Today’s scripture: Genesis 4:17-26 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Ernest Disney-Britton):
I guess I’m a lot like Isaac and Abraham of the Old Testament. They each covered up the fact that they were married, and, in July 2008, the president of the NAACP told me I was doing the very same thing. We were having coffee in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel in Cincinnati, chatting about the future of the gay marriage movement, when she asked me about my relationship. I answered, “My partner Greg and I went to Canada for our wedding.” Her pointed response was, “Oh, so you want domestic partnership rights and not marriage rights. If you wanted marriage,” she added, “you’d call your partner your husband, and you’d call your relationship a marriage.” There was no excuse for Isaac in Genesis 26 for calling his wife his sister. The failures of people like Isaac and, before him, his father Abraham are reminders that we hide our true selves out of fear, but God calls us to be our true selves every day. There was no excuse for me either in 2008. During this new political era, there is also no excuse. While the temptation today might be to hide like Isaac or to use soft, non-offensive words like “partner,” “other half,” or even “spouse,” today the “marriage” words of “husband” and “wife” matter more than ever before. Thank you, Isaac and Abraham, for the marriage lessons.
Prayer for the day: Dear God, give me the courage to speak the truth about my marriage at all times to all people no matter the political or physical risk.
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