Justice delayed, yet again.

I received an E-mail informing me of the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court to extend the stay against Same-Sex marriage in California until the Court hears the appeal. The appeal trial begins on 6 December 2010. I immediately telephoned Tom, who had asked me to officiate at his wedding on Wednesday evening. The City of Norwalk had scheduled workers until 8 PM on Wednesday, so that same-sex couples could obtain licenses. Thank you, by the way, to the folks at the City of Norwalk.

Now, with this decision by the Ninth Circuit to extend the stay, justice is once again delayed and denied to countless couples. Tom answered the phone and said he and Bruce had just heard the news. He thanked me for making myself available to officiate their wedding, but went on to say that the damned christian right has done it to us again. He was simply too upset to speak about it further. We’ll speak again tomorrow. He is correct about the “christian” right they have targeted our community.

Two weeks ago, Anne Rice stated the following:

For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputations, and deservedly infamously group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.

As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.


Gandhi said: “In the West I came to love Christ and to hate Christians.” He said that because of the hatred and discrimination he suffered from “Christians.” There was a Hymn I grew up hearing “They will know we are Christians by our love.” Well, Tom is now an atheist. That’s quite a revelation considering the fact that Tom was a Catholic priest. He was driven out of the priesthood when he refused to cover-up the sex abuse of his predecessor. His bishop was displeased.

If charity is the most effective form of evangelization, then it is logical that hatred by Christians serves to do on a larger scale what it has accomplished in the cases of Anne Rice, Gandhi and Tom.

I thought of something that Malcolm X said years ago when African Americans in this country were struggling for Civil Rights. “No one ever gave rights to anyone, you have to take them.” We too shall overcome.