Mixed responses to Obama gay marriage stance
2012-05-10 07:26
Washington - Some rejoiced in the US
president's courage. Others predicted hellfire at the polls. One pastor said he
would reflect on the matter in prayer.
President Barack Obama's announcement on Wednesday
that he supported same-sex marriage stirred impassioned responses at places of
worship across the US, underscoring the risk he took in coming out in favour of
such a controversial measure.
Gay and liberal Christians found renewed
enthusiasm for Obama, who had disappointed many on the left when his 2008
message of hope and change ran into the realities of governing.
"It just makes me giddy with joy. I have
been bouncing around all day," said the Reverend Annie Steinberg-Behrman,
a United Church of Christ pastor in Berkeley, California, who married her
partner in 2004.
But some conservative Christians who cite the
Bible in opposing gay marriage have also found a reason to campaign against
Obama when he seeks re-election on November 6 against presumptive Republican
nominee Mitt Romney.
"This could definitely get them riled up
... hopefully," said Caryl Scales, a member of Hampton Road Baptist Church
in DeSoto, Texas. "I'm not happy with it. I believe scripture. God's word
says gay marriage is wrong."
National religious leaders with a weightier
voice also came down against Obama.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the US
Conference of Catholic Bishops, called Obama's remarks "deeply saddening".
Key to social conservative support
"We cannot be silent in the face of
words or actions that would undermine the institution of marriage, the very
cornerstone of our society," Dolan said. "The people of this country,
especially our children, deserve better."
The Family Research Council, which says it
champions marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, called Obama's
position "disappointing but not surprising."
"Today's announcement almost ensures
that marriage will again be a major issue in the presidential election,"
council President Tony Perkins said.
"Romney ... may have been handed the key
to social conservative support by President Obama," Perkins said.
Pentecostal Pastor Charles Bargaineer of the
largely black New Fellowship Church of God in the Orlando suburb of Winter
Park, Florida, was troubled by Obama's position, saying he may reconsider his
support for the man he voted for in 2008.
"I don't think that's appropriate for
the president," Bargaineer said. "The Bible's strictly against
that."
Regarding whether he would vote for Obama
again this year, he said, "I'll have to pray about that."
Reverend Jane Spahr, a lesbian evangelist who
has defied her Presbyterian Church by performing same-sex marriages, applauded
the president.
"Because he understands oppression, he
knows that loves is no second-class thing," Spahr said from her San
Francisco home.
The Reverend Curran Reichert, a pastor at
Community Congregational Church of Tiburon-Belvedere in California who is
married to her partner, praised the president for doing what she called his
job.
"You can't stop a moving train,"
Reichert said.
Another gay pastor, the Reverend Scott Clark
of the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California, said it
was uplifting for gay people to hear the message from the White House.
"It has taken him a while to get
there," he said, "but it is just deeply moving for me to hear the
president of the US finally acknowledge the full dignity and humanity of
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and our families."
