The Editor’s Desk

Thank you so much for being the vehicle for much needed truth. It seems that people get something set in their heads becasue they hear it, and don't bother to check it out for themselves! There is a wonderful treatise written by the Rev. Bruce Lowe which should be read by every minister in america! the problem is getting the word out, and your magazine has beena great vehicle for the truth. Thanks again,

Diane Waller

Jon, As Editor of a major national news magazine, I would expect you to be more logical than you have shown in this brief piece on the subject of gay marriage. It is amazing how contradictory your opinion is to the very central position taken in Lisa Miller's cover story in YOUR magazine this week! She argues that there is specific Biblical support for the concept of same sex marriage and you say: "Given the history of the making of the Scriptures and the millennia of critical attention scholars and others have given to the stories and injunctions that come to us in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament, to argue that something is so because it is in the Bible is more than intellectually bankrupt???it is unserious, and unworthy of the great Judeo-Christian tradition." You may want to think things through before you write them for countless numbers of people to read. Also, if you knew anything at all about the "great Judeo-Christian tradition" you would know that a central tenet is an unshakable belief in the veracity of the Scriptures. So, to somehow attempt to separate Scriptures from the people who see them as holy and true demonstrates your fundamental lack of understanding of the entire context of this debate, and it simply flies in the face of the position your esteemed writer attempts to use in her almost comically misguided cover story. Stated simply... Marriage is God's intellectual property. He designed it, He is in the midst of it and He is why it is Holy. Holy... Matrimony... One man and one woman for the purpose of a mystical union of two bodies that hold the potential of becoming one flesh and producing the miracle of a new life. Because marriage is God's intellectual property, we simply don't have the right to steal from Him and play around with it and throw it back out into the public arena and call it marriage... it's not. What do you think Bill Gates would do if you stole MS Windows, toyed around with it, then put it back out into the public arena as your MS Windows? God owns marriage. You fail to understand His heart, His mind and His vision, not only for now, but, for what is to come, when you attempt to redefine the sacrament of holy matrimony. It is not yours to redefine.

Thank you.

It is amazing how all the 'God says this???, 'God thinks that', comments are not seen as pitiful attempts at logic and the last resort trying defending lies and distortions they have believed as given truths all of their lives. Using 'God" as the reason to do something or to support ideas only shows how little thinking is being done. Having to admit that a bunch of living and breathing old men with their own prejudices and political / social agendas is probably difficult to accept. But no more difficult than a gay person coming to grips with the fact that they are hated because of whom they are. Admitting that what you were taught may have been wrong panics people. Gay people often panic as they come out. Fanatic religious people become defensive when they have to admit that their values are going to need to change. What they learned might need some updating. It is much easier just to say nothing can change because ???God said so???.
The use of words in these Member Comments, describing the article as being like those in a Neo-Nazi magazine shows how mixed up the people Bible thumping people are. It is OK to use fear and lies if you are doing Gods??? work. They seem to begin to transfer onto groups, labels that really characterize themselves but can't stand to admit. People wanting or supporting Gay-Marriage are not about hate, lies and prejudice. On the contrary it is religious Puritanism with its unbending obedience to what has been that seems much closer to fascism and the Nazi's. Check the definition of fascism. It is much closer to fundamentalist???s 'I am better than you because I know the truth??? (I believe my own lies)'' mentality.

I am not aware that the Bible ever promoted segregation, so how can Lisa Miller try to prove such a bogus point, "So it was with segregation, and so it will be, I suspect, with the sacrament of marriage." What BS ! ! !

When will the a balanced article grace your pages?

Fantastic work! Miller's piece adeptly highlights the mysteries and often contradictions that make the Bible a profound guide for living life in mysterious and often contradictory times. We know there are few set social proscriptions that we adhere to in the same ways that they were adhered to when they were written. If we read this guide through love - love of each other as ourselves - the ambiguities that Miller raises steer us to divine the multiple forms that love can take. We cannot know for certain the sexuality of David (or Ruth for that matter) but if we acknowledge that these ambiguities are equally part of our moral guidelines we may be less prone to condemnation. Thank you Lisa! Thank you Jon! Keep pushing us to ask questions!

Meachem, I'm disgusted with you and your magazine. The article in question had more lies and distortion than truth and YOU KNOW IT, and printed it anyway. It is an absolute insult to Christians and to GOD. When are you going to print the retraction? Liar!

