May 16, 2008
THAT CALIFORNIA GAY MARRIAGE CASE
I may get into yesterday's court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in California in more depth later, but for now I thought you'd be interested in reading various takes on the development. For starters, click here for the Baptist Press story about it. For the Web site of the group opposed to the court decision that is working on a constitutional amendment in California to ban gay marriage, click here. For the "Marriage Project" of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry, click here. For the pro-decision reaction of the Pacific School of Religion, click here. And for a press release containing the pro-decision reaction of the Human Rights Campaign, click here. For the opposite end of the scale of reaction, click here for the reaction of James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family. Oh, and here's a timeline of court decisions on this subject put together by Baptist Press.
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SIX FLAGS OVER JESUS?
A Bible theme park is being planned in Tennessee, but don't pack your bags yet. It still faces some opponents. Do you think these sorts of things do much to promote religion? Or do they trivialize something serious?
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WHY CARE FOR THE CHILDREN?
The little ones -- two- and three-year-olds -- were gathered, finally, around two tables and the celebration was on.
It was time to cheer for children in a church early learning center who were reaching the grand age of three. Among them (pictured here) was one of my granddaughters, who will turn three next week, and one of my grandsons, who turned three in January.
Faith communities all over the country create day care centers, so-called "parents' day out" programs, nursery schools and so forth. My own church, for instance, as its Early Childhood Learning Center. Why? What is it about religion that moves them to pay special attention to children?
I'd like to think that the motives are all purely altruistic and rooted in each group's theology, which places a high value on children for many good reasons. But I suspect there are mixed motives, though I also suspect hardly anyone talks much about them. (And by mixed, I don't mean motives that are necessarily bad. Rather, I mean motives that are more complicated than just pure love for babies.)
What might those mixed motives be?
* Evangelistic. Getting children inside a church or synagogue or mosque early in their lives even if their parents aren't religiously active might lead them to adopt the faith as their own some day. And it might even attract the parents to join now.
* Full-service. If, say, a church doesn't offer child care, people considering joining it might decide to go, instead, to a place that offers week-day care for their children.
* More adequate space use. Having a huge building empty most of the week isn't very appealing to members of congregations who are footing the bills. It looks a lot better if many activities are filling up the space, including day schools.
You probably can name some other reasons congregations get into the weekday child care business, but for the most part I am glad they do. Parents today need all the help they can get in providing loving and safe atmospheres for their little ones -- even if the motives are more complicated than some version of "let the little children come to me and hinder them not, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven."
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P.S.: For the first time, a Hindu has been appointed the leading spiritual leader of an American college campus, the University of Southern California. It's another indication of the growing diversity of the American religious landscape, as indicated earlier this year in a Pew Forum study.
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ANOTHER P.S.: I've written here in recent weeks about the polygamist group in Texas, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the trouble it has been in with the law. In my new University of Illinois Press catalogue, I see two books (I haven't had a chance to read them) that might be of interest if this subject intrigues you. Each has been out in hardback but now are available in paperback. One is More Wives Than One: Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840-1910, by Kathryn M. Daynes. The other is Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power: Salt Lake City, 1847-1918, by Jeffrey Nichols.
To read my latest Kansas City Star work, click here. (My column tomorrow will try to give a new slant to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.)









