 is “and God noticed that it was good,” right here God says that “It isn’t good that the human must be alone.” Genesis 2 expresses the deep human want for companionship and neighborhood, and reveals that God cares deeply for us and works inside creation to satisfy that want.
We must always be aware that the time period translated in Genesis 2:7 as man and in Genesis 1:26 as humankind (at the very least within the NRSV) is adam. This time period is utilized in each creation tales solely as a normal noun; Adam isn’t given because the identify of the primary male human till Genesis 4:2. (The primary feminine is called Eve in Genesis 3:20.) In verse 22, the feminine–isha–is created from the rib of the human. After which lastly, within the poetry of verse 23, the time period ish is first used to explicitly designate male.
It skews the intention and circulate of this second creation narrative to learn the primary human as male and the creation of the second human as some kind of mandate for heterosexuality and a slim understanding of gender as binary. The divine revelation of the Genesis 2 creation story shouldn’t be about who will get to marry who. The divine revelation right here is that we, as people, are created for neighborhood and relationship with one another. It isn’t good for us to be alone.
