aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Marriage Equality dialogue

Some weeks ago I got an email from a fellow blogger:

Wondering if you’d be willing to dialog over a 4 or 5 week series of blog posts about the topic of gay marriage - why you’re for it, why I’m not; attendant issues and implications; religious and cultural arguments/concerns…

I’m a former pastor, a Christian who is evangelical in doctrine.  I enjoy blogging for similar reasons you pose and want to expand my thinking in lots of different areas…

My purpose is not to convert you to my way of thinking.  I promise not to belittle, harass, mock, etc any of your comments or reflections or arguments.  I will not question your faith and will take your statements at face value.  I would like to sincerely understand what your thought processes are on this topic and will give you my sincere arguments as well - and if I pull a strawman I expect to be called on it.  And vice versa.

Now that was an offer I could not refuse! Lyn had read my Why Blog? post - I blog to to stay intellectually engaged, it’s a way to document, develop, deliberate and deepen my thinking - and he asked me to live up to it.

It took a couple weeks for us to get going, but Lyn posted my opening argument on Tuesday. I hope you’ll go check it out.

It’s a bit longer than I’d like but I think it captures pretty well my current thinking on the topic. I’ll be posting Lyn’s response here in the next day or so. I hope you’ll join in with comments.