Tony Campolo in the Star Tribune

The Star Tribune newspaper recently featured an interview with Tony Campolo (Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Eastern University) here. Dr. Campolo makes an excellent comment regarding the current controversy over homosexuality:

Q You and your wife, Peggy, famously disagree on same-sex marriage. Describe your disagreement.

A We agree on some aspects of it. Both of us believe in monogamy and that the state should have nothing to do with marriage, homosexual or heterosexual. We believe the state should guarantee civil rights to all people and oversee civil unions, as is done in Europe. Then, if a couple wants to get married in a religious sense, they would go to a church. When President Bush says marriage is a sacred institution, my first response is, what the devil is the government doing messing around with something sacred?

I'm essentially in agreement with Tony on this point. I think it'd be best if government got out of the business of saying who can and can't be married. This isn't to say that government can't or shouldn't (in a sense) 'legislate morality', but rather, the kind of 'morality' it should legislate needs to reflect the pluralism of our culture. Since homosexuals aren't going away (where would they go?), it only makes sense to promote healthy family arrangements: civil unions for gays seems only logical. Otherwise the government is essentially telling gays and lesbians that their only option is promiscuity. No, instead, let's celebrate commitment and monogamy--even if we can't in each particular circumstance put a religious stamp of approval on the relationship (many GLBT folks aren't asking for anything like that anyway).

Dr. Campolo and I part ways however, on the question of how closely our faith should be tied to politics:

Q You're not shy about engaging the religious right on political questions. Is there a danger of polarization if evangelicals become too politicized, as Minnesota author and preacher Rev. Greg Boyd has warned in "The Myth of a Christian Nation"?

A Yes, there is a danger. But in the old days, we didn't have polarization because if you were an evangelical and rebelled, you left the church and were not heard from again. What we're saying now is, if you disagree with your leaders on political and social issues, you're not homeless.

I think Tony needs to look more critically at how quickly he and his friends (e.g. Rev. Jim Wallis) fuse left-wing politics with religious talk. As Rev. Boyd says, we as Kingdom people need to take it upon ourselves to effect change in society, and if the government jumps in on it, that's great; but we can't wait around for senators and presidents before we start acting (this is, of course, a far too condensed summary of his--and my--views).

Just my thoughts... :-)

Cheers,
-Daniel-