When gay marriage was equal to “traditional marriage” in the Church’s eyes

One thing Christians and the religious-right are notorious for, it’s preaching their morality and God’s Word and passing them off as the Absolute Truth^TM, whilst curiously turning a blind eye to the fact that so many of their present-day teachings and rituals are contrary to the original teachings of Jesus and early Christianity. Christmas, now heralded as the timeless birthday of Jesus and yet which had little to no mention of anything Jesus-related until barely 60 years ago, is one such example. (And let’s just forget those pagan Christmas trees altogether.)

Another flagrant example of Christianity’s sudden and inexplicable blindness to its own history, even up to only a century or two ago, is with the case of gay marriage. With all the right-wing cranks’ vehemence and vitriol spat towards same-sex couples and homosexuality, you’d be led to believe that they always thought that way about gay people and their filthy love … That is, until you did a little digging and discovered that, in fact, not only was gay marriage not prohibited by the Church until relatively recently, but that it was even a traditional rite like any other – say, like heterosexual marriage. ThosPayne at Colfax Record has the history lesson; it’s quite enlightening.

Contrary to myth, Christianity's concept of marriage has not been set in stone since the days of Christ, but has constantly evolved as a concept and ritual.

Prof. John Boswell, the late Chairman of Yale University’s history department, discovered that in addition to heterosexual marriage ceremonies in ancient Christian church liturgical documents, there were also ceremonies called the "Office of Same-Sex Union" (10th and 11th century), and the "Order for Uniting Two Men" (11th and 12th century).

These church rites had all the symbols of a heterosexual marriage: the whole community gathered in a church, a blessing of the couple before the altar was conducted with their right hands joined, holy vows were exchanged, a priest officiatied^[sic] in the taking of the Eucharist and a wedding feast for the guests was celebrated afterwards. These elements all appear in contemporary illustrations of the holy union of the Byzantine Warrior-Emperor, Basil the First (867-886 CE) and his companion John.

Such same gender Christian sanctified unions also took place in Ireland in the late 12thand/ early 13th century, as the chronicler Gerald of Wales (‘Geraldus Cambrensis’) recorded.

Same-sex unions in pre-modern Europe list in great detail some same gender ceremonies found in ancient church liturgical documents. One Greek 13th century rite, "Order for Solemn Same-Sex Union", invoked St. Serge and St. Bacchus, and called on God to "vouchsafe unto these, Thy servants [N and N], the grace to love one another and to abide without hate and not be the cause of scandal all the days of their lives, with the help of the Holy Mother of God, and all Thy saints". The ceremony concludes: "And they shall kiss the Holy Gospel and each other, and it shall be concluded".

Another 14th century Serbian Slavonic "Office of the Same Sex Union", uniting two men or two women, had the couple lay their right hands on the Gospel while having a crucifix placed in their left hands. After kissing the Gospel, the couple were then required to kiss each other, after which the priest, having raised up the Eucharist, would give them both communion.

Records of Christian same sex unions have been discovered in such diverse archives as those in the Vatican, in St. Petersburg, in Paris, in Istanbul and in the Sinai, covering a thousand-years from the 8th to the 18th century.

The Dominican missionary and Prior, Jacques Goar (1601-1653), includes such ceremonies in a printed collection of Greek Orthodox prayer books, “Euchologion Sive Rituale Graecorum Complectens Ritus Et Ordines Divinae Liturgiae” (Paris, 1667).

While homosexuality was technically illegal from late Roman times, homophobic writings didn’t appear in Western Europe until the late 14th century. Even then, church-consecrated same sex unions continued to take place.

At St. John Lateran in Rome (traditionally the Pope's parish church) in 1578, as many as thirteen same-gender couples were joined during a high Mass and with the cooperation of the Vatican clergy, "taking communion together, using the same nuptial Scripture, after which they slept and ate together" according to a contemporary report. Another woman to woman union is recorded in Dalmatia in the 18th century.

Prof. Boswell's academic study is so well researched and documented that it poses fundamental questions for both modern church leaders and heterosexual Christians about their own modern attitudes towards homosexuality.

For the Church to ignore the evidence in its own archives would be cowardly and deceptive. The evidence convincingly shows that what the modern church claims has always been its unchanging attitude towards homosexuality is, in fact, nothing of the sort.

It proves that for the last two millennia, in parish churches and cathedrals throughout Christendom, from Ireland to Istanbul and even in the heart of Rome itself, homosexual relationships were accepted as valid expressions of a God-given love and committment to another person, a love that could be celebrated, honored and blessed, through the Eucharist in the name of, and in the presence of, Jesus Christ.

Now, we all know the Church would never turn a blind eye to its own history and teachings, don’t we …?

So, whenever the Church or some preacher shrivels up indignantly at being called a hypocrite for their teachings, just be sure to point out the fact that they’re teaching that God’s Word decries homosexuality and gay marriage – despite the fact that gay marriage was once, and for the majority of Christianity’s history, valued as an equal to “traditional” marriage. Hilarity would doubtlessly ensue, if only for you.

(via The Daily Grail)

Technorati tags: religion · Christianity · gay marriage · same-sex marriage · marriage · history