In 1998, in an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Martin Marty commented that “religion inspires the homosexuality wars.” Among other things, he was bemused that in the then-Republican dominated Congress “sin” had become a political word, that evangelical preachers who have themselves divorced (a sin in the New Testament) and remarried continue to rant about a subject seldom condemned in scripture. Even more prescient, Marty assessed the battles ahead.

“Wars of attrition eventually wind down. But the immediate future on this front is not bright.” He goes on to rehearse the inner-denominational battles over the presence of LGBT people—this was 1998! I almost forget how long the Presbyterians, for example, have been saying no to gay pastors, and how long the Methodists have been defrocking pastors for blessing lesbian couples.

A war of attrition is simply meant to wear down your opponents if you can’t defeat them. And eleven years later, probably both the fundagelicals and the pro-gay civil rights groups are feeling more than a little worn down. Recent commentators believe that evangelical leaders are deserting “the gay issue” for greener territory because fighting homosexuals no longer generates the huge sums of cash it once did.

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Are we locked in an eternal push-and-shove struggle between religious people and sexual minorities? The most worn down of all are those of us who are people of faith and also a sexual minority, caught in the middle—something like a freed slave living too close to the Mason Dixon Line in the middle of the Civil War, we continue to get shot at from both sides.

Today’s morning’s breaking news (Associated Press) is that New Hampshire’s Governor John Lynch said [2] he will sign the gay marriage bill if additional safeguards for religious beliefs are added, so that the bill more resembles those in Connecticut and Vermont.

Gov. will sign gay marriage provided religious safeguards are added

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch says he’ll sign a bill legalizing gay marriage, but only if it’s changed to give churches and people affiliated with them more protections.

As passed, the bill would allow churches to decide whether they will conduct religious marriages for same-sex couples. But Lynch says he wants clearer language to ensure that people wouldn’t be forced to violate their religious principles. He says laws in Connecticut and Vermont do that.

Gay marriage supporters say they’ll accept the proposed changes.The only other New England state not committed to recognizing same-sex marriage is Rhode Island. Iowa is the other state to legalize gay marriage.

Why does religion need more protection? There is no religious group anywhere in America that can be required or coerced into performing, authorizing, blessing, attending, or paying attention to civil marriages for anyone, period. If people have religious principles that are offended by the thought of gay and lesbian people marrying, why don’t they try to stop paying attention to us?

But the real question is, what is driving the fear of the religious right? I came across an insight in an old New Yorker magazine from last fall. Nicholas Lemann writes of the Obama/McCain foreign policy views in “Worlds Apart” ([3] The New Yorker, October 13, 2008). He quotes retired Air Force major general Scott Gration on conflicts: “People are more alike than their cultures and religions. . . . You see, religion and culture—they’re the way people communicate their values. They want stability, order, education. This is just humanness. Then you add on your religion, your culture—that’s how you execute it.”

If that be true, then the hysteria about gay marriage—or gay anything—that has driven the so-called culture wars for the better part of two decades, is out of proportion to the underlying values which religion and culture reflect. The hysteria isn’t about the idea that two women might share some legal rights to make decisions about their life together; it’s about having to make a place for them in the conservative’s world, on the conservative’s street, or in his/her church pew. They are fighting against our rights because their underlying values are fearful and reaction of our existence. On that front, in this homosexuality war of attrition, we are wearing them down simply because we are here.

—Pastor Dan Hooper