Thank Newsweek and Lisa Miller, Newsweek's religion editor, for the December 15, 2008 cover story, "The Religious Case of Gay Marriage." It is encouraging to find this kind of fair presentation of this topic in the national media. From a religious perspective on this issue, it seems that some of those people who pick and choose lines or passages, out of context, from the Christian Bible, and then use those words to berate, judge and condemn their fellow citizens are often the same people who are willing to pick and choose which of their fellow citizens merit specific human or civil rights. Such hypocrisy! In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, hypocrites were among the few who earned the criticism of Jesus. Do not these "Christians" call themselves by this name because they purport to follow the life and teachings of Jesus Christ? In the New Testament, Jesus gave no teaching for or against "gay marriage," and his life, unmarried, clearly was centered on service and generosity -- not judgment or hypocrisy. Therefore, let the Christians, and all people of good will, "go and do likewise." From a civil perspective, there is no fixed number of civil rights which results in excluding some citizens from the rights and privileges enjoyed by other citizens. Civil rights belong to all citizens, equally. All women and men are created equal, and all of them, according to the United States Constitution, are guaranteed the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. For some, the latter includes the right to marry another adult of their own choosing. I suspect that Jesus of Nazareth, himself, would support such a written document that treats all people equally.

A balanced debate on weighty issues is always welcomed and is needed. But this unabashedly uneven story is not helpful to anyone. Pro- gay marriage people will have a very distorted idea of what those who oppose their view actually think. And those against gay marriage feel as if they can't be part of this national discussion because their views never seen as mature or serious. If Newsweek is unwilling to provide balanced reporting, perhaps they can attempt to be less insulting to groups that it disagrees with.

I absolutely love the cover story and so much appreciate Newsweek's courageous coverage. The points Miller makes about the Bible are points educators and activists have been making for decades, and it was so wonderful to see them in the mainstream press. Please don't let the hate mail from narrow-minded religious reactionaries dissuade you from progressive coverage of gay rights.

Oh plesae, Jill76: show us where in the Bible God commands us to own slaves. Please read the book before citing it.

I am curious as to how many of those commenting regarding the author's attempt at "redefiing" the bible own slaves? It is, of course, one of the original definitions of pure living set within the bible. Perhaps you would be more comfortable with a Neo-Nazi magazine. I have read them and they express the same views being expressed here.

As a southern white, almost-60-yr.old, I can see using the Bible to rationalize almost anything: selling your daughter into slavery, smiting your neighbor for wearing two different materials, or growing two different crops in a field. Who of us is so lofty, so god-like, that we know what God wants? For each admonishment in the Bible, you can almost always find it's counter, and with divorce rates 50/50, (before gay marriage eroded the institution), why don't we allow God to choose -- allow gays to marry and if their numbers rate anything like ours, maybe he was saying no.
I think this will be one of those things that "Christians" look back on in shame and revulsion, in another life, another time.

If you want to know what God says regarding Homosexuals read the Bible. God is very clear that this lifestyle is a sin and by commiting this sin you are standing against the very heart of the Bible; which begins with a husband and wife in the physical and ends with a bridegroom and bride in the spiritual. This auther is obviously one who doesn't believe the Bible is the Word of God and choses to distort the Word of God similar to a supposed reverend in Illinois. It reads as though she has come to believe that she has the ability to change the Word of God by ignorance and inuendo. Shame on you for propagating this farse but I guess that is what Newsweek and those who aspire to "revloutionary thought" have been doing for a while now. Remember Paul also said that there would be those who rise up among you prerverting the Word of God. This is just another example of a person with no sense of inner Life distorting the Word of God for personal justifaction. Be clear and know that the Word of God is a Person.

Oh yes being gay is so wonderful. Let's all turn gay & get married, it's so good for society. That would gives us 50 years & then were are extinct

I have been a reader of Newsweek for many years, largely because of the breadth and depth of its content and what I thought was objectivity in its coverage of issues. I have sensed a diminution of that objectivity for some time. The article on gay marriage proved a tipping point for me. It appears Newsweek has taken an editorial position favoring one side of this debate over another and in so doing has abandoned any pretext of that objectivity I find so important. I support the biblical position on this issue, for the record, but that is not the reason why I elected not to renew my subscription. It is simply that I find Newsweek no longer relevant in my quest for objective dialogue on important issues. I suspect I am not alone in that concern, given the continuing and significant decrease in readership your dwindling circulation numbers reflect.

You are on the crest of a wave of evolutionary thought regarding gay marriage and it is wonderful to see it in print in your magazine. Kudos to you and Lisa Miller for your thoughtful analysis and obvious conclusion.

Christo1976

The article on gay marriage and the Bible was ridiculous. What does the fact that Jesus and Paul were single have to do with gay marriage? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Because Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin, he was, at least at some point, married. A bit of research on the part of the author would have revealed this fact. What does the sincere friendship between David and Jonathan have to do with gay marriage? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! The article was so flawed. You are free to live your life anyway you choose. You cannot, however, rewrite the Bible to endorse your point of view. While the Bible discusses marriage between a MAN AND A WOMAN many, many times, it NEVER EVER endorses GAY MARRIAGE. The Bible speaks very plainly to God's disgust with homosexual behavior. You can decide for yourself what you want to do with your life, but your failed attempt to show that God approves of gay marriage just makes you look ignorant.

"One can decide to oppose it in good faith, but such opposition should at least be forged by those in full possession of the relevant cultural and religious history and context."

Jon, who determines what is relevant?