I’m speaking at a rally at the State Capital on Thursday.  It’s a rally in support of a notion that seems a no-brainer:  that all God’s children ought have the ability to live with their beloveds in such a way that they are accorded civic rights assumed by heterosexual couples.

It is a paradox.  In an age and time when our communities are desperate for the living of lives based upon love and mutual respect, there seems an insatiable desire to condemn same-gender-loving people.  Energies and money sorely needed for the growth of grace are expended trying to circle the moral wagons around an institution seemingly under attack from “those people”:  “Those people” who go to work, raise children, pay taxes, and love deeply people of their same gender.

Why the fear?  Will the house of cards based upon culturally mandated roles come tumbling down if same-sex marriages are accorded full rights and respect?  If gays and lesbians are allowed to marry, how does this threaten anyone?  In an age when nearly 50% of heterosexual marriages end in divorce, what would happen if our society’s collective angst were put to use supporting all couples and families?

Some fifty years from now, we will wonder that such injustice against our GLBT brothers and sisters went on.  Our grandchildren will wonder how it was unequal rights were explained and assumed.

In the meantime, rallies are scheduled and advocacy shared because the circle of grace threatens to be made smaller and smaller by the very folk who claim to speak for the heart of our expansive God.

It’s a paradox.