MARRIAGE EQUALITY

Key resources…

ARTICLES (roughly alphabetical by author)

A: About 60 most-read articles on all sorts of subjects, including this one 

AA: A fairly thorough overview: Homosexuality & the Bible (6 articles) 

AAA: Too busy? Here’s just one (Steven Chalke’s) 

Prof. Gary Bouma (One group wants dignity; the church, power) 

Conservative approaches: ethicist Margaret Somerville Southern Baptist position, 1999 (close to most Christian conservatives’ stance today) –

Homosexuality for Dummies: written by a 21-year-old!

Prof. Keith Dyer (excellent overview by a biblical scholar) 

Dr Stuart Edser (gay Christian academic, psychologist) -and here…

My review of the Evangelical Alliance’s Beyond Stereotypes 

Yvette Flunder (black pastor attacks heteroprivilege in churches) 

Rev. Matt Glover (Baptist pastor, counsellor) A Pastoral Response 

Timothy Kurek (straight guy who pretended to be gay for a year) 

Andrew Marin (straight young Evangelical who did what Jesus did…)

Dr Keith Mascord’s two articles (progressive Anglican, Sydney) 

Three Michaels confront an unjust church (Kirby, Kelly, Judge) 

Prof. Lew Smedes (ethicist) (Treat marriage equality as we did divorceâ)

Ron Smith (Baptist pastor, missionary: What does the Bible actually say?)  

Anthony Venn-Brown A Life of Unlearning  (gay ex-preacher)

Prof. Walter Wink (It’s all about how we interpret the Bible)

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TIMELINE  (more to come…) 

1869 First known use of term ‘homosexual’ (Karoly Kerbeny, Hungary)

1871 Variations in sexual behaviour partly inherited (Charles Darwin)

1895 Oscar Wilde sent to prison

1896 Castration does not eliminate homosexual desire (E S Talbot, Chicago)

1905 Homosexuals are not sick peopleâ (Sigmund Freud)

1928 Decriminalize private homosexual behavior (In conference health care professionals, London)

1930 Punishing homosexuality is an extreme violation of human rights (Freud)

1935 Aversion therapy (electric shocks to testicles): Louis Max (New York) reports no long term cures

1941 US Military declares homosexuality an illness, leading to dishonourable discharge

1948 Kinsey: 10% of males more or less exclusively homosexual; 8% (1 in 13) exclusively homosexual for at least 3 years between ages 16 and 55; 4% white males exclusively homosexual throughout their lives, post adolescence. 2-6% females exclusively homosexual

1952 American Psychiatric Association lists homosexuality as a mental disorder

1967 UK decriminalises private homosexual acts between consenting adults.

1969 Stonewall riots (inspiring later gay pride celebrations)

1973 American Psychiatric Association: ‘no longer an illness’

1975 South Australia repeals sodomy law; other states/territories 1976-1990. (Tasmania 1997)

1988 Castrating mother/detached father don’t cause same-sex orientation (R C Friedman)

1991 Larger numbers of homosexual youth attempt or commit suicide (G Remafedi); homosexual men with identical twin brothers much more likely to be homosexual than if they had fraternal twin brother (Bailey & Pillard)

1999 Otoacoustic emissions in lesbians are unique (McFadden & Pasanen)

2001 Report on reparative therapies (Shidlo & Schroeder) lack of success; but Robert Spitzer: some highly motivated individuals can change from gay to straight. Spitzer recants in 2012.

2003 US Supreme Court decriminalises private consensual adult homosexual behaviour

2004 Gene Robinson first openly gay person to become a bishop in Episcopal traditions

2005 Vatican blames pedophile-priest scandals on homosexuals; bans homosexuals from seminaries

January 2013: Same-sex marriage legal in nine US states – Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Iowa,   Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and Washington as well as the District of Columbia and three Native American tribes

March 2013: same-sex marriage legal in eleven countries (Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark,  Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Sweden), and several sub-national jurisdictions (parts of Brazil, Mexico, and the United States). Bills allowing legal recognition of same-sex marriage have been proposed, are pending, or have passed at least one legislative house in Andorra, Columbia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Nepal, NZ, Taiwan, the UK, and Uruguay.

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Rowland Croucher 

March 2013