Bonhoeffer & the 'Protection of Marriage'

For a few weeks now, the debate about the 'Protection of Marriage' amendment to the Minnesota State Constitution has been front page news. A local pastor has been writing to our local paper in support of the amendment, which of course is his right. But his most recent letter quoted Bonhoeffer, to the effect that the guiding principle for Christian ethics was "what shall we leave for the next generation?" While this may be an historically accurate quote, I don't think it's remotely what Bonhoeffer would have said theologically, and even if he might have thought so, I certainly don't. What follows is my response to that local pastor, printed in our Grant County Herald last week.


To the Editor,

Pastor David Wallin recently said that "A redefinition of marriage in order to please a special interest group is going to do long term harm to families, and ultimately children." He is absolutely right. The problem is, Pastor Wallin doesn't realize that the problematic special interest group in question are the supporters of a 'protection of marriage amendment.'

When it comes to protecting marriage, Senator Bachmann and her supporters are well-intentioned but absolutely wrong. They have fallen victim to a straw man argument that distracts our attention away from the genuine problem. Restructuring our state constitution to deny same-sex couples the rights of "marriage or its legal equivalent" will do nothing to protect heterosexual relationships. This state cannot protect heterosexual relationships by attacking an already-persecuted minority. If our children learn anything from such restructuring, they will learn that the legislative system can be gamed to legalize the denial of basic civil rights.

If Pastor Wallin believes, as I do, that marriage is under attack, he should fight its true enemies. We live in a society that has abandoned loyalty, compromise, sacrificial love and marital solidarity for infidelity, the fallacy of supposedly "consequence-free" sexual hook-ups and the narcissism that comes from a culture turned almost entirely in upon itself. Our children are not endangered by same-sex couples; they are endangered because we have not instilled in them the values of decency, restraint, respect and honor that are due to all humanity, be they gay or straight. We have taught our children to value possessions over relationships and self-interest over the common good. What has the greater impact on a child's vision of marriage: the gay couple living peaceably down the street, or the bickering, short-tempered, self-centered, mutually abusive parents in the child's own home? As a divorced and remarried person, I can tell you that the greatest contributing factors in my divorce, in no particular order, were my inadequacies and failings and those of my ex-wife. At no time did either of us feel threatened or even affected by homosexual relationships. They were simply a non-factor in our sinfully flawed and ultimately broken heterosexual marriage.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived in a time when the church and the state were actively persecuting persons of Jewish descent, even if they had converted to Christianity. Many historians note that the horrors of the Holocaust were permitted by a German government that changed its laws to permit the systematic persecution of the Jews. Bonhoeffer once wrote that "the church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering of society, even if they do not belong to the Christian community. 'Do good to all people.'" While the scope and depth of our present situation is not anything like Germany in the 1930s, the basic problem is very similar: some politicians are promoting the legalized persecution of our fellow citizens. We cannot improve heterosexual marriage by denying basic civil rights to the homosexual community. Those who want to improve heterosexual marriage should spend more time working with heterosexuals and less time attacking those who want only to live in peace with each other. Let individual churches work with the spiritual and moral formation of their members, which is their vocation, and let the state ensure the basic civil rights of all its citizens, be they gay, straight, Christian, Jewish or anything else.

Respectfully,
Pastor Scott Johnson
Barrett, MN