2008 Woodie Awards
Same-Sex Marriage Debate Causes Tension
Jessica Fish
Issue date: 10/29/04 Section: Arts & Living
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The temperament within the Strafford Room during the "Homosexuality, Diversity and Marriage" debate Monday night resembled the polarities of the current political spectrum. Without any direction, anti same-sex marriage supporters sat on the right, while mostly pro-GLTBQ advocates filled the seats on the left of the room.
Rarely did both sides, over 200 in all, clap simultaneously, creating a division amongst the attendants much larger than the central aisle.
The event was sponsored by Chi Alpha and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. The debate followed a format called the Mars Hill Forum, which allowed for 15-minute opening statements, 20 minutes of dialogue and over an hour's worth of audience questions directed at the speakers.
The Rev. John Rankin, the President of the Theological Education Institute in Hartford, Conn., created the Mars Hill Forum format in order to engage in controversial dialogue in a public forum.
Rankin said he conducts debates in order "to create an area where skeptics are welcome, and the best way to do that is to invite a guest who may have opposing views...my incumbency is to show goodness by treating skeptics as equals as it is modeled in the Gospels."
Rankin, who described himself as being "raised an agnostic Unitarian, who converted to a biblical and evangelical faith," argued his anti same-sex marriage views against Gary Daffin, the co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus who filled in last minute for Arline Isaacson, his co-chair. Daffin identified himself as a gay African American Christian.
The debate focused on issues of same-sex marriage as they apply to Massachusetts. On Nov. 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in a narrow four to three vote, ruled that the law prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying violated the state constitution. The ruling went into effect Monday, May 17, 2004.
Rankin argued that Massachusetts has raised same-sex marriage to the level of an unalienable right, similar to the rights to life, liberty and property, which are mentioned in the beginning of the Constitution. He argued that the Constitution was written by Christian men and was based on the God of the Bible from whom unalienable rights originate.
Rarely did both sides, over 200 in all, clap simultaneously, creating a division amongst the attendants much larger than the central aisle.
The event was sponsored by Chi Alpha and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. The debate followed a format called the Mars Hill Forum, which allowed for 15-minute opening statements, 20 minutes of dialogue and over an hour's worth of audience questions directed at the speakers.
The Rev. John Rankin, the President of the Theological Education Institute in Hartford, Conn., created the Mars Hill Forum format in order to engage in controversial dialogue in a public forum.
Rankin said he conducts debates in order "to create an area where skeptics are welcome, and the best way to do that is to invite a guest who may have opposing views...my incumbency is to show goodness by treating skeptics as equals as it is modeled in the Gospels."
Rankin, who described himself as being "raised an agnostic Unitarian, who converted to a biblical and evangelical faith," argued his anti same-sex marriage views against Gary Daffin, the co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus who filled in last minute for Arline Isaacson, his co-chair. Daffin identified himself as a gay African American Christian.
The debate focused on issues of same-sex marriage as they apply to Massachusetts. On Nov. 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in a narrow four to three vote, ruled that the law prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying violated the state constitution. The ruling went into effect Monday, May 17, 2004.
Rankin argued that Massachusetts has raised same-sex marriage to the level of an unalienable right, similar to the rights to life, liberty and property, which are mentioned in the beginning of the Constitution. He argued that the Constitution was written by Christian men and was based on the God of the Bible from whom unalienable rights originate.
