Seeking the Road to Salvation

On this erev Yom Kippur, as the gate of the year closes, we Jews acknowledge that God controls all, but that humans can "temper the divine decree." In Jewish belief, God cannot forgive all sins. The sins we commit against others have to be forgiven by those we sin against. Why is this? Thomas Merton, a (Catholic) Trappist monk famous for his writings of faith--may his soul rest in peace--writes of the need we have of others for our own salvation. He writes,

God has willed that we should all depend on one another for our salvation, and all strive together for our own mutual good and our own common salvation.

Jesus embraced the Jewish notion of forgiveness, teaching the disciples to pray, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." In this prayer, it is we who must forgive those who sin against us, not God, and vice versa.

If we didn't need to seek forgiveness from those we sin against, we would never learn what it means to be a friend, or a lover, or a member of a community. If God doesn't forgive our sins against others, it is likely out of love.

Perhaps the path to salvation is not a narrow, lonely road, or an opening in a quickly closing gate, but an embrace. Let us seek it out together.

Same-Sex Marriage Bans and Spiritual Separation

There is a perspective that perhaps we have lost in the public arena about law, namely, that it has a spiritual dimension. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us about this in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." He writes,

Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality....Paul Tillich said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression 'of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness?

Dr. King's position that laws enforcing separation of peoples denigrate human personality and dehumanize us all. He believes that these laws are rooted in our fallen and sinful natures and mirror the tragic separation of man and the divine. In King's view, just laws point toward brotherhood, and even though they may be created by a majority, the minority will find them suitable.

Are not same-sex marriage bans and laws denying equal rights to LGBTQ people laws that are rooted in separation that diminish human personality? Certainly the gay community does not willingly live under anti-gay laws that deny us visitation rights to see partners in hospitals or custody rights to our children. Certainly our personalities are not enhanced by living without the same life options and privileges that heterosexuals enjoy. Laws such as these enforce marginalization and damage our human community for the sake of maintaining the status quo.

You may argue that I am taking Dr. King's words out of context and using them to advocate a cause that he would not support. It is important to note that in "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Dr. King uses the words of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence to support his case for civil rights. While Jefferson himself likely would not have been marching with Dr. King in Selma due to his personal racism and fear that giving freedom to African-Americans would cause civil unrest, Jefferson's words were still liberating and prophetic. I do not know if Dr. King would support gay rights if he were alive today. While he rooted his faith in strict biblical interpretation, he also considered himself like Jesus, who was, as he argues, "an extremist for love."

Even though the laws denying equality to LGBTQ people are not as far reaching and debilitating as Jim Crow segregation, they are unjust laws rooted in the principle of separation nonetheless. To let these laws stand would be a great spiritual mistake.